cisco said:
PS - Anyone seen a Porsche tractor? Now that would be interesting.
Excerpt from an Ultimatecarpagedotcom thread dated from 2004-
Between 1956 and 1963 over 125,000 Porsche-Diesel tractors were produced, many of them still in daily operation on farms and ranches all over the world.
In this time frame American Porsche-Diesel Corporation, 808 Packer Street, Easton, PA, sold approximately 1,000 Porsche-Diesel tractors in North America. Most of the tractors were sold at that time on the East Coast of the USA and Canada. A brand new Junior could be bought for about $1,750 and a Super for about $3,600. Very few Standards and Masters were sold due to a problem of being price competitive with U.S. made tractors.
Today, the number of Porsche-Diesel tractors in North America has increased drastically due to the fact that collecting and restoring Porsche-Diesel tractors is becoming a unique and affordable hobby. Fully concourse restored Porsche-Diesel tractors are being traded in the $15 20,000 range, however, un-restored examples in good running condition usually sell between $5,000 and $6,000.
Porsche-Diesel tractor Timeline:
1934 Initial design stage and production of 3 test vehicles with gasoline engine
1937 Official order by the German government to develop the 天olks-Tractor
1950 Allgaier starts production of the famous AP17 aluminum tractor with the Porsche designed 2-cylinder, air-cooled, diesel engine developing 18 hp.
1951 Death of Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche
1953 Start of the now green Allgaier System Porsche tractors. Product offering of 11hp, 22 hp, 33 hp, and 44 hp. Allgaier discontinues the manufacturing of their
old, water-cooled engine design.
1954 High sales volume requires larger manufacturing facilities. Registration of Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH, wholly owned division of Mannesmann AG.
1956 New facilities are being built in Friedrichshafen-Manzell at the old Donier/Zeppelin factory.
1956 Start of the production of the new line of PORSCHE-DIESEL tractors in red. The new product offering consisted of 4 models: JUNIOR, STANDARD, SUPER, and MASTER., (14 hp, 25 hp, 38 hp, 50 hp).
1957 Domestic sales were about 11,000 units and export about 6,000 units.
Agreement with Deutz to share technology and purchasing of specific parts.
1958 Production of approx. 20,000 tractors.
1959 Introduction of newly design product line with 15-20-26-30-35-55 hp.
1960 Domestic sales about 10,000 units and export about 6,000 units. Introduction of the newly developed Bosch-Hydraulic lifting and regulating system.
1962 By the end of 1962 Mannesmann AG decided to discontinue the
manufacturing of Porsche-Diesel tractors in the near future.
1963 The last Porsche-Diesel tractors were produced at the end of 1963, however,
a large number of units were still assembled in early 1964. They had to be
assembled out in the open since the manufacturing facilities were now used by
MTU producing high-speed, light-weight diesel engines for the NATO tanks.
