The Mezger effect

Porsche’s legendary engine designer died in June at the age of 90, but leaves behind a wonderful legacy both on the road and track

- ANDREW COTTON

Shortly before the 50th anniversary of Porsche’s first win at Le Mans, the German company reported the death of Hans Mezger, the man who designed the engine for that Porsche 917, and who was instrumental in the development of many significant Porsche racing and road car engines. Mezger was also responsible for the engine that powers what’s commonly known as the Porsche 911 and was so highly regarded that those are known today as the Mezger engines.

Hans Mezger was born on November 18, 1929, in Ottmarsheim, a small village near Ludwigsburg on the outskirts of Stuttgart. At the age of 15, just three weeks before the end of the war, he escaped being enlisted into the German army by a stroke of luck and a faked medical certificate from a German commander. A year later, while continuing his grammar school studies, he attended his first race at Hockenheim.

Having taken his A-levels in Ludwigsburg, Mezger decided to study mechanical engineering at the Technical University, now the University of Stuttgart. However, at this time the German universities were very crowded because the young men who had returned from the war were given preferential treatment for admission.

When he reached the required age, he used the university requirement for a 12-month internship to gain valuable experience in machining, welding and model making and spent a few weeks in the grey cast iron and aluminium foundry.

‘At that time I was riding a motor scooter, an NSU Lambretta,’ he recalled in an interview. ‘I rode the Lambretta until 1960 when I bought my first car, an old and quite worn out [Porsche] 356… It was not until years later that I came into contact with motorised two-wheelers again when in the late 1970s it became necessary to develop new motorcycle engines for Harley-Davidson.’