The fascinating history of Porsche’s involvement with all-wheel drive
We take four-wheel drive for granted these days – even 911s have been so equipped since the days of the 964 Carrera 4. But Porsche's links with all-wheel drive technology go back much further, all the way to the turn of the last century, in fact…
Looking back, most readers will be familiar with the technological masterpiece that is the 959, the ultimate 1980s four-wheel-drive supercar, and likewise the 'Carrera 4' moniker which first appeared on the 964 back in 1990. But did you know that the first all-wheel-drive Porsche-designed vehicle was built as far back as the 19th century? Or that amphibious Porsche-designed military 4x4s swam rivers in World War II? And how about a post-war 'Jeep' with an air-cooled, four-cylinder Porsche engine in the rear?
Ferdinand Porsche's first foray into the world of four-wheel-drive technology took the form of an amazing (for the time, and even to this day) horseless carriage known as the Lohner-porsche (and please note the correct spelling: Lohner, not Löhner…). Born in 1875, Ferdinand Porsche travelled from his home town of Maffersdorf and travelled to Vienna to take up employment with Jacob Lohner, who entrusted him with the task of developing an electric drivetrain for his open coaches.
Porsche's design was brilliant, yet in many ways remarkably simple. The rim of each wheel was attached directly to the rotor of an electric motor, the stator (the part that normally spins in an electric motor) forming the axle. When power was turned on, the rotor (with rim attached) revolved around the hub, propelling the vehicle forward (or backwards, if the current was reversed). The system proved to be remarkably efficient (achieving as much as 85 per cent efficiency, it is said) and created a storm in the press.
The system provoked sufficient interest to prompt an order from a British coachbuilder, E W Hart, for a system to propel a four-seat vehicle capable of running on both petrol and electricity – the world's first hybrid that also just happened to be the world's first fourwheel-drive vehicle. The date? 1898. Powered by what was known as the System Lohner-porsche, Hart's 'car' was enormous, weighing some four tonnes, with each motor weighing in at 145kg! However, this all-wheeldrive propulsion system was sufficiently advanced in concept to be the inspiration for the lunar rovers built by
NASA when exploring the surface of the moon in the late 1960s.
Ferdinand Porsche was fascinated by the technology and went on to apply it to commercial vehicles, too. In 1906, he was appointed technical director at Austro-daimler in Vienna and there, six years later, was responsible for the design and development of the Landwehr Train (named after Ottokar Landwehr, the person who pioneered the concept). This gargantuan eight tonne machine was designed to run on both road and railway, and featured a hybrid driveline, with a six-cylinder 100 horsepower petrol engine running in conjunction with hub-mounted electric motors.
Each 'train' consisted of a number of wagons (five on the road, or up to ten on the track), along with a generator car. Each wagon could carry a five tonne payload. The six-cylinder engine was connected to a 70kw generator, which provided power to the electric motors fitted to every second axle of the train. This multi-wheel-drive system meant that the Landwehr
Train could tackle a nine per cent slope, a considerable achievement on road or rail at the time.
Moving ahead, Porsche's fascination with all-wheeldrive continued even when his work took him into the realms of developing a People's Car. Among the first of his Volksauto projects was the NSU Type 32, the surviving example of which can still be seen in Volkswagen's Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg. Although it reached prototype stage as a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive saloon, in 1934 Porsche's chief designer, Karl Rabe, penned a design for a four-wheeldrive version, his drawing showing a driveshaft exiting the front of the transmission casing and heading forward to a differential unit mounted in the front axle.
In this instance, the design never made it off the drawing board, but it paved the way for what was to prove one of the most remarkable military vehicles of all time: the Schwimmwagen, the roots of which can be traced back to a designer by the name of Hannes Trippel who had drawn up designs for an amphibious military vehicle featuring buoyancy tanks to keep it afloat.
Late in 1939, Porsche's design team in Stuttgart drew up plans for an amphibious version of the twowheel-drive military Kübelwagen (also known as the Type 82E). This was at the behest of the Waffen SS, which had asked Porsche if it would be possible to fit one of his four-cylinder air-cooled engines into a motorcycle frame to produce a lightweight all-terrain vehicle.
Porsche was unimpressed by this suggestion and instead began to sketch out some ideas for a more sophisticated machine. The resultant prototype was
known as the Type 128, the first example taking to the water in 1940. Work also commenced on a four-wheeldrive system (known as Types 86 and 87), the technology behind which eventually led to the final version of the amphibious Schwimmwagen.
