Porsche’s greatest engine designer, Hans Mezger, died yesterday, 10 June, at the age of 90.
For more than three decades, Mezger was responsible for the marque’s most successful racing cars and engines, the 911, the 917 and Formula One glory highlights of an outstanding career.
Born on 18 November 1929 in a village near Stuttgart, he grew up in troubled times and came of age when Europe was ravaged by war, and narrowly avoided conscription into the army.
Hans Mezger pictured in 1984
Fascinated by aeroplanes and racing cars, he attended his first race meeting at Hockenheim in 1946 before going on to study mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Stuttgart, now the University of Stuttgart.
After graduating in 1956, Mezger took a position at local firm Porsche, where he quickly helped develop the 1.5-litre eight-cylinder Type 753, and the 804 single-seater Formula One car that carried it.
The talented engineer’s first great achievement came in the early 1960s with the development of a new 2-litre six-cylinder powerplant for the 911 – the ‘Mezger engine’ – and by 1965 he was asked to lead a new competition department with a bold brief to build a car capable of winning at Le Mans.
Hans Mezger and 917-001
