Building A PORSCHE 911 - Legend On 4 Wheels | Full Documentary

[Music] the sound of a legend porsche 911 the world's most successful sports car its rear-mounted boxer engine and classic styling are unmistakable it combines sportiness and everyday functionality like no other vehicle a street legal race car to me it's an expression of style here is where the famous 911 is made in stuttgart zuffenhausen germany has been producing one of the icons of the automotive industry since 1963. it's the best known sports car in the world at the inner sanctum of the porsche faithful the vaisakh development center the engineers work to make each new generation of the sports coupe even better than its predecessor while always remaining nothing less than a genuine 911. i believe there's no other product in the automotive world with a comparable life story a unique design from day one and unequaled racing history over the course of decades the 911 has earned the label legend many want a part of racing history for their very own preferably in like new condition we can restore almost everything and now the sports car's eighth generation is also on its way to becoming a legend on four wheels once a 911 always a 911 porsche platz in sofinhausen germany this is where they build the legendary 911 the sports car builder's main plant is a place with a long tradition [Music] since the first 911 was created here in 1963 a small swabian speedster has achieved mythical heights and the name porsche has become world-renowned the result of decades of research and development now the three thousand employees in series production fabricate around 250 cars per day the tsufin housing plant is porsche's home sweet home and the 911 is clearly the icon of the porsche brand and since every 911 ever built that's well over 1 million now came from this factory in suffenhausen it's easy to understand the importance that the tsufenhausen plant places on the 911 the list price for the top model of the 911 turbo s is just over 200 000 euros for that sum the proud owner comes away with a 1.6 ton sports car with a 650 horsepower engine to accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers per hour the 911 turbo s takes just under 2.7 seconds its six-cylinder boxer engine with two turbochargers can push the speedometer's needle past the 300 kilometer an hour mark at the heart of the 188 acre porsche plant lies the birthplace of every 911 the sports car's exterior is produced in the body works 350 employees and 286 robots weld glue and rivet the sports car into its striking shape this body will eventually become a turbo s the most powerful version of the 911 with its distinctive air intakes right in the front of the rear wheels they channel fresh air to the two turbo chargers so it's already easy to tell from the openings in the body shell that's a turbo [Music] as with every 911 the important thing here is to make the car's exterior as light as possible because every extra kilogram ultimately sacrifices more efficiency and speed the 911's body is lightweight construction of course a sports car with a very very heavy body will never be a sports car that's why extremely lightweight construction is also what in our view distinguishes the 911. we have highly specialized material composites we have an aluminium shell we have high strength seals right where it matters intelligent lightweight construction that's a top priority the complex transport system of the plant is also intelligent the bodies move from station to station in their own mezzanine just below the ceiling that saves space and the swabians desperately need it because a car plant right in the middle of a city like the one here in stuttgart suffenhausen actually borders on sheer impossibility the porsche plant rises several stories and each floor is packed to the gills with workstations there are 130 in the body works alone robots handle most of the high precision punching welding and gluing the machines are more accurate than humans and they work longer hours a robot doesn't even know what it means to get tired on a transport sled the bodies enter the home stretch from here on in the final 50 meters human hands can also intervene here 30 employees install the last parts such as the trunk lid which as everyone knows is in front of the 911 once the hinges have been bolted on the employees verify the gaps when those gaps exceed specifications wind noise can get loud fast at top speed after four hours each of the 236 kilogram bodies is whisked away in an elevator and automatically transferred to one of the paint shops the path they take is another unique feature of the plant conveyed through overhead skyways high above the grounds of the plant the cars move from one production hall to another all porsche 911s are painted in the main plant in sofenhausen [Music] the priming of the bodies begins in a cathodic electro-deposition bath electric current flows through the entire basin the coating it contains is positively charged while the vehicle itself is negatively grounded there's a mutual attraction between the car and the primer this enables the 20 micron 0.8 millimeter thick primer to reach even the smallest cavities providing first-class corrosion protection throughout then the machines get busy again robots spray on three more coatings one to protect against stone impacts then the actual color coding and finally the clear coat the entire process takes 9 hours [Music] upon completion the car weighs about 19 kilograms more the coated bodies continue their journey moving along a 250 meter overhead route to the other end of the plant site the sports car legends basic outline is already apparent that's the way it should be because one rule has never changed a 911 must look like a 911. in the early 1960s the first generation established its paradigmatic look prominent headlights flanking a flat hood and the continuous sweep of the roofline back to the rear end [Music] this design has long been considered a classic i needed a four carbon one of the specifications right from the start was that everyone should be able to identify the car as a porsche by its silhouette and that meant a fastback but what later became the legendary 911 had a different name at first the first hundred cars were still sold under the originally intended number 901 and that's also how it was unveiled at the 1963 auto show in frankfort on mine germany the first new development from porsche in 15 years [Music] but then peugeot raised an objection to the name because the french automaker reserved the right to all model designations with a zero in the middle porsche simply turned the 901 into the 911 and set a new benchmark the first models had a 2-liter 6-cylinder rear-mounted boxer engine 130 horsepower accelerated it up to 210 kilometers per hour extreme performance in those days from day one the new porsche was a genuine sports car and it also came at a price 21 900 deutsche marks about three times the price of its predecessor the 356 that pales in comparison to the value of first and second generation 911s today now a fully restored one of a kind can cost nearly 1 million euros the specialists at early 911 s in vupata germany transform rust buckets into gleaming collectors items the men and women specialize in the model series 356 through 993 which still had an air-cooled engine for complete restorations the waiting list is long some of these projects take years for the employees to complete their motto almost nothing is beyond repair [Music] we can restore almost everything there are wear limits in the engine transmission suspensions where we purchase original parts from porsche so about 30 of every car is completely new that means for example body parts of course in order to restore services you can restore practically everything in the interiors that's nice now every some 450 old porsches await their second or third reincarnation at the moment there's an f model a first generation 911 on the straightening bench a 2.4 liter targa from 1972. [Music] this car has been restored again and again but the damage front and back has never been sorted out as a result the car is crooked and skewed that's typical the hardest part of most restorations does not involve the engine or the suspension but rather the manual work on the body here we have the frame bench especially designed for the f model then we've got a frame gauge up front that tells us how to position the windshield in front afterwards in the back a frame gauge to position the rear window and then when everything fits and the frame gauge is fit and the frame gauges of the doors fit then i can be sure that the car will be straight when it's all done the body makers unceremoniously cut a section of sheet metal from the 50 year old car the part is simply beyond repair now this is also the part that connects the whole driver's side rear axle to the rest of the car this part is almost certain to impair road handling because when you look at it there's just no way to attach a rear axle to it properly much less adjust it properly afterwards if you take a look at it now it's been messed around with so much even inside that we had no choice but to take the whole section out and then just fabricate a new one in its place the employees put 500 to 1500 man hours into the classic cars body alone until it looks like this but a historic 911 is a dream car after all that has its price and can also take a lot of time in tsufenhausen individual dream cars are built in series production all of the company's two-door sports cars come from this assembly line not only all 911 models but also all 718s like the boxster and the cayman a fully painted body rolls off the assembly line at the first of 117 stations assemblers mount protective shells to prevent scratches and damage and they remove the doors this gives mechanics easier access to the interior an elevator takes the driver's side door to station 108 one floor below where it will be reassembled on the car a few hours from now [Music] these employees slide a heavy sack into the car it contains the car's nervous system the wire harness is supplied as a pre-fabricated assembly and now only needs to be rooted this operation takes four men because the work must be completed in 175 seconds that's the cycle time then comes the next car the assembly line advances at two meters per minute and no two cars are alike a 911 can be followed by a caiman the employees here are perfectly able to assemble all models [Music] the challenge of course is the high qualification level of our employees and this enables us to produce all cars on one series production line from the basic 911 to the cup race car the advantage is that we only need one body works one paint shop and one car assembly line for our entire two-door sports car product range at the next station the employees installed the instrument