The Type 128 first took to the water in the fire-pond at the KDF factory (what is today known as Wolfsburg), where it showed potential, even if the 'crew' did have to be rescued on more than one occasion when it broke down. The main problem was the shape of the body, which was little different to that of the Kübelwagen from which it was derived and allowed the interior to be swamped.
A second version was much improved, featuring as it did a more boat-shaped body which resulted in better stability and manoeuvrability in amphibious mode. By the end of September 1940, several examples of the revised Type 128 had been built and extensively tested in the Max-eyth-see, close to Stuttgart.
Mechanically, it was almost identical to the Jeep-like Kübelwagen, with the exception of a four-wheel-drive system, with drive to the front wheels taken from the nose of the gearbox to a differential located between the torsion bar tubes of the front axle. A rear-mounted propeller used a chain-drive off the crankshaft, while a hinged coupling allowed it to be pivoted out of the way when the vehicle was driven on dry land.
The Type 128 proved a success and an order was placed for some 30 improved prototypes. As a consequence, Porsche was given the go-ahead to develop the design still further – the result was the Type 166 Schwimmwagen, which appeared late in 1942.
This was very similar to its immediate predecessor but had a shorter wheelbase (2000mm as opposed to 2400mm) and narrower body to make it more agile in battle conditions. To overcome the losses associated with the all-wheel-drive system, the engine size was increased to 1131cc, and power output from just 23.5bhp to a 25bhp.
The Type 166 Schwimmwagen was another of Porsche’s many success stories, for it earned great respect from soldiers on both sides of the front line. Indeed, captured Schwimmwagen became prized trophies among Allied troops and are among the most sought-after of all historic Voklkswagens today.
Porsche also developed a four-wheel-drive version of the Kdf-wagen, known as the Type 877. Commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as the Type 87 (that designation really refers to a prototype four-wheel-drive version of the Kübelwagen), this versatile vehicle became known as the Kommandeurwagen, and was intended for use by officers in the field. However, this avenue was never fully developed, largely because the body panels were in short supply, production at the factory having turned from the Kdf-wagen to the supply of the more versatile Types 82E and 166. Of the latter,
more than 14,000 examples were built before the end of hostilities.
The late Major Ivan Hirst (REME), the British officer credited with getting the VW factory back in operation after the war, had a Type 877 assembled from parts discovered at the factory. Speaking to the author a few years ago, he recalled how badly the car behaved on tarmac: ‘It felt like the front and rear wheels were constantly fighting against each other. It was virtually impossible to drive in a straight line.’ But then, with no differential – and certainly nothing as sophisticated as a viscous coupling – between the front and rear axles, that's not much of a surprise!
Before we head off into the post-war period of four-wheeldrive, there is another rather intriguing machine for which Porsche was responsible, and that's the mighty, but ultimately ill-fated, Merecedes T80 Rekordwagen. This Leviathan was actually a six-wheeled streamliner, of which just the rear four wheels were driven. Sanctioned by Adolf Hitler, work on the project began in 1937, with a targeted speed of 550Km/h (342mph), although this goal was ultimately increased to some 750Km/h (465mph) by the outbreak of war in 1939.
Power was to provided by a huge 44.5-litre Daimlerbenz DB603 'inverted' V-12, a derivative of the engine used in the wartime Messerschnmidt Bf109 fighter plane. This was mounted behind the driver, feeding power to a transaxle unit, alongside which were two wheels, with another pair on a separate axle mounted at the rear, driven by a shaft off the end of the gearbox. The V-12 powerplant was modified to produce in the region of 3000bhp, an almost 100 per cent increase over that of the original aero-engine!
The onset of hostilities meant that the ambitious project had to be put on hold, although the car did survive and is currently on display, unrestored, in the magnificent Mercedes-benz museum in Stuttgart.
Once the war was over, many people's thoughts turned once again to motorsport, among them was one Karl Abarth – he later changed his name to Carlo Abarth, having relocated to Italy from his native Austria. Abarth was married to the secretary of Anton Piëch, Porsche's lawyer, and ultimately established regular contact with Ferdinand Porsche by mail. A third person entered the scene at this point: Rudolph Hruska, an Austrian engineer based in Italy.
As the three-way relationship blossomed, Porsche enquired whether Abarth and Hruska would like to become his agents in Italy, not to market cars, but to promote his studio's design skills. Abarth's contacts led to a project to build a Grand Prix car for Tazio Nuvolari, the famed pre-war Italian racing driver, the prospect of which excited Porsche. The only problem was one of funding.
