Porsche turns 75: This is how the brand’s first car drives: silver tub

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Peter Kaiser was embarrassed. Porsche didn’t quite fit into the back of the Zurich-based German architect’s new sports car in 1948. And he certainly did not want to advertise the strange brand. That’s why he changed the letters to “Pesco”. At least it sounded elegantly Italian—even if it just meant peach.

Alexander Klein, on the other hand, calls the cast aluminum tub “001” in a worried tone. He’s in charge of the museum fleet at Porsche, and the first sports car the brand has ever produced is his best part. On June 8, 1948, 75 years ago, the Roadster was rescued for the first time, screwed together in a wooden shed in Gmünd, Austria. On July 4, a journalist from the then-standard Swiss “Automobil Revue” was allowed to shove him around the track in Bremgarten as the Bern Grand Prix approached.

This Porsche is hot

But right now 001 is not in very good shape. Warmed up from climbing Riggisberg BE; Klein lets them cool down. 100 km/h in 23 seconds, top speed 135 km/h – today a 35 hp car is seen as a rolling obstacle. 75 years ago, it was among the sports cars. Company founder Ferry Porsche used his relationship with VW – his father Ferdinand helped invent the Beetle – and built his technology into the prototype. Not without removing ten more horsepower from the 1.1-liter boxer engine. In addition, aluminum body, red seats, finger-thin Bakelite steering wheel, cane handbrake and a gear lever you dare not even touch. The doors are closed with a rope. Roof? Unnecessary luxury.

Like heating. While the air-cooled boxers on the back blow your hair to the mountains; The cockpit is so hot that the airflow leaking through the narrow window can’t change anything. You don’t understand what you’re saying with the rattling coming from the engine compartment. “Ferry Porsche quickly realized that things were not going to work that way in the long run,” says Klein. Just four weeks later, the 356 series model was ready with drawings. With a motor in the rear and a row of emergency seats that keep the distance.

eventful history literally

The first Porsche test report in the “Automobil Revue” is not the only Swiss reference in 001. Rupprecht von Senger from Zurich organized a starting capital of 100,000 francs and Swiss aluminum trim for the first Porsche bodies. The government in Vienna allowed the latter only if the first Porsches were to go abroad – one was dependent on foreign currency. The first production car was later sold to Jolantha Maria Tschudi from Zurich.

And the 001 also arrived in Switzerland: A year later it was too inadequate for Peter Kaiser, and until 1952 the three subsequent owners didn’t know what to do with it. The next owner, Rosemarie Muff, complained about the headlights and sold the roadster to amateur racing driver Hermann Schulthess, who had the brakes optimized and replaced the engine with a more powerful 1.5-litre. After an accident, the body was changed, and the 001 was soon replaced by the 356 series. The new owner also traded in with Ferry Porsche, who successfully used the license to make money with the 356 to 001 and now has its original model back.

So the 001 is no longer original due to numerous conversions and as it was rebuilt after two accidents at Gotthard and – much later – at a classic car event in Switzerland. And since the tailgate is now split in two. That’s a good thing, because then half of the engine can breathe easier as it returns to the support car and the boxer. In 1948, my colleague from “Automobil Revue” wrote, “In the midst of the atmosphere of the fast-approaching Grand Prix, we chased the machine around the track in Bremgarten and quickly gained complete confidence in it.” with the current one, say Porsche?

Source: Blick