During the 1970s he worked in research and was responsible for establishing Porsche’s crash test programme; in the 1980s, he followed Porsche’s head of research to BMW and set up BMW Technik, the department which designed the Z-series of sports cars.
Meanwhile the collapse of the dollar which started in 1985 was hitting Porsche hard. The combination of a high cost base and an increasingly obsolete model range meant the company was fast losing ground. Feelers were put out to Bez as early as May 1988 to see whether he was interested in returning to Stuttgart as Technical Director, a board level appointment. In September, when long serving Helmuth Bott who had directed Porsche development for almost two decades resigned, Bez took up his new position within a month.
“I developed the 993 in the light of what I knew was wrong with the 964,” claims Bez, who is especially pleased with the 993 C4. “The 964 C4 transmission was absurdly expensive. We got the cost down to 30%, saved 50kg and the car was like the C2 to drive! But the biggest achievement was to be able to sell the 993 at a lower price yet still make a far better margin on it!”
He sees his legacy as re-inventing the 911, both as a model and in the minds of the top brass at Porsche, “The 993 saved Porsche. Keeping and developing the 911 was the key to survival. I’ve tried to do the same thing here (at Aston Martin). When I arrived in 1999, they had one model and on the drawing board was a mid-engined design. I told them to scrap that, Aston Martin is all about a front engined coupé – that was the car and the image they needed to stick with. We’ve developed a range from that and even made the front mid-engined car successful as a GT3 competitor. The 911 will always have better steering and superior traction, but the front-mid engine has better weight balance. This is Aston’s strength.”
MNS Price at posting:
42.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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