"Things became tough for me after the war, since now I had to take the initiative all by myself", said Ferry Porsche. So he started on new projects catering for the new demands and requirements he was now facing: The machines in Gmnd were used to build accessories for tractors, wheelbarrows or cable winches. But the objective, of course, was to build cars once again. So with his business friends Karl Abarth and Rudolf Hruska acting as the intermediaries, Ferry Porsche signed a contract with Piero Dusio, an industrialist from Torino, on 15 December 1946 for a wide range of development assignments on behalf of Dusio's company Cisitalia. Apart from a small tractor and a water turbine, Porsche KG in Gmnd was also entrusted with the construction of the Type 360 Grand Prix Racing Car as well as the Type 370 two-seater mid-engined sports car. "I would have done everything the same way, down to the last bolt"
The engineers at Porsche KG in Gmnd were soon working all-out on the Type 360 Grand Prix Racing Car - and indeed, this first car developed completely under the guidance and leadership of Ferry Porsche was far ahead of its time. The Porsche engineers opted for a 1.5-litre supercharged twelve-cylinder power unit, with engine power transmitted to the wheels through on-demand four-wheel drive. And although the assignment was not continued beyond the test stage due to a lack of funds on the part of the Italian principal, the project was nevertheless of fundamental significance to Porsche. Receiving an appropriate fee for the work done, Ferry Porsche was able to bail his father out of prison by paying a million French francs to the authorities, Ferdinand Porsche being released on 1 August 1947. The investigations that had started in France against Professor Porsche on account of alleged war offences never resulted in any formal charges and were soon dropped once and for all. And when, a bit later, Ferdinand Porsche saw the drawings of Type 360, he gave his son the highest grade possible: "I would have done everything the same way, down to the last bolt."
1948: the first Porsche Sports Car
"I can readily admit that the initiative came through Cisitalia", said Ferry Porsche on the occasion of his 75th birthday when describing the early days of the Porsche 356. "Back then Cisitalia was building a small sports car with a Fiat engine. So I said to myself: why shouldn't we do the same thing with VW parts? After all, that is already what we did before the war with the Berlin-Rome car."
Looking back today, the business risk involved in an enterprise of this kind was almost mind-boggling: The whole of Europe was struggling after a terrible war and demand in the market was primarily for practical and inexpensive cars. And precisely in this situation Ferry Porsche decided to fulfil his dream of building his own sports car - only to find that other aficionados of the automobile shared precisely the same dream.
In spring 1947 Ferry Porsche first expressed his idea to build a sports car using Volkswagen components which, initially code-named the "VW-Sports", received the construction number 356. The vision of the Porsche Junior Director was to "build the kind of sports car I liked myself". Ferry Porsche's engineers, at any rate, were fascinated by the idea of building such a sports car, completing a road-going chassis in February 1948 destined to take up a roadster body made of aluminium. The flat-four power unit, together with the gearbox, suspension, springs and steering, all came from Volkswagen. Weighing just 585 kg or 1,290 lb, this 35-bhp mid-engined roadster had a top speed of 135 km/h or 84 mph. On 8 June 1948 this very first Porsche mid-engine sports car proudly bearing the chassis number 356-001 received official homologation from the authorities through an individual permit granted by the State Government of Carinthia.