A1: It's always good to have some hope and we hope for the best in the future.

A2: Well, frankly, just following the grandparents...

A3: Enjoy the fantasy, dear, we all know you won't have much time for that...

Wendelin Wiedeking, saviour of Porsche, had a dream - to take over the mighty Volkswagen. That dream will be finally buried when, more likely than not on Thursday, members of the sports-car dynasty he has enriched show him the door. Wiedeking, 56, will not go down without a fight despite press rumours that the family that owns Porsche and a large stake in Volkswagen has already held a secret meeting in Salzburg to decide his fate.

The Porsche workforce in Stuttgart is fiercely loyal to Wiedeking, who has transformed them into a well-paid and highly efficient machine. “He is in office and he stays in office,” thundered the combative head of the carmaker’s powerful works council.

Yet at last week’s centenary celebrations for Audi, Wiedeking appeared battle weary and solemn. Asked if he had made a fatal mistake in trying to buy Volkswagen, he resorted to the scriptures. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

He may have rescued Porsche from bankruptcy after taking the helm in 1993 and transformed the family into billionaires and he enjoyed a salary of more than €80m (£69m) for his efforts. In the end, however, he threatened family unity by causing a rift between two of its branches - an unforgivable error.

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Wiedeking thought he had their backing. He was about to hand them the great prize of full ownership of Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker. Since 2005 he had built up Porsche’s small stake into a majority holding.

However, he underestimated two things: the speed and impact of the world financial crisis and the implacable opposition of Ferdinand Piëch, 72, head of the Piëch branch of the Porsche dynasty, grandson of the founder, Ferdinand Porsche, and “Herr Volkswagen” himself.

The financial crisis crippled Porsche. Its sales plummeted 27%. It is buckling under servicing a €10 billion debt and rolling over millions of euros in Volkswagen share options.

Nobody outside the Porsche clan has survived the wrath of Piëch. Those he thinks have failed him or opposed him are dispatched with ice-cold precision. The last victim was the chairman of VW, Bernd Pischetsrieder, outmanoeuvred by Piëch, isolated and then dismissed a mere six months after his contract had been extended for five years.

Piëch has never forgotten that it was Wiedeking who pushed through Pischetsrieder’s deal. That was small beer compared with Wiedeking’s audacious campaign to capture VW and reform the ethos that underpins the Piëch regime at Volkswagen.

Piëch’s aim is to make VW a family concern. He is chairman of the supervisory board, the power behind the board chairman Martin Winterkorn.

VW is run on the lines of a fiefdom where favours and indulgences are granted to selected courtiers. It blew up in a sex and bribes scandal three years ago involving group trips to brothels and illegal payments disguised as bonuses to union leaders.

Emboldened by his success at Porsche, Wiedeking decided to buy a 20% stake in VW in 2005. Since VW was in trouble, he had the blessing of the clan. They wanted it protected. Except Wiedeking didn’t stop there.

Portraying himself as a champion of th social market, castigating banks for their greed and chief executives for a blinkered pursuit of shareholder value, Wiedeking created a lot of smoke. Under that cover, he bought VW shares but never on the open market.

He had the support of Wolfgang Porsche, his chairman, who was only too happy to see Porsche rise from a company worth €300m to one valued at €27 billion. When the Porsche stake exceeded 50%, Wiedeking announced he had options that would take the holding up to 75%.

This was to be the takeover of the century – the niche sports-car maker swallowing VW, 15 times its size.

Wiedeking, duly appointed to the VW supervisory board, was on a roll. He questioned Piëch’s pet projects. He treated board members, according to one report, like schoolboys. There were “no sacred cows” at VW.

Piëch appeared unmoved, content to allow Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the works council, to brand Wiedeking “Napoleon”. It is a tactic Piëch uses to great effect, for without the backing of the workforce any restructuring of VW is impossible.

The global financial crisis was a gift to Piëch. Wiedeking was scrabbling to pay €600m in interest after the profits on the VW options (totalling €10 billion for 2006 and 2007) had all but disappeared and a €10 billion loan needed to be refinanced.

Last November Wiedeking had boasted: “We, the world’s smallest independent carmaker, are approaching an alliance with Europe’s biggest producer of motor vehicles.”

In April, Wolfgang Porsche admitted the situation at Porsche was serious. By early May Wiedeking was falling out of favour. The clan was more concerned with getting Porsche out of the mire than an improbable takeover. They agreed to work on a merger under a new holding company.

Piëch had not finished with Wiedeking. “Porsche must solve its own problems,” he said. Nobody knew how great the risks were, or whether Porsche had used its huge loans to indulge in dubious market deals. As for Wiedeking, he had Piëch’s confidence “just” - then he added: “You can strike out the just.”

An incensed Wiedeking accused Piëch of causing serious damage for which he should be made liable. Piëch then blocked Wiedeking’s attempt to raise a loan from the emir of Qatar. The emir agreed to invest only in a merged company.

At the end of June Piëch gave the knife another twist. He offered a life-line. VW would take over 49.9% of Porsche for between €3 billion and €4 billion or it would face a demand for a €700m VW loan to be repaid in September. An answer by the following Monday was requested.

Wolfgang Porsche accused Piëch of blackmail. “Ultimatums do not belong to the 21st century,” he said.

Last week, the two sides of the Porsche family said a decision would be made at Thursday’s meeting of the Porsche supervisory committee.

It is expected that Wiedeking will be told the merger proposed by Piëch with the finance from Qatar will go ahead. And Wiedeking will be offered the chance to resign.