Car Engineer of the Century Car Engineer of the Century The Car Engineer of the Century was an international award given to the most influential car engineer of the twentieth century. The election process was overseen by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation. The winner, Ferdinand Porsche, was announced at an awards gala on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas. The process for deciding the "Car Engineer of the Century" started with the list of candidates below. The next step was for a jury of 132 professional automotive journalists, from 33 different countries, under the presidency of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, to reduce the list to
Volkswagen Beetle British patent 'Improvements related to road vehicles', granted GB570814, July 24, 1945, describing a 2-door, rear-engined car, identical in arrangement and look to VW 'Kafer'. It has also been pointed out that the VW Beetle bears a striking resemblance to John Tjaarda's 1933 design for a streamlined, rear-engined car, that he created working for Briggs Manufacturing Company. At Briggs, a Detroit-based manufacturer of automobile bodies for Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation and other U.S. and European automobile manufacturers, Tjaarda was developing a radical car for Ford to use as a new Lincoln. Ford displayed the show car at the 1933-34