Porsche is considered one of the finest builders of performance vehicles in the world. Porsche was founded in Stuttgart, Germany, by Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferry in 1931. The first Porsche vehicles were small, 2-seat sports cars that were largely based on VW chassis and used many components from the people’s car company. The 1950s saw the birth of two Porsche legends: the 356 Speedster, with its low-cut windshield, and the lightweight, mid-engined 550 Spyder. In 1963 the legendary 911 was introduced, and is still in production today. Porsche added the Cayenne SUV that doubled sales in 2003 and, more recently, began building the 4-door Panamera sedan. After a failed attempt at a leveraged takeover of Volkswagen in 2009, VW forced a merger of the two companies, which is set to be complete by the end of 2011.
