I shamelessly clipped this from Car and Driver. I thought it was a neat article especially since I have been posting a bunch of articles during Postwar Germany, I thought it kinda tied in with them.
When
West Germany was formed out of the ashes of Hitler's Third Reich in
1949, responsibility for its defense fell to the Western Allies. As
tensions with Stalin's Soviet Union only seemed to be increasing, it was
decided that the Bundesrepublik Deutschland should be allowed
to arm itself, leading to the formation of the Bundeswehr, a new German
defense force, incorporating a new army, a revived Luftwaffe, and a
naval service simply referred to as Marine. The new service needed a
Jeep, a role that had been largely performed during World War II by the Beetle-based Kübelwagen. DKW's awkward-looking Munga won the competition to serve as light-duty mobility for German troops, beating out upstart sports-car manufacturer Porsche's very interesting Jagdwagen.
Known by its Porsche type number, 597, the Jagdwagen (literally, "hunting car") pulled a page from the Volkswagen playbook. Where Ferdinand Porsche's Kübelwagen borrowed heavily from his design for the VW Beetle,
his son Ferry used his company's 356 in much the same way. Given that
the 356 itself can be seen as a radical evolution of the Beetle, it's
not a stretch to claim that the Kübelwagen and the Jagdwagen trace their
roots to the same seed.
But while the VW had Nazi win-at-all-costs fanaticism and the industrial might of the state-owned KdF-Stadt
at Fallersleben behind it, Porsche's company had only its Stuttgart
works and contract production at Karmann available, likely making the
Jagdwagen a more expensive proposition, especially from the perspective
of a relatively new government in the midst of rebuilding a nation.
However,
for the expense, there was real capability on offer. Its 356-derived
50-hp flat-four engine was connected to a five-speed transmission, but
that wasn't the end of it. The front wheels were capable of engaging
with the powertrain on the fly. Given all-wheel traction, a short
wheelbase, and generous approach and departure angles, the Jagdwagen was
capable of climbing a 65 percent grade
Early
prototypes, introduced in January 1955, featured a very high sill
without doors, giving the Jagdwagen a measure of amphibious capability,
although its motorboat capabilities weren't developed to the extent of
the Kübelwagen’s fishy-flutter cousin, the World War II–era
Schwimmwagen, which featured a propeller. Later prototypes from 1957
favored ease of ingress and egress over amphibious prowess, and they
were equipped with doors.
Weighing
in at a mere 1874 pounds, the flyweight military vehicle offered
impressive dynamics for its day, but the Bundeswehr ultimately
determined that the nifty Jagdwagen and its Goliath co-competitor were
less a match for the country's needs than the simple, dumpy Munga from
DKW. Nevertheless, it stands as the first Porsche-branded vehicle with
four driven wheels. Porsche's Stuttgart facility had assembled
four-wheel-drive Schwimmwagens during the war years and had developed
the all-wheel-drive Cisitalia Grand Prix car shortly after the war.
Of the 71 Jagdwagens constructed, roughly 50 examples are known to
exist still. And today, of course, the remnants of DKW are part of Audi,
Porsche's sister brand in the Volkswagen Group portfolio. Porsche
didn't build another vehicle with four driven wheels until the all-mod-cons 959
of the 1980s, but today it largely sustains itself building
sport-utility vehicles such as the Cayenne and the Macan, the latter of
which is based on Audi’s Q5.
Without
the Munga-contract money that flowed into Ingolstadt bolstering Auto
Union's postwar fortunes, today's Audi might never have existed, there might have been no Volkswagen Golf,
and Porsche might well have wound up having to develop the Macan from
scratch. Which, if we're honest, probably would've been just fine with
Porsche.
