Helmuth Bott

Porsche chassis and test engineer whose work included the 901 and the 917 chassis. He later served on Porsche's executive board for research and development from 1979 to 1988.

Born in 1925 in Kirchheim unter Teck, Helmuth Bott worked as a mechanic at Daimler-Benz from 1947 to 1949. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart from 1949 to 1952, including training placements at Daimler and Bosch. Porsche hired him in March 1952 as a factory assistant in Zuffenhausen, where he built transmission test rigs, wrote service manuals and trained apprentices.

At Porsche, Bott became a chassis specialist working under design-office head Leopold Schmid. His work included the MacPherson-strut front suspension for the 901. Sources place him in testing from 1955; by 1961 he led road testers attempting to resolve the 901's handling, and by 1962 he was chief test engineer and head of the experimental department. In January 1960 he recorded the Weissach Project.

Bott shaped Weissach's circuit: Porsche says he formulated its project in 1960, commissioned Jochen Freund to lay the circuit in 1966, and had considerable input into its layout. Porsche's 917 account credits him with the chassis, Hans Mezger with the engine, and says the programme under development chief Ferdinand Piëch took ten months from spring 1968 to its 1969 Geneva reveal; 25 cars were made for homologation. Bott served on Porsche's R&D board from 1979 to 1988, leaving on 30 September 1988. He died in Buttenhausen on 14 May 1994.