Hailing from the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart, Ulrich Bez, who as Porsche Technical supremo hatched the 993, had two significant stints at Porsche. During the 1970s he worked in research and was responsible for establishing Porsche’s crash test programme; in the 1980s, he followed Porsche’s head of research to BMW and set up BMW Technik, the department which designed the Z-series of sports cars. Tempted back to Porsche in 1988, Bez campaigned to save the company by rapidly updating the 911 with the interim 993 and introducing the premium 4-door 989. Disagreements with the board over this model caused him to leave Porsche; he later resurfaced at Ford where he took charge of Aston Martin, leading the company to independence in 2007. He retired at the end of 2013, but remained chairman of Aston Martin.
