{"id":97,"date":"2025-07-08T21:09:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2025-07-08T21:10:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:10:54","slug":"1948-porsche-356-1-the-genesis-of-an-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/08\/1948-porsche-356-1-the-genesis-of-an-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"1948 Porsche 356\/1: The Genesis of an Icon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Porsche’s 356 No.1 Roadster on display in Porsche Museum, Stuttgart1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferdinand (“Ferry”) Porsche’s first ever car is the infamous 356. The 356\/1 was a two-seater roadster featuring a mid-mounted, air-cooled flat-four engine producing 40 horsepower with a curb weight of 585 kilograms or 1290 pounds. Its top speed was around 84 mph. The car was produced out of many VW parts, including the swing-arm suspension, steering, brakes, transmission and clutch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Model No. 1’s aluminum body was designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda in April 1948 at Gm\u00fcnd. On June 8, 1948, the prototype with the chasis number 356-001 was granted a general operating permit. This date is considered the birth of the Porsche brand. After completion, the car was previewed in Swiss Grand Prix and later used to win a local race Rund um den Hofgarten in Austria <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one unit was ever produced. As Ferry’s company needed money to build more cars, Porsche sold the protoype to Rupprecht von Senger – a racing driver – for 7,000 Swiss francs as soon as Carinthian state government issued the operating permit. Since then, ownership changed several times. The prototype was upgraded from a 1.1-liter to a 1.5-liter engine and hydraulic brakes in 1952. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It laid the foundation for the subsequent Porsche 356 series, which transitioned to a rear-engine layout to accommodate additional seating and streamline production. By 1950, first 356 model went into series production in Stuttgart, offering three variants: Coup\u00e9, Speedster and Convertible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Model No. 1 has been meticulously preserved and is displayed at Porsche’s museum in Stuttgart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Porsche Museum Media Archive \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. \u00a9 Porsche<\/a> \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Porsche’s 356 No.1 Roadster on display in Porsche Museum, Stuttgart Ferdinand (“Ferry”) Porsche’s first ever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Porsche Museum Media Archive\",\"id\":\"7b830ffb-1df0-4547-8f62-9eaa4e856c4d\"},{\"content\":\"\u00a9 Porsche<\/a>\",\"id\":\"47a3f442-bb95-4011-9140-b5f2a3f357f3\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterporsche.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}