When Ferdinand Porsche was born, Europe was peaceful, developing, capitalist and largely feudal. Britain was the world's only true 'superpower', and America would not emerge as an economic giant for at least forty-five years. Motor cars, aircraft, television, computers, ballpoint pens and other modern conveniences didn't exist. Ninety-five years after Porsche's arrival in the world, cars bearing his name were in action at Le Mans, their 4.5-litre 12-cylinder air-cooled engines propelling them to speeds of 240mph. Conventional wisdom dictated that air-cooling was unsuited to high-speeds. Under the inspired leadership of three generations of the family, Porsche proved, and continues to prove, that traditional rules are there to be broken. With more than a score of books to his credit on the great German marques, Laurence Meredith brings a unique authority to this, his eighth Porsche-related work , and the first to examine the prime movers and master engineers behind ...