Hans Mezger, who developed numerous Porsche engines and race cars over a 37-year tenure with the Stuttgart automaker, has passed away at 90 years old. You might not be familiar with his name, but much of the world is familiar with is work. The carmaker’s lengthy statement on Mezger’s passing includes the line, “Porsche owes him not only the Porsche 911’s air-cooled, six-cylinder boxer engine but also the overall construction of the 917 and its twelve-cylinder engine as well as his creation of the TAG Turbo Formula One engine.” If Mezger had only done that much, he’d be worthy of canonization in the auto engineering ranks. But the details of resume include so much more.
Mezger graduated from what is now the University of Stuttgart in 1956 with a reputation that … More