The Porsche Type 12 is a saloon / drophead coupé from Porsche, built from 1931 to 1932, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: Zündapp five-cylinder radial. Ferdinand Porsche drew it.
The background
The Porsche Type 12 was a German project to develop an "Everyman's automobile" (Auto für Jedermann) for Zündapp. Fritz Neumeyer, then owner of Zündapp, ordered Ferdinand Porsche to design and build the prototype in 1931. Eventually, two saloons, and one drophead coupé were built.
All of those cars were lost during World War II, the last one in a bombing raid in Stuttgart in 1945. The Type 12 is considered an important early step in the development of the original Volkswagen. A replica of the Type 12 is on static display at the Museum Industriekultur in Nürnberg.
The engineering
Power comes from Zündapp five-cylinder radial. It weighs 900 kg. It shifts through a three-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 2500 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Porsche Type 32; assembly was at Stuttgart. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Bugatti Type 57, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Fiat 515 — show what else the money bought that year. Its Porsche stablemates include the Porsche P1 and the MPV Tehran.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Porsche Type 12 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.