panel their cockpit pre-installation colleagues have already assembled it at a small assembly line right next to the main line [Music] using an assembly arm a mechanic slides the finished instrument panel into the car to prevent damage the component is covered with a blue protective mat [Music] the tachometer not the speedometer is located in the middle that's where it belongs in a 911 because racing drivers are concerned with rpm not kilometers per hour a few meters later every convertible gets a life-saving component the roll bar should the car ever roll over two bars will extend within fractions of a second to protect the heads of the occupants [Music] each variant of the 911 whether coupe cabriolet targa or speedster is equipped with special extras that's complicated but the wide range of models helps boost sales these advanced developments known as derivatives are a porsche tradition [Music] the first 911 convertible the targa comes with a stylish unique selling point the distinctive roll bar mounted behind the doors what later became a worldwide success was born of necessity in order to be able to sell the convertible on the important u.s market it had to comply with the safety regulations in force there at the time a pure convertible was prohibited so porsche quickly invented the targa roll bar a classic convertible without a roll bar was not launched until 1983. over the years the model range has continuously grown and the range of colors along with it out on the road the 911 also stands out for its many special coatings few of its contemporaries are as colorful as this sports car and it's also getting stronger wider and flashier more and more of a true racing car the ducktale rear spoiler is the hallmark of this development then in 1975 a new top model appears the turbo for about 65 000 deutsche marks the customer gets a 260 horsepower car that can reach top speeds of more than 250 kilometers per hour the turbo 2 soon becomes a classic [Music] the porsche museum in suffenhausen is a treasure trove of legends the cars that made it into this exhibit were pioneers of technical development more than 80 display pieces on three floors tell the story of the once small company's great successes [Music] here too the star time and again is the 911 in a vast range of variants in the 1990s bent kano helped write part of that success story as model series director over the years we were more and more successful at achieving a fusion of sport and comfort on com4 so you could drive around the nuremburg ring in each new 911 faster than its predecessor and at the same time it was also more comfortable and that was the secret to how we actually got the production volume up to a level where we could earn money and keep porsche in business [Music] also brought many special models to the market one of them was this speedster with a racing enclosure instead of a roof which was very costly to produce this is offset inside the company this top section was affectionately known as the toilet lid the idea behind the toilet lid was to give a bit of the sensation of driving a formula one car something like sitting in an open cockpit it was extremely difficult you had to wear a helmet and we were glad that nobody wanted one a few yards away there's another one of these rare 911s that hardly anyone wanted a hardtop convertible with its own surfboard i we spent a whole lot of money back then to develop this and then sold practically none of them customers wanted to drive a convertible with the top down they probably just dropped the surfboard off someplace and kept on driving there's a marketing group that claims we need this but for us we have the feeling we don't need it but what does the customer need and that's always difficult and then there's one more unique specimen which actually could have given rise to a promising niche product [Music] once i had an idea that there was a market for armored 911s with bulletproof glass with special door sections mats behind the body and it still wasn't too heavy so it could still be driven as a the second 911 was never produced [Music] today bulletproof panes still have yet to reach the assembly line in sofenhausen this is laminated glass first a robot applies a thin layer of special adhesive then the employees carefully install the pane a vacuum lifter helps them position the glass down to the millimeter because at speeds approaching 320 kilometers per hour any tiny imperfection in the windshield can have fatal consequences [Music] the first part of the assembly line has completed its work the instrument panel onboard electronics and most of the car's shell are now complete an elevator lowers the future 911 to the floor below the car traverses the next stations in a rotary conveyor suspended from the ceiling the frame always holds the body precisely at working height and turns it into position this gives employees optimal access to the car at all times along the edge of this section of the assembly line the fuel tanks are already lined up and ready for installation they're made of non-flammable plastic and have a 67 liter capacity according to the manufacturer that gives the sports car a range of more than 750 kilometers on the highway an employee installs the fuel tank from underneath in the 911 the tank is located in the front just behind the luggage compartment [Music] the next step is a festive occasion the marriage ceremony begins the term engine