on Saturday, 03 November 2018.
The Lohner-Porsche “Semper Vivus” was essentially an electric car with an internal combustion motor used as a generator. It was also the first car with brakes on all four wheels.
He developed “Sascha” for Austro-Daimler at the request of a rich filmmaker named...Sascha. It was significantly smaller than its competition, yet still won 43 races, including the legendary Targa Florio in 1922.
The Auto Union P (for Porsche) featured a (then revolutionary) mid-mounted 16 cylinder engine. With drivers like Hans Stuck and Tazio Nuvolari—two of the best of their generation—behind the wheel, it was virtually unbeatable.
Not a bad place.
In 1939, the car’s projected top speed of 470 mph would’ve obliterated the land speed record. Certain global events meant it never got the chance to make a record run. The 470 mph mark wasn’t approached until a quarter century later.
The Porsche 360 Cisitalia had 385 hp and could top 200 mph, but because of the owner’s lack of funding and a change to the rules, it never actually raced.
For Porsche, it makes sense: it’s actually integral to the coat of arms for the city of Stuttgart, Porsche’s home. Ferrari only uses it because an Italian fighter ace shot down a pilot over Stuttgart in WWI, and the ace’s mother told Ferrari to use the horse as good luck.
Everyone thinks of the Porsche 356 as a rear-engined car—and most were—but the first prototype, 356/1, had the engine behind the driver but in front of the rear axle for better balance. It also won its very first race, a hillclimb event in Innsbruck
They were also better, since they were made with aluminum bodies instead of the steel bodies the later German cars had, and were thus much lighter.
Porsche built 10 of them a full year after production had officially stopped, just for the Dutch. Rumor has it that the one you’re looking at belongs to one Jerry Seinfeld.