A career in cars — Ferdinand Piech

Ferdinand Porsche's family tree probably sucks petrol, not water, out of the soil for sustenance. The empire that Porsche's grandson Piech helped forge was based around two classic designs. The Beetle (Käfer) was Porsche's own. Another grandson, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche - Piëch's cousin - penned the best-selling 911, the Beetle's big, boisterous brother. It's a family business after all.

At sports car specialist Porsche, Piech took a keen interest in the racetrack, launching one of the most dominant, memorable Le Mans racers of the 20th century. The Porsche 917, the fastest car ever made in Germany at its 1969 launch, won Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Its successors - the 936, 956 and 962 - all came back for more, but this was after Piech and cousin Wolfgang Porsche fell out...

Audi was a drab fleck on the German automotive landscape when VW bought it out in 1969, lacking Porsche's power, Mercedes' class and BMW's chic designs. Perhaps that's also why Piech was sent to cut his engineering teeth as head of development in the 1970s. He presided over several key developments, turbocharging a diesel engine for a family car; Audi won awards for its 80 and 100 models.

Piech didn't invent four-wheel drive - that has an 1893 patent. But almost a century later, he brought it into the mainstream. The Audi quattro dominated the field, often with Finn Hannu Mikkola. Propelled by its reputation at rallies, Audi sold over 10,000 road-legal models and many more posters for kids' walls. And the in-line five-cylinder engine? Unlike "quattro," that was an Audi world first.

Like any VW boss, Piech had to maintain close ties with the government of Lower Saxony, which owns 20% of VW and has boosted board voting rights. Plenty of influential politicians have made their way out of Hanover's parliament. Not least future German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder — by the time he gave Piech the state's medal in 1997, it was clear they'd be seeing more of each other further afield.

Here, Piech and Schröder are reunited in the Czech Republic, at the 2001 factory opening of a new Skoda plant. At the end of the Cold War Skoda was the butt of scores of automotive jokes. (How do you double a Skoda's value? Fill the tank.) Now it's a VW subsidiary based on VW counterparts, embracing modern automotive "synergies." Growing the VW empire was a key priority in Piech's later life.

This three-way handshake turned one of Piech's more bitter defeats back around. Having lost British luxury brand Rolls Royce to domestic rivals BMW, Piech and BMW CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder — together with Ralph Robins of Rolls — struck an accord allowing sister company Bentley to continue to use Rolls Royce powerplants. Thus Bentley became viable for VW, and Pischetsrieder, well, he became...

...Pischetsrieder became Piech's successor as the CEO of Volkswagen — but not for quite as long as everybody expected. A year after the three-way handshake, the ex-BMW boss was with VW subsidiary Seat. By 2002, he was at VW's head. But in 2006, Piech became dissatisfied — and before very long, the rising star had to go. A decade later, the same trick dramatically backfired with Martin Winterkorn.

Another ambitious purchase under Piech's stewardship was long-dead brand Bugatti. Resurrected with 16-cylinders, a top speed of 407km/h (253mph), and a $2-million price-tag, there were no half measures in this Lazarus Project. For years, the Veyron was the world's fastest road car — a symbol of Piech's bold style. He left the VW Group as a 12-brand behemoth spitting out 10 million vehicles a year.

Wolfsburg even managed the improbable during Piech's tenure, winning the Bundesliga league title so often earmarked for Bayern Munich in 2009. Goals from Brazilian striker Grafite, playing club ambassador in this image, propelled Felix Magath's side to the championship. Some Bundesliga purists might have sighed, however, as VW's factory team is often critically dubbed a "plastic club."

Audi returned to Le Mans later in Piech's tenure. He might have been in Wolfsburg, not Ingolstadt, but the Le Mans chariot carried hallmarks of the boss' engineering days. Turbo diesel? Check. Quattro? Oh yes, that's basically a must nowadays for endurance racers. Audi's relaunch was even hybrid powered and claimed 13 Le Mans wins over 15 years starting in 2000.

At least part of the reasoning behind Audi's 2016 withdrawal was surely Porsche's return to the fastest class of endurance racing, LMP1. The automotive cousins were therefore competing directly on the track — making each other's lives harder. Porsche has taken over Audi's mantle since coming back, winning the 2015 and 2016 round-the-clock race at Le Mans.

In 2017, before his 80th birthday on April 17, Piech sold the majority of his remaining stock and took a back seat. Despite having stepped back from the board, Piech retained a 14.7% stake in Porsche SE — worth around €1.1 billion on the markets. But don't think for a moment that the sale dilutes the family influence — Piech's younger brother Hans Michel was the buyer.

Shareholder Piech's real ejection dates back to 2015. Piech suddenly tired of VW CEO Martin Winterkorn and sought to oust him. To the surprise of observers who had seen Piech hire and fire a number of top execs down the years, Winterkorn emerged from the standoff, retaining his post as Piech quit the boardroom. He got out just in time to dodge "Dieselgate," as it transpired.

After decades in the business, Piech passed away suddenly on August 27, 2019 at the age of 82. "The life of Ferdinand Piech was shaped by his passion for automobiles and for the employees that create them. He remained an enthusiast engineer and car lover until the end," his wife, Ursula Piech, said a statement announcing his death.