marriage refers to the process of connecting the drive train to the body two assembly lines merge at this intersection on the left from pre-assembly the driveless transport system supplies the pre-assembled drive module with suspension engine and exhaust system [Music] on the right the upper section arrives from the assembly line suspended from the ceiling [Music] when the two sub-assemblies are lined up one on top of the other the rotary conveyor slowly lowers the body onto the running gear the moment of the marriage four employees service groomsmen joining body and drive train together with minute precision [Music] to ensure that this marriage really endures the men secure the module with 96 screws [Music] technicians previously assembled the drivetrain on an assembly line four independent wheel suspensions for the all-wheel drive the exhaust line the transmission and of course the centerpiece the boxer engine that assembly line is located in a production hall of its own here 350 employees do nothing other than build engines the power units traverse 100 workstations before completion along the way they undergo a series of functional tests io which means ok and a green light indicate that assembly can continue nioh which means not okay indicates that manual rework is required 40 different models are produced here they all have one thing in common they're boxer engines every engine arrives in individual parts the two halves of the crank case crankshaft pistons and six connecting rods at this station an employee prepares for the assembly of the boxer engine by attaching each piston to a connecting rod he then inserts the finished components into the six cylinders where combustion will occur later on the conveyor belt rolls on every two minutes and 47 seconds the next employee installs the crankshaft later it will transfer the motion of the pistons to the transmission in a safety cage a robot joins the two halves of the boxer motor precisely at a 180 degree angle two rows of three cylinders each are arranged in a flat plane across from one another that's what makes the boxer so different from other engines in the common v engine two rows of cylinders are arranged in a v formation hence the name the piston pairs move in a slightly offset sequence relative to one another so one lags behind the other in the boxer engine however the piston rows are arranged at 180 degree angles to one another and each pair operates synchronously when one piston moves toward the crankshaft the other mirrors the exact same motion like two boxers dancing toward each other and then separating again this principle results in smoother operation the boxer engine profile is extremely flat so it also has a very low center of gravity which is important for the car and its driving dynamics the engine has to fit in the rear of the car that would be difficult with a v8 engine most strikingly the orientation of the boxer engine is not vertical but lies flat this approach has a long tradition at porsche because the 911 has been driven by a horizontal six-cylinder boxer like this right from the beginning back to the restoration pros in vobata [Music] the men here appreciate the old air-cooled boxer engines because these engines are excellent candidates for restoration professionals also refer to this as rebuilding an engine the boxers are overhauled in a separate building nearly all spare parts are still available today [Music] engine work is routine for these mechanics [Music] in terms of time the engine rebuild is actually relatively manageable which means from disassembly to completion it takes us about six weeks [Music] generally the design of the air-cooled boxers is much simpler than that of the more modern ones with water cooling and all sorts of electronics [Music] the question air or water has always split porsche fans into two camps for the vupatal team the original air-cooled 911 is the only way to go on the streets today i think the old 911 is the most beautiful car with this extreme understatement when you buy an old car like this everyone is actually indulgent towards you drive around in a modern porsche and there's usually a huge jealousy factor the classic is more likely to get a thumbs up in all more than 400 000 air cooled 911s were built but only the rarest of them ever make it into the workshop i look for special cars all over the world special cars means history special colors or just special limited edition cars the first owner of this fourth generation turbo was a regular porsche customer she always ordered her 911s in blood orange each one is a unique specimen after restoration this car will be worth about 350 000 euros [Applause] the old turbos have a special characteristic feature the infamous turbo lag when the driver hits the gas not much happens at first until the turbocharger builds up pressure but then the full power suddenly kicks in and the car takes off that can be dangerous especially in curves too dangerous for some car collectors we modify the turbo lag for the modern driver by modifying the engine characteristics a little we install a different camshaft the turbocharger is modified just a little this makes it much smoother for many people who simply aren't accustomed to driving one of these old cars and then it's also perfectly suitable for everyday use porsche engineers were aware of the turbo lag problem and eventually solved it over the course of development [Music] but today