The Farmer's Porsche

Although purists dismiss the Cayenne sport utility model as an improper Porsche, it seems to be selling well enough. Actually it's not the first utilitarian Porsche. Porsche experiments with tractors started before World War II. After the war, the so-called System Porsche was taken up by Allgaier Maschinenbau of Uhingen, Germany, with a plant in Friedrichshafen. In 1955 the tractor business and Friedrichshafen plant were sold to Mannesman Corporation, and tractor production continued under the name Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH. Major redesign was undertaken in the late fifties; there were several sizes of tractors using one-, two-, three- or four-cylinder air-cooled diesels.

These included the single-cylinder Typ P111, built through 1956, and called "Junior" from 1957. A major redesign of the Junior was made in 1960. There was also a Junior S, a narrow tractor for work in orchards. The Standard, a two-cylinder model, came in many forms,including the Standard V and slightly less powerful Standard T. The line was filled out with a three-cylinder Super (this industrial model has a front-mounted air compressor) and four-cylinder Master.

In 1963, Germany was allowed to re-commence building military vehicles, armored personnel carriers, so the tractor business was sold to Renault, as a result of declining sales. Ironically, a Porsche tractor design of 1946, the four-wheel-drive 328, was deemed too radical at the time. A near clone is now being made in Mexico as the New Holland TN-A series.

I've come across a couple of Porsche tractors in my travels, a Super V-308 (at the head of this column) at Beaulieu Autojumble a couple of years ago, and a Standard V last year at Hanbury Steam Rally in Worcestershire, England. Although Porsche tractors have been out of production for over 40 years they're still trendy. Pedal Porsche toys for girls and boys are the latest fad from Germany.

Certainly not a sporting Porsche, the diesel tractor is the only Porsche to deserve the ultimate put-down from British motoring writers: agricultural.

I'm indebted to Don Chew of Colorado for tutoring me in the ways of Porsche tractors and for providing many of the illustrations in this CarPort.