By 1934, Ferdinand Porsche already had around three decades of experience designing cars, and chief among his early work is the Lohner-Porsche Mixte gas/electric hybrid. While an absolute commercial failure – no doubt the technology available at the time could not keep up with the concept – Porsche did manage to sell a few copies, so there was proof that the engineering was solid.
So when Adolf Hitler conceived of a car for the people in 1934, Porsche was called forth to engineer it. I would wager though, that neither men even thought that their collaboration – Hitler provided the machinery, Porsche provided the engineering – would come to be so long for this world.
The revival.
SpeedSpec 