the turbocharger principle remains the same even in the models currently coming out of tsufenhausen [Music] the exhaust gas flowing from the engine drives the turbine of the turbocharger the latter in turn increases the fresh air supply to the engine which delivers more horsepower [Music] mounted to the engine block of the newest 911 are not one but two turbochargers with them the car reaches 650 horsepower here too the mechanics have just two minutes and 50 seconds to complete the installation they have to keep pace the entire engine must be completely assembled within five hours my colleagues here in assembly handle 900 parts including individual components and hardware such as screws and also separate sub-assemblies that's 900 parts to produce one turbo engine finally each engine goes on the test stand an employee rolls the engine into a high security chamber this is where the heat test is performed he connects the utilities to the engine electrical power supply fuel line and extraction hoses that collect the exhaust gases the measurement will show if everything works and the engine delivers full power [Music] the door closes and the heat test can begin [Music] the fully automated system slowly brings the boxer up to speed at 2500 rpm the engine starts to warm up the computer then relentlessly pushes power output to the maximum [Music] for 90 seconds the system applies full throttle the sensors continuously measure dozens of parameters such as torque oil temperature coolant temperature fuel pressure and charge air pressure this engine has passed the test the department releases 260 engines per day all in sync so they can be installed at the right time there's no warehouse for the engines our logistics system has to be very sophisticated because in this system it's tremendously important to have the right part with the right quality in the right place at the right time because we can't just store the parts in a warehouse autonomous trolleys move the engines toward the series production area the driveless transport system known as fts delivers them to a kind of shunting yard behind these automatic doors there's a gigantic high bay storage rack off limits to employees a fully automated crane handles all the work it parks the boxers on the rack for a short time a software program notifies the system when the assembly line needs a specific engine the crane immediately retrieves the appropriate engine it's all done within a matter of minutes meanwhile the fts is already delivering the next boxer traffic continuously shuttles back and forth [Music] elsewhere however absolute silence reigns no sound from outside may disturb the acoustics laboratory this is where the sound of the 911 is measured and this is how it looks my 911 to my way of thinking must develop a voluminous powerful sound down below and this typical howl out at the top [Music] okay here we visualize the sound of the acceleration sequence that we just executed uh you'll see this is the rpm axis so the car runs from 1500 rpm in our case now up to 6000 rpm then here on this axis we basically see how high the frequency is or how high the tone is we hooked it and the color indicates how loud it is blue is soft and red and yellow are where the engine roars so now i can use this diagram to interpret the car's acoustic fingerprint independent the fingerprint is generated using microphones which are arranged at a precisely specified distance around the car the insulation of the sound chamber is more than a full meter thick and ensures absolute silence the room itself is mounted on dampers to prevent vibrations from infiltrating [Music] to measure the hearing impression inside the car precisely a passenger dummy is also used like the driver it also wears microphones on its head as of my boyfriend so my passenger in this case is a dummy head with a built-in microphone it's made in the shape of a human torso and you can see here that the ears have also been made to resemble the human ear and in this case this is simply to record the passengers hearing impression with the greatest possible oral accuracy the engineer generates a complete sound profile that means starting out slowly at 1500 rpm then accelerating at full throttle up to 6000 rpm in fourth gear maintaining speed and finally letting the car coast to a stop at idle in just under two minutes the test is over the basic principle also applies to the 911 the engine makes the sound but the exhaust system also plays a decisive role especially the position of the exhaust pipes the tailpipe position this tailpipe position of course also has a significant impact on the sound people are unaware of the fact that moving the tailpipes closer together offers different design possibilities than when they're separated as they are here this sport exhaust system is characterized by its robust coarse sound pattern which then sort of gets out of hand again at higher rpms and breaks into that distinctive sawmill and after all getting a little out of hand is what the 911 is all about the sound laboratory is part of the porsche development grounds in vaisakh germany 25 kilometers from the outskirts of stuttgart this is also where the company's own test track is located [Applause] every new sports car generation is first subjected to extensive testing because according to company philosophy it must be ready not only for the road but also for the racing circuit over the course of its lifetime