Wilhelm Karmann Jr. passes away

[Jared Erlandson <jerlandson@wac.net>]

Just got this forwarded from the Corrado list.  A sad passing...but a
nice Obit.
Jared 
87 8v 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	John Erhardt [SMTP:jerhardt@hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, January 14, 1999 12:29 PM
> To:	corrado-l@corrado-club.com
> Cc:	corrado-l@corrado-club.com
> Subject:	[Corrado-L] Wilhelm Karmann Jr.
> 
> 
> 
> *****************************************
> 
> 
> Wilhelm Karmann passes away
> 
> I just received a message this morning that Wilhelm Karmann Junior
> passed
> away this past Sunday, after a lengthy illness. He would have been 84
> years
> old on December 4.
> 
> Karmann's firm, founded by his father in the early years of this
> century,
> became famous for two projects for Volkswagen. Karmann conceived the
> idea
> of the convertible Beetle in 1949, convinced VW that they needed such
> a
> "frivolous" car in the sober times after WW2, and then produced it at
> his
> plant in Osnabr¸ck, Germany. The Karmann Ghia, conceived entirely
> in-house
> by Karmann with body styling contracted to Luigi Segre's Carrozzeria
> Ghia
> design studio, gave VW its own affordable up-scale car. Later the
> first-generation Scirocco would be built by Karmann.
> 
> Convertibles are a house specialty, and many carmakers seek out
> Karmann
> when they needed a specialist to engineer and produce a drop-top
> version
> of
> their production sedans. Other clients include VW, Audi, Opel, BMW,
> German
> Ford, Renault, and Mercedes. The main business today, however, is
> manufacture of production tooling for stamping steel panels into body
> parts. They sell tooling to _every_ production automotive maker in the
> world today.
> 
> For Porsche, Karmann built many 356 bodies for Porsche. Beginning in
> 1961,
> Karmann built the "Karmann hardtop coupe," and continued to produce
> regular
> coupe bodies through the end of 356 production in 1965. By the end of
> 356
> production, as Porsche switched over to the 911, almost all 356 coupe
> bodies were being made by Karmann. In 1965 Karmann too switched over
> to
> making 911/912 bodies because Porsche could not meet the demand at its
> own
> plant.
> 
> Karmann also built the 914 (body as well as assembly of the entire
> car),
> 
> sold as a VW-Porsche in the rest of the world and the Porsche 914 in
> the
> 
> USA.
> 
> After the passing of Ferry Porsche earlier this year, the German auto
> industry has lost another of the key figures who guided it through the
> postwar years and the last half of this century.
> 
> 
> email to Karmann:
> Here is a copy of the email I just sent to info-personal@karmann.com
> I hope someone at Karmann Gmbh can read english.
> 
> ------------
> On behalf of the Corrado Club of America, I would like to offer my 
> condolences on the passing of Wilhelm Karmann Junior.  While I did not
> 
> know him personally, I know of many passionate Corrado owners who are 
> thankfull for his part in the creation of several very special 
> automobiles.  I will be thinking of him when I drive my Corrado home 
> tonight.
> 
> If you would have any news articles or press releases concerning Herr 
> KARMANN, could you kindly forward them to me.  Preferably translated 
> into english, but German is fine.
> 
> thank you,
> 
> John Erhardt
> Illinois/Wisconsin rep
> Corrado Club of America
> 
> Reply from Karmann GMBH:
> >From: "Verena Kleine Hoerstkamp" <vkh@karmann.com>
> >To: jerhardt@hotmail.com
> >Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 14:03:08 +0100
> >Subject: Herr Karmann
> >
> >Hello Mr Erhardt,
> >
> >Mrs Samra, our PR manager would like to get in contact with you.
> >So could you please send us your telephone and fax number per e-mail
> .
> >
> >Best regards,
> >
> >Peter Dettmer
> >- Marketing -
> 
> 
> 
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