The legendary engineer died on June 10, 2020 at the age of 90.

1966–1970 Design of the 910, 907, 908, 917, 2-litre four-cylinder engine for the 914 production sports car.

Read full article HERE

Click to view attachment

In the early 80's I would walk by the Vasek store in Hermosa Beach and ogle the 917 there in the window. Never got old. RIP

Thanks for sharing, great article and amazing accomplishments.

The guy is a legend. RIP.

I believe he also oversaw design of the water cooled 996 motor. Interesting life’s work. RIP

I remember that as well !!

Rest in peace, Hans.

Seems a good day to fire up the 2.2 and let it wail...

There was a reason the Mezger motor was used in the 1st generation water cooled 911 Turbos ... it lasted!

The same reason Porsche was so successful in the early days of racing.

Dave

The GT engine only, known as the Mezger engine.
Many owners wish he had worked on the standard 996 engine.

I have a 2001 996 TT with his motor, outside of the cooling pipes the motor is bullet proof and feels like more than 415HP. No IMS issues either

What a great carreer! RIP, Hans.

Tucked away in the obituary is this:

1966–1970 Design of the 910, 907, 908, 917, 2-litre
four-cylinder engine for the 914 production sports car.

Does this infer that Porsche had a 2-litre replacement for the 1.7 waiting in the wings almost from the time of the launch of the 914?

Chris

Mezger and the racing department did the engine development for the 2.0-liter Type IV, and he went on record as being very proud of the project—particularly the cylinder heads. Not a "Mezger engine," but his (and his team's) work went into it. I think he said he was particularly proud because getting more horsepower from the engine with the constraints wasn't easy...something down the road of being as proud of their work on the 914 2.0 as they were some of their racing engines.

Maybe BS but I read VW couldn't get a 2 lite to run cool and that Porsche engineering, maybe Hans, conquered the cooling problem. And that was accomplished with additional head work.

Thank you Pete.

I was wondering if this was not just another part of the convoluted relationship between VW and Porsche. If this engine was developed close to the release of the 914, it wouldn't have been in Porsche's interest to have such a powerful (HP if not torque) rival to the engines they were fitting to the -6. So VW would have had to wait for Porsche to throw in the towel regarding -6 sales before the 2-litre 4 cyl. could be sold.

It was the replacement for the 914/6 engine. Ditch the six that wasn't selling well and replace it with a four that got close to the performance but cheaper. I think in Tom Wilson's book he mentions the 914 2L engine being called "the Porsche engine" by the Volkswagen crowd because it was different than any type IV ever offered on a VW. I need to reread a section of the 50 Years... book again but IIRC, it was more a situation of Porsche seeing the handwriting on the wall for the six and handing Mezger the type IV engine and saying something like, "see what you can do with this..."

Sad news but getting to 90 is a good ride...

Can you imagine how different Porsche would be if he had taken another job in 1956??? Niki would probably not have another WC in 1984...

I hope Pete does a long story in an upcoming issue of 000...

No wrong! ..but so close

VW said the T4 2.0 couldn't be done with the needed reliability, too much crank flex from the smaller rod journals. Porsche proved them wrong. It's why all 2.0 crank and rods have the 039 xxx xxx part numbers, the 914 2.0 heads are also 039 because Porsche modified them.
VW didn't use (trust) the 2.0 crank and rods (039) till the 1976 bus three years later.
VW did have a point though, 2.0 blocks are often pretty beat come rebuild time compared to a 1.7/1.8 case.

Whether Mezger had a hand in this... but increasing displacement and the port/plug design is totally a tuner mod. By Porsche.

Indeed. And an indication of just how good below...



Last week, Hans told on of 000's contributors "Yes, let's do it." This in regards to a critical story, with unpublished documents from Mezger's personal records. The two are friends around more than Porsche, with their usual conversations beginning at midnight and going into the wee hours. Both music people. And Porsche people.

If it can still be done, and I think it can, you can be sure we'll put a lot of love into it.

I was fortunate to work with both on a few things for 000 over the last year or so, and Hans was simply fabulous to work with via email. Because of who he was, and because who he was. It was obvious that he cared about really, really getting it right.

And so many of us on this board benefit from that with every mile…

I don't know if it has been noted but that first foto appears to be a 'send up'
to the factory picture of the the twenty five 917s presented for inspection.
May even be the same location.