Porsche History

1898: Ferdinand Porsche designed the Egger-Lohner electric C.2 Phaeton, the P1. It had a 3hp electric motor, a range of 80km, and could reach 35km/h. The original vehicle was rediscovered and was unveiled at the Porsche museum on 31 January 2014.
1938: Porsche worked on the future Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen (Strength Through Joy Car), KdF-Wagen, or the VW "Beetle".
1939: The Type 64 was based on the KdF-Wagen and featured streamlined alloy bodywork. Three were built for a Berlin–Rome race but that was cancelled due to the start of WWII. No.3 survived the war and was badged "Porsche" in 1946. The car was entered in RM Sotheby's Monterey auction in August 2019.
1948, Gmund Austria: The Porsche marque's first car, the 356, had a 1086cc 30kW VW engine. Production moved to Stuttgart and 369 were there built in 1950.
1950: "The first tractor bearing the Porsche name, the Type AP17, debuted at the 1950 Germany Agricultural Show in Frankfurt." — Donington auction Oct-Nov 2023.
1953: The mid-engined Porsche 550 Spyder. (The actor James Dean was killed in his 550 in 1955.)
A 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, coachwork by Wendler, chassis #550-0036, engine #90-034, sold for us$4,185,000 at Bonhams Amelia Island auction, 3 March 2022.
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1963 356C
1963: 904 GTS road & race car.
1964: Porsche 911, start of a legend.
1969: Mid-engined Porsche/VW 914.
1970 & 1971: Porsche 917s won the Le Mans 24-hour race.
1976: Front-engined Porsche 924.
1977: Front-engined Porsche 928, 4.5-litre V8, at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show.
1981: Porsche showed the Porsche 911 AWD concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
1984: A Porsche 911 AWD won the Paris-Dakar rally.
1982: Front-engined Porsche 944.
1986: Porsche 959 AWDs (with off-road suspension, etc.) finished 1, 2 and 6 (the support car) in the Paris Dakar rally, 2.85-litre, twin-turbo, flat-6, 400+hp, 500Nm. 292 [regular] 959s were built from 1986 to 1988 as a group-B rallying study -- Porsche.
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road-going 959
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1987: "Production" 959s on sale.
A 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort, chassis #WP0ZZZ95ZHS900057, engine #65H00170, sold for £1,158,125 at RM Sothebys London Auction, 6 November 2021. A 1988 Porsche 959 Komfort, engine #65H00306, chassis #WP0ZZZ95ZJS900247 sold for us$1,710,00) at RM Sothebys Monterey auction, 19 Aug. 2023..
1991: 944 → 968.
1995: Mid-engined Porsche Boxster, 2.5-litre flat-6.
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1998
2002: A Porsche SUV(!) - the 4x4 Porsche Cayenne - developed in conjunction with VW (~ the VW Touareg).
2007: Porsche seemed to gain effective control of VW buying 31% of the latter's shares and successfully challenging a German law limiting VW shareholders to voting at most 20%. But, financially, Porsche had bitten off more than it could chew.
2009: Front-engined, 4-door Porsche Panamera went on sale, 4.8-litre V8, RWD or AWD, also a turbo-charged version.
2009, May: VW and Porsche decided to merge. After a hard battle, the VW and Porsche boards agreed to Porsche being absorbed into VW (23/7/'09), VW to take 42% of Porsche AG by the end of 2009 (13/8/'09); then 49.9% (7/12/'09).
2012, August 1: Volkswagen and Porsche finalized the creation of their "Integrated Automotive Group" in which Volkswagen held 100% of Porsche AG via a holding company -- VW.