Samstag, 16. Juli 2011

from Volkswagen SP2 to Porsche 924


The VW SP was produced from Volkswagen do brasil in São Paulo  for the south american market from 1972 to 1976 .SP is an abbreviation for São Paulo or according to other sources Special Project or Sport-Prototype. Father of the project was Rudolf Leiding.
Rudolf Leiding was plant manager of the brasilian VW-plant from 1968 to 1971. The brasilian market was nearly independent from the headquarter in Wolfsburg. Under the code name Projekt X in 1969 the development department in brasil started  to create a new sportscar on VW frame. The result was the VW SP1 and SP2.  The first presentation of  the cars was the german industrial fair in Hannover in march 1971. 

From 1971 to 1975 Leiding was chairman of the headquarter in Wolfsburg. In that time period Porsche received a development request from Volkswagen to design a new inexpensive Sportscar to detach the Porsche 914. The project EA 425. The plan was to add the new car to the sales program from Audi. The Oil crisis from 1974/1974 avoid the plan while the VW management fear a weakening demand on the sportscar market. Porsche bought back the rights for design and construction in 1975, to sell the car under their own label.