Why A Porsche Car Has Its Ignition Key On Left Side?

When someone gives you the keys of a Porsche car, the first unique thing you would get to see when you get behind the wheels is the placement of the ignition. All the cars in the world have their ignition point placed on the right side of car steering. But in a Porsche car the ignition things are different; it isn’t on the right side of the steering, unlike the rest of the cars in world. In fact the ignition is on the left side of the steering column.

Now why in the world would Porsche do this? To know the answer, read on further.

The Porsches have placed the ignition on the left because of their old heritage of the Le Mans.

At the initial days of the Le Mans race, the ignition was on the usual position that is on right. For several initial years the race of Le Mans began with the race cars lined up against the wall and the drivers few yards away from their cars. As the start flag would be waved, the drivers had to jump in their cars and start them to race through the tracks. The Porsche engineers later on realized that changing the location of the ignition to the left would save time as compared to that required for the traditional car start in Le Mans race. This way they could put the ignition with their keys from the left hand, push the clutch with the foot and engage the gear from the right side, all at the same time. Thus, it saved precious few seconds as an advantage over the competitors.

In fact, history has been proved how this has been quite favourable for them, considering their sixteen times triumph at the Le Mans. Although, the Le Mans races do not continue in the similar fashion anymore, but Porsche being a company of legacies and tradition, continued with this unique feature. Even today, the new Porches in the markets bear their ignition key on the left of the steering section.

Porsche and motor car sports basically go hand in hand and apparently always remain that way. Porsche’s sole motive is to make sports cars and will always remain so. The range of cars Porsche has launched till date displays how deep Porsche has set its roots in the industry of motor sports cars. Porsche’s presence and activeness in motor sports has been evident by the number of cars it has entered in several car championships and series.

The decade-old racing tradition of having the ignition on the left of the steering, which started as early as 1925, has now become an integral and inseparable aspect of the brand.

A feature that was at one point of time serving a purpose has now become the signature style of one of the biggest brands of cars, the Porsche.

When something works well with Porsche, the being a company of traditions embraces that feature wholeheartedly and keeps it as it is till the eternity.