With a name that translates to “hunting car,” the Jagdwagen is amphibious, and it also has an amazing off-road ability.
The Porsche 597 Jagdwagen is a light military vehicle designed to replace Jeeps, Volkswagen’s Kubelwagens, and Land Rovers. When most people hear of Porsche, they think of a lightning-fast sports car. Even the exceptionally capable Porsche Cayenne 4×4 arouses need for speed. Porsche has designed military vehicles in the past, although few would mistake the Cayenne for one. Remember that Porsche has a well-deserved reputation for doing things right. This also applied to the Porsche 597 Jagdwagen.
The Porsche 597 Jagdwagen is a light military vehicle designed to replace Jeeps, Volkswagen’s Kubelwagens, and Land Rovers. When most people hear of Porsche, they think of a lightning-fast sports car. Even the exceptionally capable Porsche Cayenne 4×4 arouses need for speed. Porsche has designed military vehicles in the past, although few would mistake the Cayenne for one. Remember that Porsche has a well-deserved reputation for doing things right. This also applied to the Porsche 597 Jagdwagen.
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The Jagdwagen, which loosely translates as “hunting car,” was created as a prototype for the German Army. Porsche’s Jagdwagen off-road vehicle could handle practically any terrain; on land or on water. However, due to expenses and Porsche’s inability to generate the required capacity, the Jagdwagen never saw mass production. Instead, the German Army preferred the less expensive DKW Munga due to its reduced cost and Auto Union’s ability to meet the Army’s demand. Between 1955 and 1958, just 71 Porsche 597s were manufactured, 49 of which were for the civilian market.
An Overview Of The Dependability Prowess Of The Porsche 597 Jagdwagen
Barely a few years after the second world war, Germany was ultimately given permission to rebuild and start outfitting a sizable permanent army in 1954. The process included accelerating the production of domestically made military equipment.
Light transport had a similar role in that as fighter jets, tanks, and machine guns. The Federal German Republic (FGR) issued a request for proposals for a new quarter-ton 4×4 field car, and Goliath (a division of Borgward), Auto-Union (later known as Audi), and Porsche all responded.
Porsche reacted with the Type 597 after brushing off its designs and thoughts from World War II and creating some new engineering DNA. It was Porsche’s 597th engineering project since the company’s inception in 1931, according to that number. The 597 was designed in the same manner as the Type 82 Kübelwagen, which was small, maneuverable, and light. However, it had four-wheel drive, which most Kübels lacked.
There were many appealing aspects of Ferdinand Porsche’s design. With an additional layer of refinement Porsche believed would set his Jagdwagen apart from a sea of extremely capable military 4x4s from Germany and the rest of NATO, it offered all the tough capability of a Jeep or Kübelwagen of years before. The car’s undercarriage, which has torsion bar suspension at each corner, allowed for this.
The body of the 597 was a watertight-unitized tub, which shows that Porsche initially intended the vehicle to be amphibious. A less subtle indication of such was given by the fact that the first few were fitted with an engine-driven propeller. Even though the body may still float, later iterations lacked props. It was four-seater soft-top configuration with no doors.
The Porsche 597 outperformed every rival it faced in every category when it was tested by the German military – the 597’s only setback was its price. The Porsche 597 Jagdwagen was three times more expensive than its rivals. Even though the 597 was a wonderful 4WD vehicle, the military chose the DKW Munga because it was less expensive.
The Porsche design team carefully considered what this vehicle needed to be able to achieve before creating its prototype. A vehicle that was genuinely amphibious (early models even had a propeller) and capable of ascending a 65 percent hill was the result of their meticulous analytical problem-solving. In contrast to the Kubelwagen, the Porsche 597 included a lever next to the gear lever that allowed the driver to choose between 2WD and 4WD.
The top speed of this off-road vehicle was 62 mph. The engine was at the back, much like in the original 356; Porsche used 1.5- and 1.6-liter air-cooled flat-four engines. The “top” 1.6-liter engine, used in subsequent Jagdwagen models, generated 50 horsepower and 77Ib-ft of torque.
With the front axle engaged by a lever and the first gear being extremely short, they were sent to the rear axle via a manual, five-speed gearbox. Independent suspension, excellent slope angles, and a climbing ability of 65% allowed the Type 597 to thrill even in challenging terrain. The vehicle’s weight ranged from 1918 to 2182 pounds depending on the type, and its top speed was roughly 62 mph. The 597 was displayed at the 1955 Geneva Motor Show because Porsche was so proud of the new invention.
Porsche had previously modified its prototypes at that time to include five synchronized gears and an on-board voltage of 24 volts. The fleet of tested cars traveled about 3,600 miles in all. Porsche had to take note of criticism of the suspension, the tiny interior with little storage space, and the inadequate pulling power at low and medium revs in addition to praise for robustness, simplicity, and decent maintenance possibilities.