 | ||
The Porsche Type 12 or "Auto für Jedermann" (car for everybody) is a German automobile project produced in 1931.
The Type 12 was designed by Ferdinand Porsche for Zündapp. It featured the rounded styling then in vogue, typified by the Schlörwagen, Tatra V570, Chrysler Airflow, Dymaxion car, Toyota AA, and KdF-Wagen (better known as the Volkswagen Type 1 or Beetle).
It featured a five-cylinder radial engine at Zündapp's insistence, rather than the flat four Porsche preferred. It also used a swing axle rear suspension (invented by Edmund Rumpler). In 1932, three prototypes were running. All of those cars were lost during World War II, the last in a bombing raid in Stuttgart in 1945.
The Type 12 also served as one step in the development of the VW Type 1.
A replica of the Type 12 is on display at the Museum Industrielkultur in Nürnberg.