Product Description

Since 1977 Karl Ludvigsen's Porsche: Excellence Was Expected has been regarded as the definitive work on Porsche history. In this masterwork Ludvigsen presents the inner workings, masterpieces and failures of an independent automaker that has exerted a disproportionately powerful influence on the automotive industry. Remarkable both for its breadth of coverage and its technical depth, Excellence Was Expected covers every Porsche road and racing car from the company's beginnings through the development of the 2009 Panamera.

In this first revision since 2003, Ludvigsen has updated the three-volume set through 2008, including five augmented chapters, five completely new chapters, and 230 new images. The five new chapters feature full-color artwork throughout and cover the RS Spyder, the Cayman, the Type 997, the 997-based GT racers and the Panamera. He also looks closely at Wendelin Wiedeking's financially savvy stewardship of the Porsche company through the first decade of the twenty-first century.

With this new edition, Excellence Was Expected remains "the definitive archetypal marque history" (Autocar) that it was in its first edition. And Karl Ludvigsen continues to set the bar high for automotive historians, just as the company he chronicles continues to shape our very definition of the term "sports car."

New for the 2008 edition

* 257 new or revised pages and 230 new photos

* Five new full color chapters covering the RS Spyder, the Cayman, the Type 997 production and GT cars, and the Panamera

* Updated coverage of the Boxster, the Type 996, the Cayenne and the Carrera GT

* Updated Competition Victories appendix

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155608 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1688 pages

Review
If you love Porsches, this book will tell you everything you ever wanted to know. -- Classic and Sports Car, October 2003

Customer Reviews

The best automobile history ever written
"The best automobile history ever written" -- that's a big claim and is easily misunderstood. But I think it would be exceedingly difficult to find a more thorough, better researched, more comprehensive, and better written automobile history, regardless of topic or marque. One may argue that there are more "important" cars (or not); perhaps the story of Daimler and Maybach's pioneering efforts, or Henry Ford's, are more "important" in a larger historical context than the activities of a relatively small maker of specialist sports and racing cars, but that's not what I claim here. I claim that this is the best WRITTEN, most thorough autombile history ever. Porsche, as an automobile and an enterprise, is a very special phenomenon, and Ludvigsen's book presents both company and car to an audience that may otherwise never appreciate it. If you don't like Porsches, then that doesn't matter. If you do, you need this book. If you're not sure, then this book may be the beginning of a lifelong passion for all things Porsche.

That's how it was with me. I bought myself the much slimmer (but still hefty, at 860 pages) first edition of this book as a Christmas present in 1977. It was instrumental in changing my career path; it affected my choices in university engineering courses, and of a master's thesis. Eventually, six years later, I found myself working as an engineer at Porsche. Incidental to my regular engineering duties, I was often called upon to help some of the leading engineers in the company -- men whose stories I had once read about in Ludvigsen -- write English-language presentations and technical papers. This led to my career expanding to include automotive journalism, engineering writing and technical translation, but the passion for Porsche remains. I have three vintage 356s in the garage, and it was Ludvigsen's book that made me appreciate the virtues of these rolling historical documents.

Karl Ludvigsen is one of the few truly outstanding automotive writers of our time. I can think of only a handful of others who can compare in depth of knowledge and facility with the language (or several languages, in Ludvigsen's case) -- Paul Frere (also eminently multilingual, and a multilingual engineer) and LJK Setright come to mind. Being a bilingual engineer myself, I appreciate even more than most the job that Ludvigsen did in researching this book; his translations into English of many concepts and expressions from company-internal documents are faultless, and definitive. The subjects covered in Ludvigsen's other books include Mercedes, Ferrari, Jaguar, V12 engines, early history of Volkswagen, Indianapolis racers, and Can-Am -- all of which were done in the same outstanding manner. I mention this only because there is one overwhelmingly negative review for this book, posted by somebody who is very poorly informed indeed. That reviewer says "Mr. Ludvigsen glosses over the problems with the 356 and early 911 road cars..." Not true. When I went to work for Porsche, I found that I already had an excellent working knowledge of foibles and problems encountered with earlier Porsche cars, thanks to Ludvigsen's book. The reviewer also says "Mr. Ludvigsen glosses...the internal power struggles within the company and board, and so on." Again not true. The Porsche-Piech, and other, battles are well documented. And the reviewer says "If I'd realized Mr. Ludvigsen had a past history of writing for Automotive Quarterly, I would never have wasted this much money buying this set. Just like Automotive Quarterly (which never had a bad thing to say about any automobile)." As for "never had a bad thing to say about any automobile," I am an author who has also written for Automobile Quarterly, and I have to wonder if perhaps there is another publication of that name, because that's not the AQ that I know. I know this firsthand because among other things, I wrote what I think is a brutally honest history of the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega (AQ, 1989, Vol. 27 No. 3). Incidentally, the first, 1977 edition of "Excellence was Expected" was published by AQ.

Bottom line, Ludvigsen's "Porsche: Excellence was Expected" belongs in the automotive library of anyone who seeks the definitive history of the Porsche marque, the company, and a chronicle of more than a half century of sports car racing history as seen from the perspective of its most successful practitioners.

Three Volume, 2003 Edition of Excellence Was Expected
The first edition, in 1977, was acknowledged to be the benchmark of accurate information on Porsche cars. The second (2003) edition is more than a new expanded editon of the old book. There has been considerable new text material & photos added to the early chapters, which must be carefully read to be appreciated. Approx. half of this editon covers more recent production years, thus the 3-Vol. format. The depth of detail is amazing, & far exceeds the plethora of other books written in the last few years. The cost is somewhat intimidating, but after a close look, it is really comparitively inexpensive for the quality of the books & material therein.
For the layman it will exceed your expectations. For the knowledgable enthusiast, it is even more indespensible for reference than was the first editon.

Tons of Technical Info
If you need technical information about a pre-80's Porsche, this is the book for you.

Nothing else out there compares to its depth and range. There are pages and pages of line drawings, blueprints, technical specifications, and lots of photos that I've never seen anywhere else. Digest this, and you'll be an expert on the marque.

There are a couple of shallow spots. Professor Porsche's sometimes cozy relationship with the Nazis and his engineering work for them during World War Two is neatly sidestepped. Also, the coverage of the cars stops in the late '70's. If you have a newer Porsche, you'll be disappointed on what you can find out about your car.

Still, though, nobody's touched this book before or since on research and content.