This rare Porsche Type 597 created for the German army is up for sale

Porsche created a Type 597 model that was conceived by the German army when it was contesting against Auto Union and the Borgward Group for a military contract. Porsche was given a responsibility to develop a light truck for the army which led the sports car manufacturer to make a Porsche Type 597 model. It is believed that Porsche made only 77 units of this creation and the fifth prototype of this will soon be in an auction organised by RM Sotheby’s.

Though this bygone model has no resemblance to today's Porsche, it has many features similar to the other models from the company. It comes with a rear-mounted, air-cooled 1.5-litre flat-four engine that was taken from a 356 sports car. It sported a four-speed manual transmission similar to the 356 model, however, for the Porsche Type 597, the company upgraded the powertrain to make the car more stable and not a performance-oriented one.

The Type 597 model had its front axle coupling that gave the car selectable four-wheel drive abilities. It was designed in such a manner that it provided the car with enough height to climb steep hills as well as cross large water bodies. A report by Carscoops informed that out of the 22 prototypes that Porsche created, at least two had propellers as well as oars to make them amphibious models.

After all the efforts put into the development of this rare model, Porsche, however, did not get the military contract due to the model's high development costs, per-unit price, assembly time of the model and Porsche's difficulties to manufacture it along with the 356 Carrera and 550 Spyder. There were also issues in distributing the appropriate spare parts for the model.

The unit that is about to go for an auction has been restored in its original shade of Olive Green and the interior also has been completed matching the exterior colour. It is expected that this rare Porsche model might get sold for between $725,000 and $775,000.