The Strange Porsche you never knew existed
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ธ.ค. 2023
- The Porsche Tapiro concept car was a stark departure from Porsche's design language, and it would help to lay the foundation for wedge shaped cars of the 70s and 80s.
Check out this article on the Tapiro
en.escuderia.com/porsche-tapi...
Check out this awesome free ebook on the history of wedge shaped cars
undiscoveredclassics.com/file...
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I think the Lancia Stratos Zero played a greater role in the proliferation of the wedge shape (also debuted ‘70 Turin), but this car is awesome too! It would make a phenomenal Boxter kit. Also worthy of note is the AMX III , which was being developed around the same time in the US.
America had the Holden Hurricane which came out 1969
There is a faint similarity between DMC DeLorean and the Porsche Tapiro. Both designed by crack team at Italdesign Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Sadly the true wedge cannot make a comeback. Due to regulation the wedge is 'relegated' to history. And took pop up headlights with it. As Jay Leno put it, so people are smiling when they hit your hood. Some regulator took the old Death Race 2000 movie a little to seriously.
I do take some issue showing the anniversary Countach. When asked about what Marcello Gandini thought of the anniversary version of his design. He stated in translation, designers do not like it when people mess with their stuff.
I'm just grateful you pronounce "Porsche" correctly.
TR7, The Shape of Things to Come I think was the tag line. I really wanted a TR8 for a while despite it getting lackluster reviews.
I almost bought a TR8 in 79, used. Ended up with a Fiat X 1/9. Fun, good looking car. Taught me all about momentum driving.
buddy had a TR7 back in the day, FUN CAR!!!
Excellent content, I’ve followed Porsches for years and never knew this existed, thanks so much!
Another fantastic video, I love all the history and it's all beautifully and professionally presented. Thanks for the link to the book❤
Thanks for reminding me of one of my Matchbox (or was it a Hot Wheels?) car from my childhood, I had totally forgotten about its existence.
What a beautiful machine. Thanks for this fascinating story. I love the wedge.
I thought I knew my car history but I am humbled by your insight and excited to discover your fantastic channel 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
What a great video! Nice job of tracking down a piece of history I had never heard of. As a kid, I (successfully) begged my Dad to take me to the 1971 through '73 US Auto Shows in NYC. So, I saw the Ferrari Modulo, the Carabo, Ferrari 512S Speciale, etc yet never was even aware of this story. Thank you!
I've been absolutely obsessed with this car for years.
Looks quite similar to the Mercedes C111 concept car from 1970, especially the back 1/2.
DeTomaso Mangusta.
Great video and info.
First wedge-shaped cars had terrible uplift on the front ...
Thanks for the great video! Like many, I know you as the smart motorcycle guy with opinions. This video is absolutely your best car video, it works really well when you look at the broader lines of specific topics, like here a certain style of sports car design, and that story is actually more interesting than the Porche Tapiro design study/prototype in it self. I think the style is somewhat inspired by the optimistic Space Rocket era of the time, a clean and pointed rocket design. When it comes to aerodynamics, it is not the most optimal design, and in terms of utilization of the space inside the car, it is very poor, which may not do so much when it comes to sports cars. Personally, I prefer the more rounded old school design. But there are examples of very successful cross-over between the two design styles, namely the Citroen DS, SM and CX, which are also a dream to drive (never tried the SM).
I love the wedge form factor.
God bless.
Another great video!
my cousin had a 914- 6 back in the mid 70's he would always give us rides in it when he came to vist us, after about 2-3 years he sold it and bought a red and black 930 Turbo Carrera. i can still remember him pulling up i and seeing that massive wale tail and letting my older brother drive it since he was 21
Loved my V-6 Pontiac Fiero. Handled better than my 911 that spun and rolled.
I knew of the Tapiro, but not with all of the details you provided here. Thanks for shining a light on a very important design...too bad it was only a concept!
lord i hope wedges don't make a comeback, still a great video.
Got me!
I have never seen this car before in my life.
That's a strange Porsche. Didn't know such a strange Porsche even existed.
Ironically a lot of those wedges have terrible aero.
