1950 Porsche 356 Pre-A

That the Porsche company managed to survive the Second World War is in itself a miracle. Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the Auto Union 'Silver Arrow' racers that won fame on the Grand Prix circuit in the mid-1930s and the ubiquitous Volkswagen, had fled Germany with this family and much of his design team to their estate in Zuffenhausen in rural Austria to ride out the end of the war. The family had lost everything except a handful of Volkswagen project vehicles that were in storage and some spare parts. The Volkswagen factory was seized by the British Occupation Forces and its liquidation was certain.

In 1946, Ferdinand was invited to consult with French authorities about building the Volkswagen in France, but no sooner had he arrived in the French zone than he was arrested and imprisoned.

Ferdinand's son, Ferry Porsche, a talented designer in his own right, was left to keep the company alive. The Italian company, Cisitalia, threw Porsche a lifeline in 1947 with a commission to develop a rear-engine Grand Prix racer based on the pre-war Auto Union Silver Arrows. Ferry designed a weight-saving tubular space frame around which hand-beaten aluminium body panels were hung. The engine was a flat 12 of 1.5 litre capacity. Changes to the Grand Prix engine specifications in 1948 meant the car was never actually raced as intended, but Porsche did get paid and it gave him and idea.

Ferry and his team hand-built a two-seat roadster with an aluminium body mounted on a tubular space frame and powered by a tuned Volkswagen engine. This car was designated the Porsche 356-1. A coupe version was then contructed. In a former cow shed in Gmund, Austria, Porsche's team began producing these new Porsche cars to order. Thanks to their aluminium bodywork, they were light and performed well in racing and rallying. They were very basic cars, with Volkswagen fittings and instruments and a far cry from the later prestige automobiles that Porsche would become.

Porsche quickly outgrew the Gmund 'plant' and moved into proper facilities in Zuffenhausen. Steel replaced aluminium and soon fully fledged production was underway. By 1950, Ferry's backyard project was a desirable vehicle for those with a hankering for performance and motorsport.