Hans Mezger (18 November 1929 – 10 June 2020) was a German automotive engineer well known for his work at

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

Career

Mezger was born in

Besigheim Besigheim () is a municipality in the district of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated 13 km north of Ludwigsburg at the confluence of the Neckar and Enz rivers. The town has many old buildings and a tow ...

, in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He graduated from the Stuttgart Technical University in 1956 with a Diploma of

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

degree, and went straight to work at Porsche's Works 1 development department. His first project was to work on the valve train of the Fuhrmann-designed Carrera engine. In 1959 he moved to the design department to work on the type 753

flat-eight engine A flat-eight engine, also called a horizontally-opposed eight, is an eight-cylinder piston engine with two banks of four inline cylinders, one on each side of a central crankshaft, 180° apart. In a flat-eight engine, the connecting rods for corre ...

for the

Porsche 804 The Porsche 804 is a single-seat, open-wheeled racing car produced by Porsche to compete in Formula One (F1). It raced for a single season in 1962 in the 1½ litre formula. Background In 1957 the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile ...

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

car. Over the next 35 years he took part in the 1960s F1 programme, undertook design leadership for the first

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...

production engine and led the famed 1960s Race Design office that turned out the

917 __NOTOC__ Year 917 ( CMXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * August 20 – Battle of Achelous: A Byzantine expeditionary force (62,000 men) under General Leo Ph ...

s. Mezger led Porsche's development of turbocharging with the 917/30 and its application to the 911 Turbo. Mezger was responsible for the Porsche-made TAG Turbo engine from the mid-1980s, which won multiple

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

s in Formula One in the

McLaren MP4/2 The McLaren MP4/2 was a Formula One car produced by McLaren (racing), McLaren for the 1984 Formula One season, 1984 season. An iteration of it, the MP4/2B, was used in the 1985 season, and a slightly updated version, the MP4/2C, raced in the 1 ...

chassis. He retired in 1994. Mezger died on June 10, 2020, at the age of 90.

References

*''Porsche and Me: Hans Mezger'', Autobiography with Peter Morgan. 2011. 978-1906712082 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mezger, Hans 1929 births 2020 deaths People from Besigheim People from the Free People's State of Württemberg German automotive engineers Porsche people Engineers from Baden-Württemberg