Early Porsche at the Ault Park Concours

Porsche: From Road to Racing was the premier display at this year's Ault Park Concours d'Elegance. Most people know the iconic marquee's history. Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche started the company in 1931 to supply designs to other firms. His first commission was from the German government to build a "people's car" which, of course, became the Volkswagen Beetle.

Following World War II Ferdinand Porsche was removed from his management position overseeing the Volkswagen line. Though he had designed a car under his own name, the Porsche 64, it basically used Volkswagen parts.

Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, then took over the company name and decided to build his own car, the 356. Again, he relied on his father's design and many parts originally designed for Volkswagen. The car at the top of this post is a 1948 356/2 and is chassis number 17 of 52, making it one of the oldest original Porsches known to exist. Also presented here are a couple other examples of the 356 from the 1950s and 1960s with the car was replaced by the famed 911.

Here, too, is Porsche's first true dedicated racing sports car, a 1955 550 Spyder. This car, with its 1492 cubic centimeter dual overhead cam flat four engine actually finished second in the SCCA F modified class in 1956.

I also have examples of some of the company's other cars. Here is a 914, a 924, a 928 and a 944, all models I have written about in previous blogs. Some of the more modern Porsche gems are to follow.