Cloud964

Do you know that the first car to bear the Porsche name was a two passenger, air-cooled, mid-engine 356 open-top sports car ? It is interesting to know that besides the engine, the layout resembles the boxster(or the other way around), which I grow to love more and more each day. Come to think of it, an affordable mid-engine, open-top Porsche....aren't we blessed ?

Charlie C

Well if the engine ain't air cooled, at least the driver is.

autobahnNY

Bless for sure...I love the feel of the mid-engine( engine right behind your head )

Moogle

btw, the 356 is rear engine. oops did i ruin your party.

Cloud964

Hi moogle,
The 356 is rear engined later when Porsche wants to provide more luggage space and room for additional passenger. The first Porsche is in fact a mid engine 356. Check their history .

Chris Picklo

The mid engine is very easy to handle. Watch not to swap ends though! At my last DE, I pushed a guy in another boxster S and swapped ends going into turn 7 at Sebring.

The only set back is braking - better to have the weight farther back.

Carrera GT

I haven't read the history of the Porsche name in years, but I'm pretty sure the first vehicles bearing the Porsche name were military staff cars. I think built or designed or partnership with Volkswagen.

The 356 is a rear-engine design. Perhaps it had a predecessor with a different layout, but that would not have been designated as a 356.

Doug&Julie

1948: The very first Porsche
The very first Porsche 356/1 developed by Ferry Porsche and his proven team is completed in the Austrian town of Gmünd and receives technical homologation on 8June.

...and it WAS mid-engined...

Carrera GT

Intrestin sterf. Accordian to Porch, they've decided to start their history with the advent of the mid-engine roadster in Gmund during the course of '48 and '49, said by them to be 53 cars built before setting up shop in Stuttgart.

Thumbing through the pages, I had forgotten how many times 356 had been used for such a variety of cars and I would have lost a sizeable bet to anyone arguing the 356 could ever have had the gearbox behind the engine, much less the engine amidships.

I'll have to hit the books (and try to discover which accounts of history might be true) to learn more about all these odd little mobiles that delayed Porsche for so long before finally getting around to the real work of the '72 & '73 cars and then another two decades of curios before the 993 ...

Doug&Julie

I've been a Porsche guy for around 22 years, learning quite a bit of history in all. But I'm still a LONG way from being truly knowledgable....

I can't wait to receive Karl's new book. I didn't get it for Xmas, so I had to order it myself. It should arrive any day now.

JeffES

For more early Porsche history, you should also check out Karl Ludvigson's book "Battle for the Beetle", and Automobile Quarterly's spring 1974 (I think that's the year) book on Porsche. The AQ book also features several pre auto business photos of Prof. Porsche and other details on the founding of the first Porsche business, VW, and Porsche AG.
J

Sean M.

Speaking of mid-engine designs, I have Ludvigsen's book on 550 Spyders. It's thin on text, but loaded with photos. There are worse things than a book full of 550 Spyder photos (with informative captions).