The Type III: More Porsche than VW?

[Toby Erkson <Toby_Erkson@mail.intel.com>]

"PORSCHE 914 * 914-6" by Brian Long, Veloce Publishing Plc, (c)1997

This book does a fantastic job of explaining the history of the VW-Porsche 914. 
It includes information about the building of Volkswagen as well as Porsche and 
the eventual joint project between the two in creating the Type 914.

Porsche's foundation stone was Volkswagen and Porsche helped VW in many ways 
unbeknownst to many.  Here's what was told in Chapter 2:
"...Nordhoff [General Manager for VW, 1948] provided the Stuttgart firm with a 
constant stream of commissions.  Indeed, before the 914 model was instigated, 
Porsche had dealt with around sixty projects for VW, ranging from complete cars 
for the marque, to engines and transmissions, and more mundane items such as 
heating systems...".  This includes the synchro-mesh gearbox which was adopted 
on the Beetle in 1951.

More interesting, especially for us Type III'ers, was the Type 672 of 1955.  
This was a small car with a rear mounted, underfloor engine.  It was eventually 
developed into a flat-six (Type 673) but nothing became of it.  Please note the 
inclusion of the word, "underfloor".  This means that the engine was *under* a 
usable part of the car, unlike the Beetle or Porsche 911 which just had an 
engine lid above it.  This design would be a view into the future.

In 1958 VW commissioned Porsche and Ghia of Italy to design a medium-sized car. 
Porsche designed several under-floor flat-four engines and eventually came up 
with the Type 728.  This model resulted into our beloved Type 3 and went into 
production in 1961.

If you go to my Type Three Tech web page you will see an image at the bottom.  
What is it?  My guess is that it's a homologous (this new book has had me 
looking up a few words as well :) of a Porsche 911, Porsche 356 and Porsche 728.
 Any Notchback owners drooling yet?

The Type Three Technical Page is:
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1641/

    Toby Erkson
    air_cooled_nut@pobox.com  <-- Please use this address for email responses
    '72 VW Squareback 1.6L bored and stroked to 2.0L
    '75 Porsche 914 1.8L, ORPCA member
    Portland, Oregon, http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/8501/