The Porsche motor company was founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 under the business name of Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH. Ferdinand, an Austria-Hungarian born engineer had based the company’s main offices in the centre of Stuttgart and only offered motor vehicle development work and consultation. During this time Porsche did not build any cars of their own design.
One of the company’s first motor assignments was given to them by the German government, the task being to design a car for ‘the people’. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle which was one of the most successful car designs ever. The first Porsche ever made was the Porsche 64, developed in 1933; the Porsche 64 used many components from the Volkswagen Beetle.
During World War 2 production changed to the military versions of the Beetle, Porsche throughout this time also designed many different plans of tanks but lost out on the contract to another firm. The tanks that were created in the end became known as the Tiger 1 and 2 but all was not lost as the chassis that Porsche designed was used in the production of the Elefant tank destroyer.
At the end of the war the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg fell to the British and Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes but never tried. During his 20 month imprisonment, the company was run by Ferdinand’s son Ferry. Ferry decided to build his own car as he could not find a car he was interested in buying and so started the next product from Porsche: the ‘365’. The Porsche 365 was a great success and enabled the company to start production on a large scale using its previous manufacturing sites and suppliers of the Beetle.
Since then, Porsche has produced some of the world’s greatest sports cars such as the 911 and the Boxster. The Porsche 911 has become the company’s most iconic car and well known product to date for both its performance in racing and its road car sales. The 911 is still in production to this day and continues to be revised and updated with the latest features whenever possible.
The company Logo of the Porsche Company was based on the coat of arms of the free people’s state of Wrttemberg.
