CarBrandLogos archive · Porsche · 1948

Porsche356

Volkswagen parts, an aluminium body, and the beginning of a manufacturer.

The story

A defining chapter in Porsche history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Porsche 356, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Porsche had been a design consultancy, not a carmaker. The 356 changed that. Work began in Gmund in Austria, where the firm had relocated during the war, and the first car completed in 1948 was a mid-engined open two-seater built around Volkswagen components. Ferry Porsche and his engineers then reversed that layout for the production cars, putting the engine behind the rear axle, partly for packaging and cost and partly because the VW parts wanted to sit that way. That decision defined Porsche for the next seventy years.

Günter Klass - Porsche · Lothar Spurzem · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Design and engineering

The body was Erwin Komenda's, and it is the reason the car still looks right. A smooth, sparse teardrop shape with no ornament, it was hand-formed in aluminium on the roughly fifty cars built at Gmund between 1948 and 1949, then in steel by Reutter once production moved to Zuffenhausen in 1950. Coupe, cabriolet and roadster bodies were offered.

1959 Porsche 356A · Writegeist · CC BY 3.0

In production

The engineering evolved constantly and quietly. VW-derived flat fours gave way to Porsche's own units, and the Carrera versions took the name of the Carrera Panamericana road race along with a complex four-cam engine developed by Ernst Fuhrmann that turned a modest sports car into a competitive one. Light weight and aerodynamic efficiency let the 356 beat cars with far more power, which became Porsche's standing argument and its motorsport strategy.

1957 Porsche 356 Speedster , rear · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

Production ran to 1965, overlapping the 911 that replaced it and the four-cylinder 912 that eased the transition. What it left behind was not a single car but a template: rear engine, modest displacement, obsessive iteration, and a company that would rather refine an existing design for decades than start again.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1948–1965

Designer

Ferry Porsche

Body

2-door coupé

Technical specification

The 356, in detail.

Production: 1948–1965
Class: Sports car
Body style: 2-door coupé ; 2-door convertible (car); convertible ; 2-door Roadster (automobile); roadster
Layout: Rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Designer: Ferry Porsche, Erwin Komenda
Assembly: Austria: Gmünd (1948–1949); Germany: Zuffenhausen (1950–1965)
Manufacturer: Porsche Salzburg; Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949) ; Porsche; Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965)