Home Porsche History Porsche - Origin of the Species

Karl Ludvigsen: An Interview

themostlyporscheblog - May 13, 2013

For those of you unaware, Karl Ludvigsen is among the most influential automotive historians in the world. Having produced the informative and entertaining prose found among the pages of "Porsche: Excellence Was Expected", among dozens of other titles, Mr. Ludvigsen has proven himself to be the genuine article. A true enthusiast, an educated mind, and a compelling personality; Karl is all of these things.

Through serendipitous right-place-right-time happenstance, we found ourselves in a position to cover an amazing Porsche centric exhibit at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania for FlatSixes.com. The event was entitled "Porsche: Style and Design", and brought several of Zuffenhausen's greatest creations into the spotlight. As the closer of the event, Mr. Ludvigsen delivered a speech on the history of how the Porsche 356 came into being, and afterward we were fortunate enough to be afforded a few minutes of his time for a short interview. With a flood of information having been gathered for his most recent book "Porsche: Origin of the Species", his speech was absolutely phenomenal. Having heard that we would be in attendance, we were politely asked by fellow Porsche historian and hobbyist Chuck Stoddard to deliver a small gift to Karl on the behalf of Chuck and his wife.

The following audio file is posted [at the link below] for your listening pleasure: our interview with Mr. Karl Ludvigsen. The first three minutes are slightly noisier than the rest, as this is the time in which Mr. Ludvigsen opened his gift and presented the contents to us. It was an excellent experience, and Karl could not have been a nicer guy to speak with.

A special thanks to the AACA Museum for hosting the event, Bentley Publishing for facilitating Karl?s involvement, and to FlatSixes.com for creating the opportunity for our involvement.

themostlyporscheblog interview - May 13, 2013
Article from and courtesy of themostlyporscheblog - May 13, 2013 - http://themostlyporscheblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/karl-ludvigsen-an-interview/

Karl Ludvigsen
Karl Ludvigsen

In addition to his motor industry activities as an executive (with GM, Fiat and Ford) and head of a consulting company, Karl Ludvigsen has been active for over 50 years as an author and historian. As an author, co-author or editor he has some four dozen books to his credit. Needless to say, they are all about cars and the motor industry, Karl's life-long passion.

More about Karl Ludvigsen