Porsche’s Technological Innovations Part 3: 1948 – The Strategy for a Grand Project

Refugees in Austria, their homeland, due to the war devastation in Germany, father and son Porsche did not escape, at the end of 1945, the trials for collaboration with Hitler’s Germany for what their renowned engineering studio had designed for the regime. Of the two, the most affected was the “old” Ferdinand, then 70 years old, who was imprisoned in France from December 1945 to 1947, when the Italian Piero Dusio, creator of Cisitalia, paid the ransom for his release. Ferdinand would later be fully exonerated in 1948, but his health suffered from this cruel experience, and he passed away at the beginning of 1951. We will discuss this in the next installment, just a little patience. Ferry, although also affected, managed to keep the business running, transforming what had been an engineering studio into a company. The name Porsche, in 1948, became a trademark operating on two fronts: capitalizing on the high demand in the agricultural market by producing sophisticated tractors and preparing for the future of the automotive industry with its own new brand.

Piero Dusio, founder of Cisitalia, commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to design the 360 project and paid the ransom to free him from detention in France.

It was logical and unsurprising that the creation of Volkswagen by Ferdinand and its sporty evolution, the Type 64 of 1939, would become the foundation for a project aimed at enhancing the concept of a rear-engine, air-cooled sports car. The headquarters in Austria, in a former sawmill in Gmünd, Carinthia, encouraged Ferry to envision a car with strong sporting characteristics. The Porsche "Number One", built in 1947 and unveiled in 1948, had all the necessary qualities: a predominantly aluminum body and, most importantly, the relocation of the engine from an overhanging rear position to a mid-rear placement, making this small roadster something truly unique and high-performing. High-performing despite a small air-cooled, four-cylinder boxer engine of just 1,131 cc and 35 horsepower, but with the advantage of a very low weight of 585 kg.

The 356 "Number One", the first car bearing the Porsche brand, was unveiled in 1948. The configuration features a mid-mounted, air-cooled flat-4 engine of 1,131 cc with 40 hp.

The concept was sound and foreshadowed what would become, in 1953, the first Porsche capable of impressing on the racetrack: the 550 RS Spyder. However, the first prototype faced a complex reality: the ambition to produce 500 cars per year and offer them at an affordable price for a reasonably broad range of buyers was incompatible in terms of both infrastructure and costs. For this reason, the Number One, although approved by Austrian authorities on June 8, 1948, remained a unique model. It was at the Geneva Motor Show in 1949 that Ferry Porsche presented the first two cars that were actually available for sale: the 356/2, with a structure that returned to its origins—the engine was now back in a rear overhanging position like in the Beetle but upgraded to 40 hp. The decision, driven by lower production costs, was justified by the possibility of offering greater interior space, with two minimal rear seats. That year, production — still in Austria, where the limitations of an inadequate facility were becoming increasingly evident — reached 52 cars: 48 Coupés and 8 Cabriolets.

Porsche at Geneva in 1949 with the Coupé and Cabriolet versions of the 356/2, where the engine returns to a rear overhanging position.

The market responded positively, and people liked the cars. Ferry, with the support of his sister Louise — who was highly perceptive and involved in the new project — did not hesitate to move Porsche to Stuttgart, where it remains to this day. Furthermore, he decided that the car bodies would be made of steel to facilitate production and assembly and to reduce manufacturing costs. An additional fifty kilograms could be accommodated. It is time to conclude this chapter by highlighting the technical insights of Porsche’s first project: seeking performance through weight reduction — aluminum — and optimizing weight distribution by using a mid-mounted engine instead of an overhanging one. Although initially set aside, this approach later became the foundation for the creation of Stuttgart’s true racing model: the 550, which would soon arrive and bring worldwide fame to the new German brand. At the same time, there was a focus on aerodynamic efficiency and simplicity, which at that time were the best guarantees for minimizing the risk of mechanical failures during races.

One of the first prototypes of the 550. The car was unveiled to the world by Porsche at the 1953 Paris Motor Show.