the 911 has already put that philosophy to the test many times 1965 the racing debut at the monte carlo rally and that's also where it chalks up its first major successes the 911 earns three consecutive victories from 1968 to 1970 the first chapter of a success story that continues to this day time and again the 911s reliability pays off in the endurance races in 1973 a 911 wins the 24 hours of daytona with a 128 kilometer lead over the competition at the 24 hours of le mans there's an ongoing series of class victories [Music] but the normal 911 doesn't quite make it to the top that will require further developments [Music] one such development is the porsche 935 a highly modified 911 turbo in 1979 the private team krema pilots it to a sensational victory in the french classic nearly 20 years later a 911 succeeds there again the gt1 originally developed from the street legal version and subsequently refined with so many performance enhancements over the years it has almost nothing in common with the 911 anymore apart from the name in front of the rear axle sits a mid-mounted engine and it's even water cooled is it still a 911 ask many porsche fans nevertheless it wins the 24 hours of le mans in 1998 with a double victory again and again the sports car proves that it thrives not only on the racetrack but also off-road with the newly developed 953 porsche wins the paridaka rally in 1984. rather than lower to the ground the car is raised up higher to just over 27 centimeters suspension travel a 911 with all-wheel drive improved shock absorbers and a reinforced rear axle it's porsche's first ever start in the rally and it's the first time that it isn't won by an off-road vehicle [Music] and then stuttgart specialists go on to build a genuine super sports card disguised as a rally car in the mid 1980s the 959 is a revolution on four wheels and also wins the parida car marvel with the 959 we wanted to show all the technical possibilities all-wheel drive high speed twin turbo chargers and so on everything that was technically possible at the time the technicians call the car the rolling research lab many findings are eventually applied to the 911 series production but all that technology initially adds a lot of weight close to one and a half tons nevertheless it reaches a top speed of 317 kilometers per hour [Music] don't forget that this was the first time that the car reached speeds well over 300 kilometers an hour with the weight of a small truck it was no race car in terms of performance sure but not in terms of weight and it couldn't be scaled up for serious production there was a tremendous amount of development work that we hadn't anticipated so we went into series production much later than actually planned and that's why the car ultimately became so expensive in the mid 1980s the 959 lists for 420 000 deutsche marks porsche builds just 292 of them this voyage back then it was the super sports car and many who had that kind of money just said i need one no matter how well or badly it drives and it was actually a good deal for them because then when you saw the prices how fast they went up it was just crazy what is today a model like this can cost about a million euros the restoration pros in verbatim happen to have one in the shop at the moment with many kilometers on the odometer and a famous original owner the car still has the original factory paint job this outdoors the car hasn't been restored it's been repaired over and over again the original owner was tennis star boris becker's mother becker bought it and registered under his mother's name and the last owner drove it a lot normally cars offered at auction have done anywhere from 10 to 30 000 kilometers this one has 124 000 kilometers on the clock and is also in rather used condition inside you can see that it's never been restored a lot of money has been invested in technology but in my opinion it's really more of a restoration project not in however it would take too many non-standard parts ones that would not be readily available and there's also much more electronics in a 959 than in an old 911. to restore this car it would have to go back to the factory and that would cost a pretty penny if porsche restored it it would cost you roughly three to four hundred thousand euros and then you have to get it on the road standing still is what really kills it the differences between the 959 and the 911 of its day are clear a variable all-wheel drive lots of electronics and performance data that stand up well against today's carrera s this car was ahead of its time back then many porsche fans asked is this still a 911 sure it's a 911 absolutely one thing is clear the 959's advanced technology eventually found its way into serial production so the test lab on four wheels is still part of the porsche 911 today in tsufenhausen the employees now install more electronics in a 911 than ever before on the last section of the assembly line this turbo s is now being equipped with critical aerodynamic components at the rear of the sports car an employee installs key elements of the movable rear wing it electromechanically adjusts itself to driving conditions at 90 kilometers per hour the wing deploys automatically at higher speeds the angle of attack increases to generate more down thrust the deployable wing a characteristic feature installed exactly where the famous ducktail a rear spoiler used to be we use the word spoiler if the