Editorial

All about the number 7. Opposite poles attract. The same poles repel. These are basic rules of physics. Magnetism. Thales of Miletus. A phenomenon noted for at least the past 2,600 years.

The sports-car maker Porsche will soon turn seventy. Its two poles consist of tradition and innovation. Right now it seems no two things could be farther apart. Old and new. Yesterday and today. Looking ahead means leaving the past behind. Not at Porsche. We look back because we want to move forward.

There are certain moments that make this ethos very clear. This issue of Christophorus is one of them. Pages 38 to 42 describe a worn ledger. Faded, nicked, with frayed pages and bent edges. The handwriting in it is from another era and is strikingly precise. “Heating jet.” “Shifting distance.” And order number 7 is for a “small-car project.”

The first car to bear the name Porsche was the Type 356. From the year 1948. But the first ledger of the Porsche design office is from 1930, written by Professor Ferdinand Porsche and head engineer Karl Rabe in Stuttgart’s Kronenstraße. The start-up period. A small team. Work till you drop. Order number 7 comes from Wanderer. Porsche is asked to “democratize” the automobile. A daring plan, documented in detail. “Connecting rod and bolt.” That’s written in someone else’s hand: by Porsche’s young son Ferry, who will one day found the Porsche car company. That is one of the poles.

The other pole is the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, presented on pages 74 to 81. The new definition of a four-seat sedan, embodying all of the aspirations of a twenty-first-century car and the ambitions of a Porsche 911. Not only extraordinarily sporty, but also exceptionally comfortable.

It’s quite an arc from the Porsche design office to the second generation of the Panamera. But the one is inconceivable without the other. They do not repel; they attract. They stick together like glue. No future without a past. The principle behind a Porsche.

Which brings us to the Beatles. If you know them, you’ll probably recognize the illustration by Klaus Voormann on page 4. The illustration is based on the legendary cover of the Beatles’ Revolver album, which represented the next step in the band’s musical development after Rubber Soul. Voormann took pen in hand once again for Christophorus—with the greatest respect for his friends John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and the time they shared together in Hamburg and London.

The Beatles and Porsche are both legends. But Porsche has its future in front of it—precisely because we do not leave our past behind.

Wherever you have come from, wherever you are going, our Christophorus will accompany you.

Christophorus ‒ The Porsche customer magazine

Christophorus is the official magazine for Porsche customers, and one of the oldest and most renowned customer publications in the world. Its issues have been numbered consecutively since its launch in 1952.

Named after the patron saint of travelers, the magazine provides interesting information about cars and automotive engineering, and offers an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of the company.

Christophorus currently appears five times a year in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Dutch and Polish.

Selected articles will be published online successively every two weeks.

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