Yahoo Autos The Story of Louise Piëch's Last Porsche 911
Ferry Porsche’s sister had an adventurous life. Born in 1904, she never intended to play a big role in her father's company. But history decided otherwise. Having studied art history and painting in Vienna, she married the lawyer Anton Piëch in 1928. The couple had four children, and spent the war years near Lake Zell in Austria, along with 35 other members of the Porsche clan.
In 1945, Louise’s father, Ferdinand, her brother Ferry and her husband Anton were arrested by the French army. With the help of a French lawyer, she succeeded in bailing them out in exchange for one million francs. When the bail amount was paid back one year later, it was almost worthless as a result of currency devaluations. According to Porsche, Louise spent it all on two pairs of shoes in Paris.
Louise Piëch played a huge role in Porsche avoiding nationalization after the war. She hadall of Porsche KG Stuttgart's assets held in Austria transferred to her and her husband in October 1943, and incorporated into the newly founded “Porsche-Konstruktionen-Ges.m.b.H., headquartered in Gmünd. The remaining Porsche KG assets in Austria were bought up by Porsche-Konstruktionen GmbH and its Gmünd plant in 1947.
In 1949, the siblings moved the head office of “Porsche-Konstruktionen-Ges.m.b.H.” from Gmünd to Salzburg. Louise and Anton Piëch continued by importing VWs into Austria, while Ferry Porsche returned to Stuttgart. It was there in 1950 that he laid the foundations of today’s Porsche AG.
Ferdinand Porsche died in 1951, and only 18 months later, Louise's husband Anton also suffered a fatal heart attack. From 1952 on, the mother of four had to act as managing director of Porsche Holding in Austria. She could finally step back from the business in 1971, devoting the next 28 years to her love of landscape painting. Some of her art made its way to employees in the form of a Christmas card.
Louise Piëch got a fleet of personalized Porsches throughout the years as birthday presents, and her final one happened to be a 1989 Carrera 4, in silver, with a unique interior and the familiar plates featuring "S 200."
Perhaps the most interesting detail is the mottled mother-of-pearl fabric replacing the factory leather. It was reminiscent of the curtain employed in Porsche offices in the 1970s. The rest of the trim is wrapped in white-leather, with fluffy white edges. "Who the hell did that?"is a question often asked by dentist and current owner Clemens Frigge.
Yet the origins of this silver 964 Carrera 4 remain a secret to whoever makes an enquiry.
Today, it shares a hangar formerly used by the Canadian Army's tank fleet. With 64,000 miles on the clock, its original paint and all matching numbers, it's parked next to a Mercedes-Benz of a famous German private banker from the 1950s, a rare VW Beetle, and one of the Messerschmitt cabin scooters that are still roadworthy. Louise Piëch died in 1999, at the age of 94.
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