Porsche 695 Goertz 1957 Brown

Porsche 695 Goertz 1957 Brown by Autocult

The search for the ideal design

In 1956 – in Germany the professional profile of a designer was by no means familiar – one man was at the top of the list of Ferdinand Porsche’s son, Ferry Porsche, for the design of a new car body shape: Albrecht Graf Goertz. His recently designed shape of the legendary BMW 507 thrilled almost everyone and continued to have an effect.   Although living in the US, the 43-year-old aristocratic freelance designer commuted between New York and his home country. It must have been around the autumn months of 1956, when Porsche contacted the aristocrat and asked him for a design for a future Porsche. The Swabian manufacturer was by no means an established brand at the time, such as Goertz`s last employer, BMW, and yet the Count was open to the offer. Presumably, he was given Porsche’s internal considerations before he dedicated himself to the project in New York. A very great sportiness and an independent appearance must have been at the top of the list. After several visits to the Swabian factory, he realized his thoughts in an real size clay model and presented it to the responsible persons at Porsche in July 1957.   All the persons present looked at a compact car, whose distinctive mark were the two round headlights at the front, between which the front hood ended directly into the front bumper. At the rear, Count Goertz placed three small taillights on each side. After all, it was the elongated rear section that led to the recorded sentence of Ferry Porsche: “…a beautiful Goertz, but not a Porsche …”. Simply translated that meant that the design was “too American”. Albrecht Graf Goertz finally finished and presented a second design, but even this one did not meet the liking of Porsche’s leaderboard.