Ferry Porsche and the Birth of the Sports Car Company

The Moment Before Porsche Became Porsche

By the closing months of 1947, the Porsche name had already traveled farther—and carried more weight—than most automobile companies would achieve across an entire lifetime.

It had appeared on electrical patents, engineering drawings, racing machines, consulting agreements, government contracts, military vehicles, invoices, and the door of one of Europe’s most ambitious independent design offices. Ferdinand Porsche had developed automobiles for Lohner, Austro-Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union, and Volkswagen. He had pursued electric propulsion before the automobile industry fully understood its possibilities, built competition cars that conquered mountain roads and Grand Prix circuits, and helped shape the German people’s car into one of the most recognizable mechanical forms ever created.