The solution to this 'minor' matter lay in the hands – or rather , the bank account – of Piero Dusio, head of the Cisitalia company in Italy. Dusio had made his
“IT WAS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DRIVE…”
fortune in the war by supplying boots to the Italian army and, despite a lack of engineering knowledge, he was an enthusiastic sponsor behind an ambitious project to build a racing car.
It was no easy task for Porsche to design a new car from scratch, the restrictions placed upon German citizens by the occupying forces in the immediate postwar period meant that all engineering projects had to be given the OK – even a racing car.
The outcome was the Type 360 Grand Prix car, a pretty little mid-engined single-seater powered by an amazing 1.5-litre flat-12 engine. This was projected to produce in the region of 400 to 450bhp, giving a top speed of around 300Km/h, with the engine turning at up to 12,000rpm. As was so often the case in the days of narrow tyres, traction was clearly going to be a problem.
To combat this, the Cisitalia 360 was equipped with selectable four-wheel-drive – the car would normally be driven with rear-drive only but when accelerating out of tight corners, or up hill, the driver could push a lever and engage drive to the front wheels, too. In addition, the Cisitalia 360 also featured a sequentially-shifted synchronised gearbox designed by Leopold Schmid. Heady stuff for 1947…
Sadly, this all-wheel-drive engineering masterpiece never took to the track, Dusio turning his attentions to producing Cisitalia sportscars for road and competition use. He had other ideas, too, including the production of a low-cost (to build), high-price (to sell) sportscar based on a relatively simple driveline. Inspiration for Porsche's 356? Undoubtedly…
With the formation of NATO in 1949 came the need for a simple, mass-produced vehicle in the style of the wartime US military Jeep. Porsche was one German company vying for the opportunity to equip NATO with a suitable off-road vehicle. The two other companies which expressed an interest in designing such a machine were Goliath and DKW.
Now the idea of Porsche once again entering the military 'market' might seem strange, but this was a period when every manufacturer was looking for work of any kind in order to generate much-needed revenue – the aforementioned Cisitalia project is proof of that. Porsche was also in a strong position, having access to a pool of the finest engineers. Goliath, an offshoot of the Borgward company, struggled as a manufacturer of small vans and was in a poor financial state. This was a last chance for the company to survive. DKW had also fallen on hard times, its passenger cars with their puny two-stroke engines lacking mass appeal.
Goliath’s design was doomed from the start, for the powers that be in NATO doubted the company had the wherewithal to fulfil a military contract. DKW, on the other hand, submitted an interesting lightweight design, which promised to be cheap to build, but was powered yet again by a two-stroke motor. Called the Munga, it was to prove Porsche’s Nemesis.
By comparison, Porsche’s design, known internally as the Type 597, but later more popularly as the Jagdwagen ('hunting car'), was far more sophisticated than rival efforts, with part-time four-wheel-drive, torsion-bar suspension and a five-speed transmisssion equipped with an ultra-low ratio for serious off-road use. The first cars were fitted with a 1488cc engine, but production models relied on a 50bhp 1582cc unit, a detuned 356 engine, with lower compression and a single Zenith 32NDIX carburettor.
In normal road conditions, the Jagdwagen ran in rear-wheel-drive, but by engaging a simple dog clutch by pushing a lever forward, drive would be transferred to the front wheels for off-road use. It was a simple system without the benefit of free-wheeling hubs but perfectly adequate for the intended military use.
The bodywork can best be described as basic, with ribbed body panels for strength, and seating for four or five soldiers. The spare wheel was located vertically at the front of the vehicle, providing some protection in the event of a collision as well as placing some muchneeded weight over the front wheels.
In testing, the Jagdwagen proved superb. A military version was exhibited at the Geneva motor show in March 1955, with the promise of a civilian model becoming available for those who wanted the best in off-road vehicles. There was even a sales brochure printed, proclaiming that the Jagdwagen ‘will carry four passengers over hill and dale to hunting lodges and fishing spots’.
Considering that at the time, the ‘opposition’ in this market comprised little more than the crudely-equipped British Land Rover, the type 597 could have become a legend in the same way the British-built off-roader has.
But it failed at the last hurdle – the cost was simply too high, and the simple, cheap DKW Munga won the NATO contract.
It was a bitter – and costly – pill for Porsche to swallow. With just 71 examples built, the Jagdwagen fell into the ‘what might have been’ category in Porsche model history. It would be more than a decade before Porsche ventured once more into the world of all-wheel-drive with the mighty 959 and the 964 Carrera 4…