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 New Beetle 1998. Strong public reaction to the Concept One convinced the company that it should develop a production version which was launched as the New Beetle in 1997 for the 1998 model-year, based on the Golf IV's larger PQ34 platform. The New Beetle is related to the original only in name and appearance (including the absence of a car emblem script with the exception of the VW logo). For the 1998 model year, only the TDI compression-ignition engine was turbocharged; the spark-ignition engines were only naturally aspirated. In June 1999, Volkswagen introduced the 1.8T, which was the first turbocharged spark-ignition engine