Porsches are among the sleekest and most high-tech cars on the road today, but their beginning was far from auspicious. The first Porsche was built in an old sawmill in Gmund, Austria, in 1948, where the Porsche design office had moved for security reasons during the Second World War.
But that car鈥檚 lineage began long before that first prototype. It evolved from the People鈥檚 Car, known as the Volkswagen Beetle, which German chancellor Adolf Hitler commissioned the Porsche design office to create in the 1930s.
Ferdinand Porsche was a brilliant natural engineer born in Bohemia, Austria, in 1875. He left and apprenticed with a Vienna electrical company, and a few years later joined electric car builder Lohner.
While at Lohner, he designed a vehicle with an electric motor in each front-wheel hub and a combustion engine to recharge the batteries. When this hybrid won a grand prize at the 1900 Paris International Exhibition, it launched young Porsche鈥檚 reputation.
Porsche moved to gasoline power with Austro-Daimler, followed by Daimler-Benz and Steyr.
By 1930, he felt ready to open his own automotive consulting engineering business in Stuttgart, Germany. It did a variety of products, but its most enduring legacy was the Volkswagen Beetle. The first prototype was completed in 1935. A huge new state-owned Volkswagenwerk was built in Wolfsburg, but few cars were built before it converted to war production.
After the war, Porsche was incarcerated for a year by the French on war-crimes charges, but still yearned to see a car bearing his name.
His eldest son, Ferdinand (Ferry), had joined Porsche following a Bosch engineering apprenticeship and was running the company in his father鈥檚 absence. Although failing, Ferdinand Sr. provided advice and inspiration for the first prototype Porsche in the summer of 1948. The design fell largely to Ferry and chief designer Karl Rabe.
The aerodynamic roadster鈥檚 Volkswagen technology included the engine, four-wheel independent torsion-bar suspension, brakes, steering and non-synchromesh four-speed manual transmission.
They increased the VW鈥檚 1,131-cc horizontally opposed, four-cylinder, air-cooled engine鈥檚 compression from 5.8:1 to 7.0:1 and fitted twin carburetors and larger valves, raising horsepower from 25 to 40.
The layout differed significantly from Volkswagen鈥檚 by following Porsche鈥檚 Auto Union Grand Prix racer鈥檚 mid-engine layout with the engine ahead of the rear axle, not behind it.
Tests of Porsche Number 1 encouraged the building of a second, a coupe. It reverted to VW鈥檚 configuration with the engine behind the axle. Although more tail-heavy, this layout was used in production models. It accommodated more luggage or an occasional small rear passenger.
Upon completion of the second Porsche, the company struck an important deal with Volkswagen. For access to VW parts and its expanding sales network, Porsche agreed not to design a car for any Volkswagen competitor. Also, VW could use Porsche patents by paying a royalty.
Porsche 356 production began in the winter of 1948-鈥�49 in Gmund. The prototype had been given Porsche project number 356, although Ferry later admitted it was really number 350. To give the impression their new business was thriving, Porsche gave their first job number six!
Initial production was 50 cars 鈥� 44 coupes and six cabriolets 鈥� and the 356鈥檚 introduction was at the Swiss Automobile Show in Geneva in the spring of 1949. Full-scale production began at new premises in Stuttgart suburb of Zuffenhausen.
To keep within the 1,100-cc racing class, displacement was reduced to 1,086 cc with a 1.5 mm smaller bore. By 1951, 1,300- and 1,500-cc engines were also offered.
In spite of a Cadillac-like price when it was imported to the United States in 1950 by foreign car czar Max Hoffman, the Porsche 356 met with gradual success.
When most sports cars provided minimal weather protection and harsh rides, this little limousine was snug and comfortable. And while not silent, it was quieter than traditional open roadsters. Controls were light and precise, and the four-wheel independent suspension gave a good ride by sports-car standards.
The quickest way to gain publicity is through racing, and the factory sponsored a car in the 1951 Le Mans 24-hour race. Although new and untried, it won the 1,100-cc class, finishing 20th in a field of 56聽of which 30 finished. Beaten only by cars with much larger engines, it began Porsche鈥檚 outstanding competition record.
In 1952, Road & Track tested a 356 1500 and called it 鈥渢he car of tomorrow,鈥� comparing driving it to flying a small plane. It scooted to 100 km/h in 13.8 seconds and reached 166 km/h.
The 356 went through several variations while retaining the same basic configuration. When it was succeeded by the 911 model in 1963, more than 76,000 356s had been built.
