1958 Porsche Diesel Junior 108K tractor

• Small but potent single-cylinder air-cooled diesel

• Over 120,000 Porsche-Diesel tractors sold, just 1000 sold in USA

• Innovative features including clutch-less shifting

Porsche has always been home to great engineering, whether on the racetrack or the farm. Ferdinand and his team had set out to make a tractor for the people, or ‘Volksschlepper’ in German. The first Porsche Tractors were released in the early 1940’s with a 12 horsepower, two-cylinder engine in V formation. Production evolved to include the smaller sized Junior, seen here, up to the 55 HP Master model. These tractors performed as well as they look, and though they aren’t as popular as Porsche road vehicles, over 120,000 tractors were sold until production ended in the late 1950’s.

This tractor on display is smallest of the Porsche-Diesel lineup, and even with a small air-cooled single cylinder engine, the tractor has enough torque to execute normal farming duties. These engines were strong and desirable tractors from farms all across Europe, though only about 1000 examples were sold in the U.S. as there were more affordable American made tractors. Many were used until they could no longer operate, and as such very few examples remain. This tractor on display underwent a period correct restoration and runs like new.

Porsche did not execute production of these tractors, though they handled all of the engineering and design work. Porsche licensed the designs to Allgaier of Germany and Hofherr Schrantz of Austria, allowing Porsche extra financial support while their road car production materialized. These tractors had a few advanced features that some might expect from the brilliant Porsche engineers, one being the hydraulic coupling between the engine and transmission. This allows the user to shift gears without a clutch while the tractor was in motion.

Specifications:

Engine: 900 CC single-cylinder , air-cooled diesel

Power: 15 hp