Porsche’s front engine sports sedan a rare hatchback

May 14, 2010 Staff

General

The first Porsche 356 sports car emerged in 1948 from a converted sawmill in tiny Gmund, Austria, where Porsche relocated from Stuttgart during the Second World War. Since Ferdinand Porsche (the first) was the “father of the Volkswagen,” the Porsche’s rear-mounted, horizontally-opposed, air-cooled four cylinder engine and four wheel independent torsion bar suspension were Volkswagen based.