Roland Kussmaul (born September 27, 1943 in Baden-Württemberg) is a former German development engineer, racing engineer, project manager at Porsche AG and a former rally racing driver.
Roland Kussmaul studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, where he received his diploma. In 1969 he started his career as a new employee at Porsche in their development center in Weissach. As was customary at the time, he went through a two-year training period there. Since Kussmaul had a technical training already and had mechanical experience, he worked as a design engineer in the development of Leopard - tankfor the German military. After a mishap in the construction of the pedals for the prototype tank (the brakes had hydraulic support, the test driver, however, stepped on the brakes as if without support, so that it broke), his boss recognized Kussmaul's talent for lightweight construction. So he was transferred there in 1974, also at the request of Peter Falk, the head of the racing department at the time.
Subject ID: 52603
MoreRoland Kussmaul (born September 27, 1943 in Baden-Württemberg) is a former German development engineer, racing engineer, project manager at Porsche AG and a former rally racing driver.
Roland Kussmaul studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, where he received his diploma. In 1969 he started his career as a new employee at Porsche in their development center in Weissach. As was customary at the time, he went through a two-year training period there. Since Kussmaul had a technical training already and had mechanical experience, he worked as a design engineer in the development of Leopard - tankfor the German military. After a mishap in the construction of the pedals for the prototype tank (the brakes had hydraulic support, the test driver, however, stepped on the brakes as if without support, so that it broke), his boss recognized Kussmaul's talent for lightweight construction. So he was transferred there in 1974, also at the request of Peter Falk, the head of the racing department at the time.
First he worked there for the rally project of the Kuehne + Nagel racing team. There he worked - in collaboration with the suppliers - on developing shock absorbers for the 911 rally car from Kuehne + Nagel. During this early period, in addition to the development of the Porsche 911, he was also involved in the development of the Porsche 924 and the Porsche 928.
In order to gain rally experience, during the early years he partly drove as a co-driver with rally champion Björn Waldegård, who won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1969 and 1970 in a Porsche 911.
In 1978, under the direction of Jürgen Barth and Roland Kussmaul (as project manager), Porsche used a 911 SC RS for the first time in the safari rally. This Porsche 911 SC RS (type 954) was then sold to customers in 1984 in the planned number of 20 copies.
Subject ID: 52603
Subject ID: 52603