On 1/12/12 1:47 PM, George Graves wrote:
I didn't miss that, which is the reason that I carefully said that
they're all "part of the VW family" rather than saying that they were
all owned by VW as I did with Fiat. I'm not sure who owns who at this
point in that relationship.
it's kind of "all in the family", which many don't realize. a very short
history:
in the 1930s, Ferdinand Porsche Sr. designs the famous Auto-Union Gran
Prix cars and the original VW. Auto-Union eventually becomes one of the
components of Audi.
just before the outbreak of WWII, he designs a sports car based around
VW components; 3 are built and are hidden during the war.
after the war, while Porsche Sr is in an allied prison, Porsche Jr revives
the design, which with further modifications becomes the original 356.
during WWII, VW is managed by Anton Piech, who happens to be married
to Louise, Porsche Jr's sister.
the Piech family largely controlled VW (&VW/Audi) for decades. there
was a very complicated leveraged buy out sort of affair in the late 70s
where Porsche obtained substantial control over VW/Audi, then lots of
internal negotiation which resulted in the current corporate structure.
the holding company at the top of the current food chain is Porsche
Automobil Holding SE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche
in order to provide some Alfa content -- in the 50s, Porsches and Alfas
raced against each other all the time.
richard
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