air flows only across the top in other words a typical ducktail or rear lip spoiler we say wing if the air flows both across the top and underneath the wing is much more efficient and it generates a lot of down thrust that's why the aerodynamic engineers always try to make the thing as wide and low as possible and configure it as a wing and then deploy it as far out as possible in order not to disturb the air flowing underneath which is extremely important for the efficiency there are variable aerodynamic elements in front as well a front spoiler made of plastic is installed under the bumper by filling it with compressed air the component extends while the car is moving the airstream is also affected by the flaps the front air intakes the onboard computer adjusts the angle of attack according to speed and cooling requirements combined all of the aerodynamic components installed in suffenhausen increase the car's down thrust by up to 170 kilograms [Music] aerodynamics are a work of art you're torn between efficiency in other words the lowest possible air resistance and down thrust you look at the wheels you look at the spokes what effect do they have make the underbody smooth countersink the screw holes and properly design gaps and transitions while also ensuring that it also comes out that way in the factory every day but before the sports car leaves the factory it must first be developed since the 1970s this takes place in the porsche development center in vaisakh [Music] meanwhile the engineers here have registered more than 7 000 patents today the grounds are considered to be one of the german industries most carefully guarded sites six thousand five hundred people work here more than five thousand of them in development developing a new porsche 911 costs many millions of euros in the 9 000 square meter design center the employees are already creating the sports car of tomorrow because by the time a world premiere is unveiled to the public the car is already practically a venerable relic to the designers their work was completed a long time ago exactly how much time it takes to develop a new model is a trade secret [Music] every new 911 poses the same problem it must not be too new [Music] because the big challenge is to make the new 911 recognizable as the new kid at first glance while also clearly retaining its 911 identity so we have to strike a balance how progressive how far do i go with new design elements upstairs the designers first draft a basic outline on the computer on the ground floor employees then create physical models in various sizes and finally also a full-scale clay model the team adds plastic rims and lamps to the mock-up [Music] then a film is glued to the entire model it simulates the paintwork and lets developers see how light reflects from the surface [Music] to the naked eye the model is barely distinguishable from a real car for the designers working on the 911 here is still something special the sports car establishes the look for the company's entire model range we have a clearly defined design dna and all the essential elements responsible for porsche's brand identity ultimately derive from the 911. one example is how the front fenders are higher than the hood that's what we always refer to as the topography when i look at the back of the car i see these heavily accentuated shoulders there are several such essential elements and they can all be attributed to the 911 the 911 has retained its basic form throughout the decades the flat front with the prominent headlights and the sweeping roof line back to the rear end the internal model numbers are confusing for outsiders the 997 was followed by the 991 from the numbers porsche connoisseurs can instantly identify the generation in question over the years porsche's icon has grown longer and above all wider it should never appear pretentious however say the designers slight understatement is the declared objective it means my way of thinking in 911 its proportions themselves already say i'm a sports car without the aggression i could if i want to but i don't have to all the time while specialists continue to tweak the design the first prototypes are already undergoing a grueling test program the engine runs between 200 and 800 hours on the test stand an endurance test the idea is to always do accelerated life tests that means after four six eight weeks i already know how it operates over the entire life of the car and there are empirical values when i subject an engine to a program like that for 200 hours and it survives then it will never fail because this legendary sports car is exported all over the world it must perform perfectly under all kinds of adverse weather conditions for that reason the pre-production models are tested in an extremely wide range of climate zones at temperature differences of more than 60 degrees celsius the engine brakes and driver assistance systems must function reliably at all times the global testing program is carried out on several continents simultaneously with dozens of cars and test pilots while part of the test fleet overcomes harsh winter conditions in snow and ice others subject the technology to san francisco's rush hour traffic all together the test drivers covered nearly 3.2 million kilometers the world over but after all the computer simulations test stand hours and wind tunnel tests the final judgment still comes down to intuitive feeling the ultimate