Mako Shark vette was pretty wedgie, and C3s to follow
Every company had a ton of design projects that never saw the light of day. This one is no different
The TR7 was the wedge that was somewhat popular and affordable.
that and the Fiat X/9
and both of em was rustbuckets... like all cars from the 70's and 80's
Yeah, I aspired to own a TR7 as a teen. Found a job that paid well as an adult, started saving up, then started talking to TR7, TR8 drivers..... quashed the idea.
Did get chased by the police on the Cahill expressway circa 1981. I was the passenger, a workmate was driving. And we got away! Fave memory.
my third car was a 71 914 1.7L, and as a little kid in the 70's one of my favorite hotwheels was the Tapiro. And I was today years old when I found out they were related.
This looks more like a concept car version of a DeLorean DMC12 than anything Porsche would commission.
Guess where the Delorean DMC 12 got its design... Remember Delorean said his car was designed by Gugiaro? Many years later it came out it was really a "rejected Porsche design"...
Both designs may have similarities, but the delorean is quite different both in design and engine position. Both typical Giugiaro style. Probably the most influential and succesful designer when looking at the enormous variety and numbers of mass produced cars he designed
I remember looking at pictures of the Lamborghini online with my sons when they were teenagers. One of them said it looked like the car wanted to hurt him. It scared them.
Always interesting, great recording voice
The Porsche that needs to come out soon
I personally prefer Porsche 911s even over Ferraris and Lamborghinis BECAUSE the Porsches aren‘t wedgy. They‘re curvy and beautiful. Wedge cars look more aggressive and that‘s why every kid is in love with them but as a really sopphisticated car design dude I appreciate the pure beauty of the Porsche! So I‘m glad they got rid of that wedge concept so soon, even though for a wedge car it‘s not that bad…
I wonder what happened to the original wheels, as the photos of the burnt car show it had different ones from the show photos. Maybe they're just sitting somewhere in a garage in Spain and to this day no one knows where they are, or which car they were from originally.
I never heard of the Tipero before. I owned a beautiful iTal Design 1977 VW Scirocco. Then I sold it to my brother and got to watch him drive it into the ground.
I learned the lesson: Never sell a car to someone that you know.
lotus bought the design from Porsche and turned it into the esprit James bond car
The reason Porsche dropped the idea was because the angle of the windscreen reflected the light into the drivers face blinding him and some other issues
Tapiro
Lol, sold my pride and joy to my brother too- same result.
The "WEDGE" designs have historically been
very striking cars but the Tesla truck is a poor example, the Tesla looks more military stealth or government issue kind of like a mail delivery truck with aftermarket lighting.
Good one!
“The Wedge, the shape of things to come.” My favorite ad-line, courtesy of the TR 7. I almost bought a convertible in British Racing Green in the ‘70s until the salesman told me the wipers were meant to lay exposed about halfway across the windshield! Hell, thought I, if Triumph is willing to tell that lie, who knows what other things they’ll fib on: the car will crank up every time and nary a drop of fluids will be seen. Sadly, I left The Wedge and moved to a Volkswagen box.
Nice job! Note that Pebble Beach will have a Wedge Car class in 2024. Interest in the Wedge is still alive and well.
Several concepts preceded the Cybertruck on the current retro-wedge styling rebirth including the Lo-Res concept, itself apparently an abstraction of the Countach
If you like wedge-shaped cars, you will love the Jehle Saphier.
It should get restored!...maybe with a modern Boxster drivetrain?
The car in the thumbnail image reminds me of the Maserati Bora. From some angles it reminds me of the Lotus Esprit.
2:28 It looks that the headlights are mounted in the sides of the front fenders. They used that same idea in the Alfa Romeo Navajo.
I always knew about this porsche
How could you miss the Triumph TR7 ads that literally featured a wedge and the tagline "The Shape of Things to Come"?
