The very first Porsche, a hand-built aluminum prototype, was completed on June 8, 1948. The history of Porsche automobiles goes back much farther, however, all the way back to 1900 when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche introduced his first design, a Lohner-Porsche. Austro-Daimler (a licensee of the Stuttgart-based Daimler firm) recruited Porsche in 1906 to be its chief designer. One of his most famous A-D's appeared in 1910. Porsche designed an 85-horsepower, streamlined car for the Prince Henry Trial. Examples won the top three places in the 1910 trial, and Model 27/80 has ever since been known as the "Prince Henry." The car Porsche designed was very innovative: a V-16 4.5-liter engine placed ahead of the rear transaxle, tube frame, aluminum skin weighing 99 pounds, gas tank between the cockpit and the engine (in the center of the car so that weight gain or loss with gas load did not unduly impact handling), a front suspension of torsion bars and trailing arms, and a rear suspension of swing axles, semi-elliptical springs, and tube-type shocks.
