Unsung Hero: Peter Falk

Even thirty years after his retirement from Porsche, engineer and test driver Peter Falk could still be seen the occasional Porsche gathering, a measure of both his commitment to the brand and the 911. Of all the men who had worked on the 911, he had perhaps a more sustained influence than anyone else. During his three decades at Porsche, Falk who died in January aged 93, was one of the company’s best-known figures, playing a central role not simply in the conception of the 911, but in its continuing development almost into the water-cooled era.

Monte Carlo Rally 1965: With Herbert Linge. Falk navigated and drove the connecting sections while works driver Linge drove the timed stages.

Son of an archeologist, he was born in Greece. In 1938, the family moved to Schömberg in Baden Württemberg. At the age of 11 he went to Gymnasium in nearby Pforzheim which taught him the Greek and Latin which he believed subsequently had imbued him with his fascination for analysis. Combined with his interest in anything mechanical, it was characteristic that he chose engineering as a career but only after a two-year apprenticeship at Mercedes Benz. He wrote his thesis on the suspension system of the NSU Prinz after a brief sojourn at the NSU factory at Neckarsulm.