Porsche was not always exclusively about cars

The famous German brand of international stature, Porsche, was not always exclusively a car manufacturer.

Initially, its founder, Ferdinand Porsche, was employed by several brands before becoming independent and creating a technical office, known today as Porsche Engineering.

He offered his services to other companies in all kinds of projects.

The renowned engineer worked for many of the big names in the automotive industry, such as Carl Benz.

After starting with Lohner as a coachbuilder and designing his first cars, he moved on to Austro-Daimler, where he built a small coupé called the Sascha, which was a sporting success.

Porsche was in charge of the first supercharged engines of the firm of the star, also known as Mercedes Compressor. And under his guidelines, the famous Mercedes S, SS, and SSK were designed.

Shortly thereafter, after a brief stint at Steyr, he founded his design office in Stuttgart, Porsche Engineering, before setting up his brand.

Since then, working on projects for third parties has been a habit for Porsche and remains one of the cornerstones of the holding company’s activities.

However, the German brand does not extend only to the automotive world but has been involved in fields as varied as the creation of tractors, engines for other brands, vehicle design, trains, and even tanks.

It has also been involved in government projects, such as the VW Beetle. And let’s not forget the well-known “eternal Porsche”.

Let’s go back to the times of WWII

During this large-scale war, Porsche worked on various projects: the Tiger tank, and various military applications of the VW, including an all-terrain version and an amphibian.

After the war, it moved its technical office to Austria.

As projects in the automotive sector were scarce, he made water pumps, winches, ski lifts, mower attachments, and tractors.

The first Porsche vehicle was a tractor.

At the time, Ferdinand Porsche was imprisoned in France (along with his son Ferry and son-in-law Anton Piech). Part of his freedom was due to his collaboration in the development of the Renault 4/4.

Ferry, released after six months in captivity, was the one who started the office up again.

Later, the Italian company Cisitalia put Porsche back on the automotive track by commissioning a four-wheel-drive Grand Prix car and a two-seater mid-engine sports car in addition to a tractor and a water turbine.

With the money he earned, he took up the project of a small sports car designed for VW, which had been abandoned to launch the project of the first Porsche, the 356.

The brand was born, almost as a necessity to save the family business.

Working for third parties, including several developments of the Beetle and the 5 German marks that VW paid for each unit manufactured, were the foundations that allowed the launch of the recognized Porsche brand.

Precisely, through Porsche Engineering, he once again offered his services to Mercedes, thus creating the Mercedes E 500 V8, a product of both brands.

The projects in which he has participated are varied. From a forklift for Linde to projects for an air cab, in this case through Porsche Consulting.

He even made an F1 engine to order.

The famous TAG Porsche, which, was installed in a McLaren, was the world champion with Niki Lauda and Alain Prost.

He has also built light aircraft, and collaborated in the design of the cockpit of the Airbus 310, the engine of the renowned Harley Davidson V-Road motorcycle, and even a tiny underwater “sled”, the Cayago Seabod.

And you, did you know this about Porsche?