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In 1997, on the “Shinkansen” express train between Tokyo and Nagoya, a sketch was created that would change the automotive world. Following a discussion with the then Head of Powertrain Development at VW, Karl-Heinz Neumann, he drew on an envelope – he had had the idea for a long time – an engine with 18 cylinders. Powerful, strong and better than anything else. The man was Ferdinand Karl Piëch, a gifted engineer and long-time CEO and Chairman of the Volkswagen Group – and the driving force behind the development of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. The first hyper sports car of modern times was a true pioneering achievement and wrote automotive history at its launch in 2005. The coupé was the first series production car to produce more than 1,000 PS and to drive faster than 400 km/h. The Veyron was an engineering masterpiece. Its development however was as much a historic achievement as the Veyron itself. The idea – an extraordinary engine There was just the outline of an idea at ...

He was... Ferdinand Piech, the enigmatic figure who spearheaded Porsche’s rise to global sporting dominance, has died in Bavaria at the age of 82. Piech was the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and arrived at the family firm as a hot-headed youngster in the mid-1960s. In later life, a more measured if no less ruthless Piech would reshape Volkswagen into the most influential automotive group in the world, but for the Porsche community he is best remembered as the passionate and ingenious engineer who took on the established racing royalty of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Ford, and won. A messianic figure with a devoted following, feared and revered in equal measure, Piech was as uncompromising as he was inspired, creating the 917 with a minimal team and within a tiny development window. The huge financial investment this required left Porsche dangerously exposed in 1969, but by the end of the year Zuffenhausen had a world beater on its hands and never looked back. Piech moved to...