Ferdinand Porsche was born on September 3, 1875. Always interested in things
mechanical, at the age of 15 he equipped his family's home with electricity,
designing and building the generator and even the light bulb. The name Porsche
first appeared on a car in 1900, the Lohner-Porsche, a battery-powered car that
was first shown at the Paris Exhibition. In 1906 Porsche was hired by the
Daimler Motor Co. as Technical Director, and eventually becoming the Chief
Engineer. One of his Mercedes designs created for Daimler-Benz won the 1924
Targa Florio, and he built on this success to create the Mercedes-Benz S series
of the late 1920s, cars which have been referred to as "street legal racing
machines." Porsche proposed a mass-produced Mercedes-Benz for the ordinary
driver but was turned down by his employer, so he left the Daimler-Benz
organization and started up on his own. The Volkswagen plan dates from this
time, along with three aerodynamic versions built for racing.During World War II
Porsche found himself working for hitler and building projects such as producing
farm tractors. Hitler got porsche to build him the Kubelwagen, the Schwimwagen,
and even a car that used wood as fuel to opperate in the war.But in 1946, when
Porsche's son Ferry and daughter Louise Plech joined the firm, they returned to
the goal of sports car design. The Porsche Type 356 went into production in
1948. Porsche died in 1951, having seen the Porsche name on a sports car.