Ferdinand Porsche

(Newser) - The man who designed the first Porsche died today at age 76 in Salzburg, Austria. Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche was born into the auto business; his grandfather designed the original Volkswagen Beetle, according to the LA Times ' obituary. But it was Ferdinand Porsche who designed the 911 sports car,...

(Newser) - Adolf Hitler took the original design for the Volkswagen Beetle from the brainchild of a Jewish engineer, the Jerusalem Post reports. Historian Paul Schilperoord claims in his forthcoming book The True History of the Beetle that a prototype Josef Ganz designed in the late '20s had many of the Beetle’...