The archive of the Porsche Museum has more than 4,000 volumes. These include everything published under “Edition Porsche Museum,” the company’s own label founded in 2009, as well as numerous works from other publishers and authors. Yet Porsches feature or figure in a great many more books. “You’d never be able to count them all,” says archive employee Sarah Pelters, who is familiar with no small number of them. After all, scores of authors contact the Porsche Archive in the course of their research. The company’s “historical memory” receives around 6,000 queries a year, not only from authors but also from journalists and students. The archive is not open to the general public. But for all those who wish to immerse themselves in a book about Porsche, we present a small but select set of works.
PORSCHE FOR EVERYONE
One hundred and eleven short stories on 304 pages with 150 illustrations: motorsports reporter Wilfried Müller serves up an appetizing array of colorful stories and anecdotes from the Porsche cosmos, and not only to long-time Porsche enthusiasts. The volume includes vignettes of people like racing director Wilhelm Hild, who only smoked cigarettes halfway, suspenseful accounts of races on tracks around the world, and of course stories about automobiles themselves—from Volkswagen to the 911 cult car and the 919 Hybrid.
111 Porsche Stories You Should Know
Emons Verlag, 2018, 304 pages, €25.00
PORSCHE PICTURE BOOK
Porsche for the little ones: seven full-spread panoramas invite children into the sports-car maker’s world. Highlights include a tumultuous aerodynamics test in the wind tunnel at Weissach’s development center, the production line at the main factory in Zuffenhausen, and the off-road terrain at the Leipzig site.
Porsche Wimmelbuch
Edition Porsche
Museum volume from Wimmelbuchverlag, 2018, 16 pages, €12.80
KNOWLEDGE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
A must for true Porsche connoisseurs—those who know every model like the back of their hand and have a superb command of technical detail will find this the perfect source, even if the odd bit of knowledge might still be missing. Despite the reference-work character with a chronological structure, the book is also an invitation to browse. The gripping history of Porsche is told alongside a treasure trove of photos.
Porsche Calendarium 1931–2018
Edition Porsche Museum volume published by Piper Verlag, 2019, 254 pages, €16.00
FROM PAST TO FUTURE
At Porsche, electromobility marks the past and present as well as the future. With the Taycan, the sports-car maker has ushered in a new era for the corporate group. But few people know that the history of the company itself also started with an electric motor. Released to mark the world premiere of the Taycan, this work is a printed record not only of the first all-electric sports car but also of Porsche’s history of electromobility.
Electrified. Since 1893
Edition Porsche Museum volume published by Motorbuch Verlag, 2020, 180 pages, €24.95
A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES
This book gives readers a glimpse of the mission accomplished by around 1,000 test-drivers, technicians, and engineers. The road to series production of the Taycan was long. And extreme. Porsche’s first sports car with an entirely electric drive was tested under the toughest conditions. This book of photos impressively documents the test-drives in South Africa, Sweden, and Shanghai.
Roads to Taycan
Christophorus Edition, 2020, 176 pages, €59.00
THE BESTSELLER
The most sought-after volume at the Porsche Museum: like the Porsche 911 itself, this printed homage to the sports car is also a bestseller. Its more than 1,000 pages present the history of the 911 model series from its origins to the present day. Although it tipo the scales at nearly 3.8 kilos, the book is anything but a heavy read thanks to its many photos, drawings, and vintage advertisements.
911 x 911
Edition Porsche Museum volume published by Motorbuch Verlag, 2018, 1,038 pages, €49.90
ENTERING CONTEMPLATIVE GEAR
Porsche can also be very quiet. This collection of essays published in 2019 is food for thought for sports-car fans with a philosophical bent. Ten articles by leading authors address topics such as identity, transformation, and the significance of digitalization. Each essay is illustrated with the work of an international artist.
Reader No. 1: Food for Thought
Christophorus Edition volume published by Piper Verlag, 2019, 176 pages, €20
Sarah Peters
Research Associate, Porsche Archive
Sarah Pelters (34) speaks fluent Porsche. She is a text editor and content manager who is usually the last person to check publications from the Porsche Group. Which is a good thing, for not everyone can immediately explain fine points like the difference between a manufacturing year and a model year. Pelters studied the history of technology, and joined Porsche while still in her work/study program. The moment she begins enthusiastically describing the varied nature of her job, it’s clear that the Porsche Archive is a far cry from a dusty basement library.
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Text first published in the magazine Campus.
