All Porsche enthusiasts, and probably most car enthusiasts, are familiar with cars bearing the Porsche name. Not so familiar, however, were the non-automotive designs of Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche KG – the gun platforms and tanks of World Wars I and II, diesel engines stationary power units, and jeep-type (Jeep, Kubelwagen and Land-Rover) off-road vehicles.
In 1953, one of Porsche’s chief designers, Franz Xavier Reimspiess, began work on a four-wheel-drive car which was given the Porsche engineering number 597. The Jagdwagen (roughly translated as hunting car) made its debut at the Geneva auto show in March 1955. The type Porsche 597 was created to hopefully gain military contracts from the German army alongside the Goliath Type 31 and the Auto-Union-built DKW Munga, now that it was a full partner in NATO and had the obligation of European defense. The Production costs of the Porsche 597, however, were too high and Porsche could not easily supply the numbers of unit needed in the proposed time.
Porsche entered the ring with what today would seem like an unusual project for Porsche to be involved, but this would be one of the first major projects assigned to young Ferry Porsche by his father. The design would be of the WW II German army’s jeep-type car, the Type 82 Kuebelwagen. Based on early VW running gear, this vehicle was further developed into the amphibious VW Schwimmwagen (Swimming Car). Both vehicles were very successful, and they extensive use throughout WW II.
A resemblance of the Porsche 597 Jagdwagen can be identified to both the Type 82 Kubelwagen of WW II, and the Volkswagen Thing. It is neither, but there are similarities.
The prototype body was manufactured in Porsche’s own Stuttgart Body Works with later versions coming from the Karmann coachworks. The shell had no doors and high sills, passenger needed to climb over them to enter and exit the vehicle. The 597 was visually similar to the earlier Kuebelwagen, and the body was made of stamped steel with heavy embossing for extra rigidity, Radios, lights, and other military equipment were powered by two 12-volt batteries and a dynamo. A little-known fact about the 597 is that the first four cars were fully amphibious, complete with a folding propeller much like the WW II Schwimmwagen. These 597’s are therefore the only Porsches to come from the factory with canoe paddles as original accessories! The remaining cars were not amphibious, but could ford deep water using special equipment.
Suspension of the 597 was contemporary to VWs and Porsches of the time, modified to suit the purpose of the vehicle. Trailing arms with transverse torsion bars were used up front, with a chassis-mounted differential and half-shafts (with four universal joints) to drive the front wheels. The rear engine/transaxle was the familiar Porsche 356 system, but with reduction hubs at the outer axle ends i.e. VW Kombi, which provided the desired additional ground clearance
Power for the Jagdwagen came from a detuned 356A engine producing 55 hp with a displacement of 1488cc (in late 1955 it was increased to 1582 cc) located in the rear of the car. Together with a vehicle weight of 990 kilograms a maximum speed of around 100 kilometer per hour could be achieved. The transmission was a 5-speed manual gear box. Unlike the Kubelwagen, the driver could engage or disengage the front wheel drive of the Jagdwagen on the fly from his driving seat, via a “dog-clutch” at the front on the driveshaft. With its short wheelbase of 2,060 mm, the vehicle had the ability to climb steep grades of up to 65%. However, the Fagdwagen’s suspension is extremely firm riding, and there are few creature comforts to be found, except perhaps for the simple folding top.
Even though Porsche had designed man military vehicles, this was the first time the company was also prepared to build its own designs for a military vehicle.
Porsche tried to recover some of its substantial investment in the car by offering the Jagdwagen to the public. There wasn’t another car like this being sold anywhere in Europe, and so there was no real customer base to advertise to. Production of the 597 quietly expired in 1958 after just a mere 71 units had been produced. Today it seems like a great tragedy that at least a few more Jagdwages weren’t made, because if any one car could illustrate how diverse the Porsche Company really is, then that car would probaby be the Type 597 Jagdwagen.
If the rugged little 597 had gone into large-scale production, the Porsche company might be as well known today for its off road vehicles as it is for its sports cars! Production began in 1954 and ended in 1958, and as irony would have it these cars were built … of all places … in the race shop alongside 356 GT’s and 550 Spyders destined for the racetracks of the world.
