Porsche's Technological Innovations Part 4: 1950, Debut at Le Mans and the 550 Idea

A sports brand cannot exist without racing. Ferry, and his father Ferdinand — finally free, though worn from imprisonment — knew this well. They could not overlook the stunning success of Ferrari, which had entered the market around the same time and was already winning at Le Mans. However, the paths taken by the two new brands were entirely different: magnificent V12 engines for the Italians, and methodical pursuit of excellence for the Germans — even with a small and low-powered engine.

It was Chinetti’s 1949 Le Mans win with the red Ferrari 166 MM and Ferry’s meeting with the organizers of the famous race that pushed Porsche to make its debut at Le Mans.

Porsche made its debut at Le Mans in 1951 with the 356 SL, featuring an aerodynamic aluminum body.

A debut with only one ambition: to win in its class, that of cars up to 1100cc. For this, three 356s were prepared with special aluminum bodywork designed for optimal aerodynamics, powered by an air-cooled 1086cc boxer engine delivering 46 hp. The preparation wasn’t easy — there were problems and accidents — but the little Porsche number 46 (it's easy to imagine that the race number wasn't random) was the only one to start and reached the finish line without issues, winning the 1100cc class and placing 20th overall.

It was 1951, and Porsche’s golden book of racing success began with a promising result. Without any issues, car number 46 even managed several laps at an average of 141 km/h on the grueling circuit.

The Porsche 356 SL number 46 crossed the finish line of the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hours in 20th place overall, winning the 1100 cc class.

At this point it was time to take a step that would leave its mark. For understandable commercial - today we would say marketing - reasons, the engine had to remain the four-cylinder boxer, but it needed serious growth. With this constraint in mind, the renowned engineer Ernst Fuhrman set about developing a unit that was definitively Porsche. Christened Typ 547, the four-cylinder boxer, increased to 1500 cc to be at the limit of the 1.5-litre category, had four overhead camshafts and two Solex twin-body carburettors and was capable of 110 hp that soon increased to 180 by the end of the decade. In parallel was the birth of a small, simple and very light barchetta with a frame made of thin tubes, welded together so as to be connected to each other and allow for pressurisation. This frame, made of steel, was in this way controlled in its structural solidity: if a crack occurred due to the stresses of the race, because of the loss of pressurisation, the driver could take note of it through a special pressure gauge on the dashboard and decide to stop before the frame could give way.

The 550 proved to be competitive in racing and achieved several successes, including class victory at the 1954 Carrera Panamericana, finishing third overall.

Studied in the wind tunnel at the University of Stuttgart, with extraordinary handling similar to what would become future karts, it soon became one of the stars of endurance racing on road and track. Presented in 1953, its first success with third place, behind two Ferraris with twice the engine displacement, was in early 1954 and the 550 impressed with its performance at the Mille Miglia, Nurburgring, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana where it won the 1,500 cc class finishing third overall. The famous name ‘Carrera’ appeared on the 356 in 1955 and came from that success, indicating the adoption of the new engine, albeit with more road-going power and performance, in what was becoming a major annual production run of Porsche cars. To get an idea of how much the 356 contributed to Porsche's notoriety and commercial success, one only has to look at the numbers: from Ferry's dream of 500 cars a year when he moved to Stuttgart, fifteen years later over 75,000 had already been produced! The clever technical and racing strategy had won the bet. But it was only the beginning.

In 1955, the name ‘Carrera’ appeared on the rear and sides of the 356 to indicate the presence of the Type 547 engine from the 550 under the bonnet.