Anatole Carl Lapine, the former Porsche chief designer, has died at the age of 81. Lapine headed the Style Porsche design studio from 1969 to 1988.
Born on May 23, 1930 in Riga, Latvia, Lapine served an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic with Daimler-Benz in Hamburg, post-war era. He then went on to attend the Hamburg Wagenbauschule. In 1951, he moved to the USA and joined General Motors USA in the advanced body engineering department. But in 1965, Lapine returned to Germany and was put in charge of the Opel Research Center.
It was on April 15, 1969 that Lapine moved to Porsche as head of the styling department. In addition to the design of the Porsche 911’s so-called “G Series”, numerous new Porsche models such as the 924, 928 and 944 saw the light of day under Lapine’s direction. But Anatole Lapine and his style team also delivered a number of Porsche Engineering third-party client development design projects.
Lapine passed away on April 29, 2012 in Baden-Baden. Michael Mauer, Porsche’s chief designer since 2004, paid homage to the deceased: “Anatole Lapine shaped Porsche sportscar design over more than two decades. As a designer he didn’t follow fashion but was forever setting new trends with his concepts.”