As high-level automotive engineers and executives go, Porsche GT project director Andreas Preuninger is one of the most forthcoming and affable interviews around. Not content simply to give an answer, he?ll wander off script and let the pitch of his voice change to emphasize the good bits. Of course, coming from the guy responsible for the development of some of the most impressive and highly sought-after performance vehicles in the world, they?re almost all good bits. We caught up with him earlier this year, at the 2017 New York auto show.
Car and Driver: Your first car was a Volkswagen Scirocco, followed by other VWs that you modified. Do those experiences inform the decisions or processes you use today to develop Porsches"
Andreas Preuninger: Subconsciously, very much. At the age of 18, I had a Mark 1 [Volkswagen] Scirocco 1600 with a five-speed manual, and at that time [mine] was a quick car with an eight-second zero-to-60-mph time, and it was light and nimble with a sleek profile. I had this thing of getting the weight out, and I was always experimenting with wheels and tires and lowering, which served as my first experiences of how small changes can affect how a suspension and even aerodynamics work. Later, I moved on to the Mark 2 16-valve, but really it was kids? games. When these cars could no longer feed my need for excitement, I moved on to a turbocharged four-wheel-drive [Lancia] Delta Integrale rally car, which had turbo lag like the Grand Canyon but wa...