Porsche 75e anniversaire Des décennies de passion

by Randy Leffingwell

Peu d’autres constructeurs de voitures de sport peuvent rivaliser avec le succès de Porsche dans les salles d’exposition ou sur les pistes de course du monde entier. La première Porsche, la 356 venue au monde en 1948, a fondé une dynastie de voitures de sport du meilleur niveau mondial. Les soixante-quinze ans qui se sont écoulés ont vu Porsche se hisser au rang de référence pour les voitures les plus performantes et la firme est devenue bien plus qu’un simple constructeur de voitures de sport. En parallèle de ses époustouflantes sportives, elle produit des SUV (les Cayenne et Macan), une berline (la Panamera) et un véhicule électrique (la Taycan). Ses remarquables performances commerciales se complètent de records parmi les plus éclatants et les plus légendaires du sport automobile. Dans Porsche, 75e anniversaire : des décennies de passion, l’historien de Porsche, Randy Leffingwell célèbre le fascinant parcours du constructeur. Accompagné d’images rares provenant des archives de Porsche, de citations et d’observations d’acteurs clés, il propose un regard intrigant, captivant et révélateur sur l’un des plus grands constructeurs automobiles au monde. Ce livre s’adresse à tous les passionnés de Porsche, qu’ils soient fidèles aux moteurs arrière refroidis par air ou aux biplaces à moteur avant, amateurs de course automobile ou de véhicules contemporains tels que les 911 à transmission intégrale, le Cayman, le Cayenne hybride et le Taycan électrique.

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2023

About the author

Photographer and writer, Randy Leffingwell, has more than 35 books in print, primarily on Americana subjects. These cover interests and areas as diverse as the American barn and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, California’s wine country and John Deere farm tractors. His awareness of and attraction to moving things goes back as far as he can remember, to the first Dinky Toys and Match Box cars his father and mother gave him. His practical introduction to real sports cars came several years later when his uncle took him to watch a weekend of racing events at Meadowdale International Raceway in suburban Chicago.

Throughout all this time, however, he imagined himself becoming an architect and his life-long admiration of buildings and design began with frequent trips to downtown Chicago. While in undergraduate studies at Kansas University in the architectural engineering sequence, he discovered photography, journalism, and reawakened an earlier passion for writing. He scarcely looked back as he shifted his major studies from architecture, through English, Art History, psychology, and finally to the William Allen White school of Journalism for a BS in photojournalism.

Following graduation from KU, Randy began a successful career as a photojournalist first at the Kansas City TIMES, then joining the staff of the Chicago SUN-TIMES where he remained for nine years. He then worked as associate editor at AutoWeek magazine in Detroit, before being hired by the Los Angeles TIMES as a writer/photographer. He worked for the TIMES for 11 years, covering everything from news stories to personality profiles to food features throughout Italy, film festivals in France and Utah, and live theater in London. It was, he says, a great job and a great place to work.

His latest project is a large history of Harley-Davidson for them. During this project, he photographed 193 motorcycles from the Harley-Davidson Archives Collection and he completed the corresponding text for the book in early April 2007. Release of this 432 page book tentatively is scheduled for early 2008.