Arguably the most perfect piece of office art for Italdesign to put in their building to inspire their coach design artists. In its burned and backyard ravaged condition it probably was more evocative for their design team than having a pristine example to walk by every day. Just imagine the ideas it inspired and have a smile thinking about the designs that landed in the trash bin for being too much like the Porsche in the building ;)
The car was displayed june 1970 at the Auto Expo 70 along with Lancia stratos 0 Ferrari 512 Módulo and many others
I had many 914 and they’re extremely fun to drive just large go karts. And the 914 six was never really in production
The cannara looks like a speed boat with tires 🚤
Thank you 🙏🏻
Seems there was a trend toward more angular designs in many things, from cars, to kitchen appliances, to bathroom sinks, starting around the mid 1950s, with a few detours along the way. I can think of some wedge-like designs that looked good, like the 1980s Renault 25 and its North American relatives, but in general, shallow triangles and trapezoids make things uglier to my eyes. Wedge shapes did improve aerodynamics to a point, but even the Lambroghini Contach had a middling drag coefficient of .42, and it was the rounded edges of the next decade that brought the drag of average cars down below .30. In moderation, they also made a lot designs, both boxy ones and wedgy ones, less ugly.
0:05 looks like an early version of the M4S Chrysler from the movie The Wraith.
Your assertion about Porsched being the first wedge shaped car would have been stronger if you had mentioned the 904 from 1964/5.
Thank you for a interesting video. All this and you make no mention of the archetypal Triumph TR7 (and 8) possibly the most numerous wedge sports car made. Designed by the talented Harris Mann who died in 2023, this was a British take on this 70's vogue. He was also responsible for a raft of other wedge designs such as the Princess, a wedge saloon. He lived in New York, working at Raymond Loewy's studio, eventually came back to the UK, worked on the Capri ( the European Mustang) before becoming head of Design at British Leyland where wedges were cheese before Harris arrived.
LOL... as a teen in the 70s, that is EXACTLY what we called them, CHEESE WEDGES.. The bad ass looking TR-5 morphed into the Door wedge / cheese wedge TR 7 and so on.... I say it was due to the switch to gen 2 computers and their 8 bit software ,lol
The 914-6 failed because of the death of Heinz Heinrich Nordhoff. Nordhoff was CEO of VW in the 1960s, and hired Porsche to design a replacement for the VW Karman-Ghia. The 914 was to be a Volkswagen with the bodies made at the Karman-Ghia factory, and Porsche would be allowed to purchase some bodies at a low price, using the expected volume of VW bodies produced to keep costs down and thus replace the 912 in the Porsche catalog. Unfortunately none of this was well documented, and the « gentleman’s agreement » between Porsche and Nordhoff was not respected by the later’s successor and the 914 became a car without a home. The delta in purchase price made the 911 only a few hundred dollars more than the 914-6, and the styling of the 914 was not very popular. The 914-6 was more capable than that generation 911, as one can see from the success of the 914GT at LeMans and other races in 1970-71, but Porsche made more money on the 911, so the 914-6 did not survive. To add to your bucket list: drive a 914-6 or 914GT at a track with lots of curves, it will take weeks for your smile to fade. ;-) Thoughts for a follow up video, the Porsche 916!
Could you dive into the Karmann Ghia VW ?
Bro knew what he was doing with the thumbnail
@2:01 "the motorised cally-ope"
Zeus and Mnemosyne are not amused.
I got my start on Porsches in 1974 and was very aware of that beautiful Tapiro. Sadly, it didn’t go far. In those days Porsche was extremely conservative and risk adverse-unlike today! Ultimately, I moved onto a 911 in 1977 and stayed with the 911s from then on. They have a great backseat-very handy. That was something I ultimately greatly missed.
boomers, lol
“Man” didn’t know it existed? I had a 914-6 when I was younger. It was faster than a 911 on winding roads. We run Bern-Hamburg (~1,000km) in 6 hours.
Cool!
The Tapiro was probably designed more as a calling card/statement of intent by Giugiaro/Italdesign than a serious production proposal. Still, a beautiful car and a huge improvement on the rather frumpy 914 - sad to see what became of it.
For the ultimate expression of the wedge theme, Gandini's Lancia Stratos or Giugiaro's Lotus Esprit are probably better choices.
And, yeah, you pronounced Bertone, Marcello Gandini, and Giorgetto Giugiaro incorrectly.
You need to watch some old Top Gear to learn all those Italian designer names
Giugiaro and Ghandini are the godfathers of wedgedesign.
Damn, even just looking at the thumbnail I could immediately tell it was the best looking Porsche ever.
love the wedge shape.