test is our driving dynamics specialists who then drive these cars and tell us what you guys calculated for me and what you developed in the wind tunnel that's what i actually feel behind the wheel so in the final approval stage humans are still in my opinion indispensable this miners porsche has been building the eighth generation of the 911 in suffenhausen since 2019. the car is suspended over the final yards of the assembly line an employee mounts the impressive front wheels with 25.4 centimeter wide tires back in 1963 the first generation only needed 18.5 centimeter wide tires the rear tires are actually 31.5 centimeters wide now higher forces are also applied here when driving because the 911 transmits most of its rear-mounted engine's power to the road through the rear wheels [Music] after the 12-volt battery is connected an employee installs the sport steering wheel the driver can select any of five different driving modes here at the touch of a button in the final step at this workstation the employee installs the driver's airbag the 911's interior has a total of six airbags the sports car still has no doors they were removed at the start of the assembly line now that the interior is nearly complete the technicians mount them back in place [Applause] [Music] because every gram counts in a sports car the weight of every part is kept to a minimum the seats in the current 911 weigh 3 kilograms less than the seats of its predecessor [Music] company's own saddlery does nearly all of the leather work for the interior it takes about two whole cowhides to upholster one car employees painstakingly inspect the material for imperfections where scars about the size of mosquito bites are too large or improperly healed specialists work efficiently around the flaws a computer calculates the arrangement of the individual pieces to minimize the amount of scrap the actual cutting is then performed by a water jet machine just over 400 men and women work in the salary they glue and sew the leather to doors trim and dashboards the 911's interior comprises dozens of individual parts it takes 10 man hours to upholster them according to porsche every 911 should be a unique specimen it's estimated that two cars with identical equipment leave the plant only once a year [Music] our objective in production is to tailor make the car for the customer that means building the most personal car and you can see that about 40 000 911s are built before a configuration is repeated the possible combinations are almost endless inside the most popular color is black but classic brown leather is still in high demand and in terms of design there's clearly a long tradition of model diversity but who actually buys a car like this over the years porsche has established a very clear idea of the typical 911 driver when i look at our market research data then we generally find a self-employed person in most cases it's a man he's in his mid 50s the higher the horsepower the younger he is and he is very loyal to the brand so generally speaking once a 911 always a 911. customers today pay more than 200 000 euros for a turbo s from tsufenhausen after 117 manufacturing stations and 56 man hours the sports car rolls off the assembly line one last time the logistics system transports the car down one floor after a painstaking quality control the tires finally touch the asphalt tradition holds that the current 911 should also be the best one ever but what will the 911 of the future look like no one can say but one thing is certain the boxer engine will remain the heart of this sports car in the years to come you know someone asked me recently when is the electric 911 coming well yes someday but i've pushed it off till after my retirement for the next 10 or 15 years there will be internal combustion engines that much as certain and the 911 will probably be the last car we build with an internal combustion engine maybe it will be the last one in the world one thing is clear in the future the 911 will continue to come from suffenhausen a site that's already bursting at the seams the challenge for the engineers will be to keep production up to date with state-of-the-art technology and logistics and to make certain in their own words that the next 911 is also the best ever

Channel: WELT Documentary

Views: 1,331,355

Keywords: full documentary, full documentaries, hd documentary, hd documentaries, free documentary, welt documentary, welt documentaries, full length documentaries, documentary film, top documentaries, reports, factual film, germany, stuttgart, sports car, Hans-Joachim Stuck, 400 hp, Porsche 992, quality, elegance, race car, vehicle, sportiness, styling, classic, boxer engine, Legend, Wheels, Building, Porsche, Porsche 911, inside the factory

Id: mOBl3tcGlLA

Length: 60min 25sec (3625 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Thorusss]

This feels like 20 years ago watching how Steam Engines were made

[u/[deleted]]

Why install an ugly roll bar when you can get away with an automated and precise concealed automatic roll bar deployer made of 1000 parts and 5 computers. I’m a nerd for German over Engineering I love it.

[u/JuGiBo]

So much impressive

[u/jrw6736]

Went from a 4 minute commute to a 42 minute commute. I’ll add this to my watch list. Thanks OP!

[u/mechapoitier]

Kinda weird how there are two English and American voices dubbing half a dozen different people instead of just having captions..