They say if you stare long enough at the front of the Porsche 911 it turns into a Volkswagen Beetle, its a trick of the mind built into our collective consciousness by clever marketing protocols and advertising campaigns even though the two are rarely spotted together.

And its hardly surprising when you consider both the 911 and Beetle were designed by the same man, Ferdinand Porsche.

Wikipedia says Porsche was contacted by the German Government in the early 1930’s, to build a people’s car, to build a “Volkswagen”. Let’s just say this part of the story is covering up one or two issues. The past is the past and you can’t blame the present for the failures of their fatherland circa 1933-1945. We won in the end, Ahem, but Germany has more football world cup trophies.

Ferdinand Porsche’s answer to the people’s car was the VW Beetle, we are sure you know the history, production ran from 1938 to 2003, although during the late 20th century it was re-imagined in 1997 as the Beetle we all know today.

One of the earliest Porsche designs, the Porsche 64, borrows many components from the Beetle, rear engine rear-wheel drive, air-cooled this and whatever else. So there is this shared lineage not only in its engineering but most noticeable visually in the exterior design.

You have got to look long enough and when you do the two cars merge into one, only the 911 and VW Beetle can play this mind trick and it’s especially the case for the current design language.

Mind you every time Porsche releases a new 911 it always looks exactly the same as the previous model, just say “facelift” Porsche marketing people… god damn it.