Photos

The 1934 Porsche tractor design included a hydraulic coupling between engine and transmission; this distinctive feature of Porsche-Diesel engines was used in tractors until the last model produced in 1963. Engineers in the 1930s believed that farmers in those days were not able to handle a clutch properly when shifting gears...
Prototypes
Prof. Dr. F. Porsche produced three prototype tractors in 1934, all equipped with petrol engines. The Porsche diesel engine with its unique air-cooled feature was not quite ready for production. Through various tests this led to a fully developed air-cooled diesel engine with a power range from 14 hp to 55 hp. By the early 1950s Prof. Dr. F. Porsche had designed 4 basic models: 1 cyl; 2 cyl; 3 cyl; and 4 cyl - all having individual and interchangeable cylinders and heads. Prof. Dr. F. Porsche also had a 4-wheel drive tractor on the drawing board as early as 1946.
Post war production
After WWII only companies in Germany who were producing farm tractors during and prior to the war were allowed to continue producing those tractors. Since Porsche was not one of these companies it signed licensing agreements with the German company Allgaier GmbH and the Austrian company Hofherr Schrantz. These two companies used the Porsche engine design and called their tractor: Allgaier System Porsche and Hofherr Schrantz System Porsche. In 1956 Mannesmann AG decided to make tractors and bought the license for the Porsche diesel engine design and the Allgaier tractor design. They rebuilt and expanded the old Zeppelin factory just west of Friedrichshafen on Lake Konstanz to a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with the most modern machine tool and assembly complex then available. Porsche-Diesel tractors were produced in here until the end of 1963. Between 1956 and 1963 over 125,000 Porsche-Diesel tractors were produced.