It’s easy for us to think of German cars as peerlessly designed, unmatched in their engineering. But the veneer of perfection is often broken, particularly in the automotive world.
The German economy isn’t always strong, and its companies don’t always have the resources needed to crank out W12 Phaetons at will. Take, for instance, the mid-1970s Porsche 912E.
Porsche needed a stopgap to fill the lower end of its lineup after the conclusion of the VW-Porsche 914 and the no-longer-VW-Porsche 924, so they crammed a tweaked 2.0 liter VW flat four into the back of a 911. Power was a whopping 86hp. It was a return of the 1960s 912, though the old one had a Porsche-designed engine (taken from the 356) in the back.
It’s a great example of how tight German company finances can be, and how shit they have been in the past.
What do you think was the most hopelessly inept German car ever made?
Photo Credit: Porsche
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