Porsche Type 12

The Porsche Type 12 was a German project to develop an everyman's automobile for Zündapp. Fritz Neumeyer, then the owner of Zündapp, ordered Ferdinand Porsche to design and build the prototype in 1931, and two saloons and one drophead coupe were eventually built. All were lost in the Second World War, the last in a bombing raid on Stuttgart in 1945, and a replica stands in the Museum Industriekultur in Nuremberg. It is regarded as an important early step toward the original Volkswagen. The body, by Reutter, was reasonably aerodynamic for its time, with covered rear wheel arches, on a central U-profile beam frame with leaf springs, and it already had the Beetle-style drivetrain with a rear swing axle. Its engine was a water-cooled 1,193 cc five-cylinder radial from Zündapp, making 26 PS and propelling it to 80 km/h.