Today peace prevails on the Porsche line. The production changes imposed by the Shin-Gijutsu group, the cadre of former Toyota engineers to whom Porsche turned for advice three years ago, mean that more cars are produced faster by fewer people without losing technical sophistication and road performance.

And having put the losses behind it, the company can concentrate on developing new models and new markets. Porsche already has orders for 10,000 units of its new roadster, the Boxster, which it plans to introduce later this year as its least-expensive model. In 1997 it will roll out a new version of the famed 911. And the company is in discussions with other auto makers about possibly producing a high-performance off-road vehicle, a minivan and a small low-priced sports car.

The team of Japanese consultants now returns only about four times a year -- "to scold us," Mr. Macht said. But the innovations the Japanese initiated are being continued by the German engineers. Workers on the line submit 2,500 suggestions a month.

The factory is clean and quiet, its huge six-cylinder motors built with remarkable efficiency. Nobody stands around. No half-built engines sit to the side of the assembly line. And there are no bins of spare parts through which workers have to dig. The parts needed for assembly hang on carts that are pulled down the line with the engines, so that workers do not have to leave their work space.

Porsche management says the efficiency improvements are measured in more than just the company's return to profitability. It has reduced the assembly time for one of its speedsters from 120 hours to 72. The number of errors per car has fallen 50 percent, to an average of three. The work force has shrunk 19 percent, to about 6,800 employees from more than 8,400 in 1992. The line itself has been shortened and inventories have been cut back so much that factory space has been reduced by 30 percent. All this means Porsche is making more cars at lower cost.

Much of the credit for the remaking of Porsche is given to Mr. Wiedeking, a self-confident, direct hands-on manager who started as an engineer at Porsche in the 1980's and then left to run an automobile parts maker.

The company's family owners spent much of the 1980's warring with their appointed chief executives, eventually dismissing several. The family was often in the news and in gossip columns over their personal lives.