Porsche 356 (1950, RFA)

The Stuttgart Porsche starts mass production of the Porsche 356. The first units of this model were manufactured by hand in the Austrian town of Gmünd.
In 1944 the Porsche project office was moved to this place, housed in an old sawmill. For economic reasons, continued production in 1949 in a rented hall, next to the coachbuilder Reutter.
Porsche's new vehicle, with the project number 356, is based on the Volkswagen, also developed by Porsche. The first prototype of this series is a sports car with frame rails, equipped with a sleek aluminum body. The engine is a boxer with four cylinders and a displacement of 1.1 liters, air cooled, mounted in front of the rear axle, following the examples of some famous race cars. To reduce manufacturing costs, Porsche had to dispense with other vehicles of this type of frame, going to use a structure of box-shaped plate and the engine was at the rear.
At the factory are made solely Gmünd Coupe body type. The cabriolet bodies are carried out by Beutler in Switzerland and other bodybuilders Vienna. The bodies of the Porsche 356 are sheet steel. On March 21, 1951 porsche 500 leaves the assembly line.