Porsche
In 1931, the design studio developed a small car (Porsche Type 12) for Zündapp in Nuremberg. Later on, the mid-range Porsche Type 32 was created for NSU with a number of features in common with the VW Beetle.
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Due to high manufacturing costs, these vehicles never went into production. This was also the case for a two-liter touring car designed for Wanderer. In 1933, the highly successful 16-cylinder mid-engine Auto-Union Grand-Prix car was introduced (which was at that time considered to be rear-engined car). In 1934, Porsche started designing the German Volkswagen – the People's Car that would become the legendary VW Beetle – for Germany’s National Automotive Industry Association. Today, Porsche is renowned as a sports car manufacturer.
In the fifties and early sixties, Porsche operating under the auspices of the “Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH” built diesel tractors in Friedrichshafen. The idea of producing tractors went back to Ferdinand Porsche's experimental designs from 1937. Porsche planned production of a “people's tractor,” to motorize agriculture along the same lines as the “people's car” (Volkswagen) aimed at mass motorization. Stating his case his case for simplicity in tractor design, a favorite saying of Mr. Porsche at the time was “A simple engine for a simple farmer cannot be simple enough.” The Porsche tractor was first manufactured in 1950, initially in cooperation with the Uhingen-based company Allgaier Werke GmbH. From 1956, the Porsche tractors were built at an assembly plant in Friedrichshafen in cooperation with the Mannesmann Group. MAN took over Porsche's tractor interests in 1962. Some 16,000 tractors were sold in 1961 and production was discontinued in 1963.
Porsche tractors
Porsche tractors attracted attention with their modern design, technical innovations and affordable prices. As early as 1915, Ferdinand Porsche had been working on a plough tractor at Austro-Daimler and on a “military train,” a gasoline-powered tractor with a series of electrically-powered trailers. Development and production of several “people's tractor” prototypes started in 1937.
Porsche Junior
Porsche Junior
Four years after the start of series production, innovative technical developments made the new Porsche diesel tractors into universal agricultural machines beginning in 1961. The Porsche Junior, Standard and Super tractors soon became the best-selling tractors in Germany. In the same year, Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH took over tractor production from MAN. 120,000 Porsche tractors were supplied by 1962. The main differences from today's tractors were in the suspension, engines (direct injection, cooling, turbocharging) and transmissions (gear-shifting without declutching) – not to mention power, which on modern-day tractors can range up to 740 bhp.
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