The Most Important Car Person You’ve Never Heard Of — Ferdinand Piëch — Jason Cammisa on the ICONS
2 min readThis action-packed documentary celebrates the achievements of the man who brought you the racing Porsche 911, the 917, the Bugatti Veyron, the Audi Quattro, the VW Phaeton, the Mercedes OM617 turbodiesel, TDI, DSG, XL1 and… Dieselgate.
As promised for literal years on The Carmudgeon Show, this is the Piëchisode!
===
Join the Hagerty Driver’s Club: https://bit.ly/Join-HDC-Cammisa-ICONS
HOODIE! https://tinyurl.com/CammisaHoodie
Houston Crosta’s flooded Bugatti Veyron: https://www.youtube.com/@houston.crosta
Volkswagen XL1 Revelations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yAom9iIarI
===
Featured in this episode:
The Bentley Continental GT Speed W12, the last ever W12-powered automobile.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4, the first-ever W16-powered car.
The Mk4 Golf R32 — the world’s first production DSG
The Mk4 Golf TDI — the mini-Mercedes
The Mercedes W116 300SD, the world’s first production turbodiesel
The Audi Ur-Quattro (Coupe Quattro), the car that started AWD
The Porsche Carrera 2.7 RS, the ultimate air-cooled homologation race 911
The Volkswagen Phaeton W12 — the VW-branded Bentley
The VW XL1, the world’s first, and only, 260-mpg production car
===
CHAPTERS
0:00 INTRO: Who is Ferdinand Piëch?
2:32 2024 Bentley Continental GT Speed W12 – Quick Review
4:07 Chapters of Automotive History
4:40 Chapters: Gottlieb Daimler, Henry Ford, Toyota Kaizen, and The VW Group
5:21 Ferdinand Piëch pronunciation
6:09 The 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS
8:30 Racing: The Porsche 917 and Le Mans
9:35 The Porsche Family Tree & Drama
10:55 The Mercedes OM617 Turbo Diesel
12:07 Audi Quattro AWD
12:44 The Audi Ur-Quattro
14:07 The Audi Quattro Ski and Hill Stunt
14:41 Quattro For The Road, Not Just Racing
15:51 Volkswagen TDI (Turbodiesel Direct Injection) 1.9 Pumpedüse
16:42 The Mk4 Golf R32: Better Than a Mercedes
18:55 Scary Dr. Piëch Speech (VW vs. GM in the Lopez Affair)
20:13 The Volkswagen Phaeton W12
22:34 Platform and Parts Sharing: Lamborghini Gallardo
24:38 The Bugatti Veyron 16.4: Reclaiming the Le Mans Record
28:04 The Volkswagen XL1
29:35 Parts Sharing Among VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Sokda
30:10 Dieselgate and Martin Winterkorn
32:41 The Piëch Era Was Amazing For Enthusiasts
33:19 Houston Crosta’s Texas Lagoon Bugatti Veyron
=-=-=
Contact us:
Suggestions and feedback – videoquestions@hagerty.com
Press inquiries – press@hagerty.com
Partnership requests – partnerships@hagerty.com