In 2077 all the fastest cars will be wedges.
Well, bugger me. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Great vid👍
The Carabo also featured in a Fury comic from Marvel.
Still waiting for those multilevel super sonar barricaded pulse guided freeways.
Ford de tomaso pantera, a real mid engine screamer, can be had for $10,000 new. Now over $200,000 very old and used.
I want a 916 restomod with an LS in it.
The Cannara kinda looks like a Twin Mill
Calliope (cal-eye-oh-pea) was a steam powered pipe organ)
The Tapiro was just one of the wedge studies based on the 914, look up Hispano-Alemán 914, Goertz 914 and the Murène by Heuliez.
The Porsche 914/6 was also the basis for the 1972 super car the Porsche 916. The flat six used in the 914/6 was developed in the early 1960s and used in it's magnesium engine block form starting on the 1968 911. The 914/6 was developed concurrently with the 914/4.
The 914/6 was a very competent race car, it's major achievements are as follows:
1970 24 hrs of LeMans GT Winner
1970 World Sportscar GT Championship contributor
1971 24 hrs of Daytona Winner
1971 IMSA GTU championship
1977 IMSA GTU championship
1980 24 hrs of Daytona GTU Winner
1:19 The rear end of that Stratos looks exactly like the same rear end on the 308GT4. You can see where Bertone took the design.
Porsche are beautiful cars IMO. Especially the new ones they are monsters…..
Wedge went away bcz of headlights. More over the height of headlights. Back then pedestrians couldn't recognize these wedges as cars, so they walked in front of them. Or at least that is the story. As of today's lighting tech and the EV craze, Wedge could make a comeback. It fits the theme perfectly. Would it be a hit, probably not. But as a gimmick or a "Halo" car, a definite candidate.
I like the very detailed explanations and the search for historical facts that you present, and the strive for a quality content, however not to be dissonant, you need to get those names pronunciation in the right way. My advice to you is to listen to them on google or other TH-cam channels but in their respective language.
And there was that time that military aircraft experimented with the wedge. F-117.
The wedgiest of them all surely was Aston Martin Bulldog (UK).
The Bulldog has almost no visible round parts and looks great, but I think the Jehle Saphier is wedgier.
Lancia HF Zero and Holden Hurricane
@@Astrofrank Jehle Saphier should have been marketed as AMC Gremlin GT.
@@pihermoso11 1973 Fournier Marcadier Barzoi Series II. A fine and uplifting Bulldog. Reminds me of light and agile FIAT X1/9.
The 1967 Lamborghini Marzal was an early wedge concept.
At 5:28 bottom right car is the Maserati Bora, my dream car as a kid. Powered by a musical transverse mount mid engine V8 and featuring a lovely arching stainless steel roof that Elon Musk should have studied.
7:45 lol Door problems
the most sold wedge car is still the Countach, that was running from 1974 - 1990. They sold 2000 units. It was re-born in new form in 2021 as Countach LPI 800-4, with 112 units. Fun Fact: Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Group =)
The resemblance with the new Toyota Prius is not far away, only half a century! 😁
Unfortunately wedges can't come back (at least in low sports cars) for pedestrian safety.
Not only do I know this car, I even have a toy version…. 😝
You missed the Pantera. I have always had a fondness for the wedge look. Still have a couple. :-) Some are ugly some (like the Pantera) and pure joy.
I think you missed something here, especially when it comes to Porsche. The 904 GTS had a wedge influence over all other cars that came after it. It really was the precursor of that wedge design that was copied and refined so many times afterwards.
I can imagine DeLorean seen this car, and wanted to have his car look closely to it.
I still love this car, I remember seeing it in a magazine back in the early 80's...God I'm old.
Time stamped 8:58am(1-2-24)
Happy New Year...👍💯
It's Beauty!
The original witch concept that you can actually look at and see that it's wedge was the original mustang concept car from Ford in the late 1950s
Reunited with my 1977 Ford LTD Wagon from my senior year in high school 1991-92? Don't you think I'm still trying to repress those memories? Wasn't all bad the boat was a tank must have weighed in excess of three tons.
oh i have this car this is the first time i se a video on it waaow
RAW
They though wedges were aero but things like the lambo were not