Meet the Cayenne’s Great Grandfather: The Porsche Type 597

This is the Porsche 597 from the 1950s. West Germany was looking to rearm following World War II, and Porsche was looking to get the government contract to build the next big thing in off-road military vehicles. Porsche brought this lightweight 597 to the table with its 356-derived 50-horsepower flat-four connected to a five-speed manual transmission. In typical Porsche fashion, the four-wheel drive military vehicle was over engineered and very advanced for its time; as a result, the German government went with another automaker’s proposal. Why? Expense, what else?

The DKW Munga was what the government ended up using. Judging from the looks of it, if the West Germans would have acted up, they would have been quashed rather quickly.

via [Road & Track]