On this day in 1948, a hand-built aluminum prototype labeled
"No. 1" becomes the first vehicle to bear the name of one of the
world's leading luxury car manufacturers: Porsche. The Austrian
automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche debuted his first design
at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. The electric vehicle set
several Austrian land-speed records, reaching more than 35 mph
and earning international acclaim for the young engineer. He
became general director of the Austro-Daimler Company (an
outpost of the German automaker) in 1916 and later moved to
Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart. Daimler merged with the Benz
firm in the 1920s, and Porsche was chiefly responsible for
designing some of the great Mercedes racing cars of that decade.
Porsche left Daimler in 1931 and formed his own company. A few
years later, Adolf Hitler called on the engineer to aid in the
production of a small "people's car" for the German masses. With
his son, also named Ferdinand (known as Ferry), Porsche designed
the prototype for the