1954-58 Porsche 597 Jagdwagen; Before the Cayenne came the Hunter.(Escape Roads)

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

If your sole conception of a Porsche is an air-cooled 911, you could find the idea of a Porsche SUV strange, maybe even downright heretical. At least that's the reaction the new Cayenne (page 16) has drawn among some enthusiasts. Really, though, it's just a matter of perspective.

In the big picture, sports cars are only part of the Porsche story. Porsche thrived as an engineering firm for decades before it ever built a sports car, creating a variety of vehicles. One of company founder Ferdinand Porsche's early designs was a gas/electric hybrid with electric motors integrated into all four wheel hubs, 100 years ago-if you can imagine that. Porsche's resume also includes road trucks and farm tractors, along with his most famous design, the Volkswagen Beetle. Off-road military variants of the Beetle in both two- and four-wheel-drive (Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen) were created at the Porsche works in Zuffenhausen at the same time the original Jeep-now regarded as both the prototype and progenitor of the modern SUV-was being developed in America. So it might well be asked: If Porsche isn't supposed to build an off-road vehicle, who is?

The Cayenne, after all, is not the first four-wheel-drive sport/utility vehicle to carry the Porsche badge. From 1954 to 1958, Porsche built the 597 Jagdwagen, or Hunter. Tracing, perhaps, the successful pattern established by the Willys Jeep, the 597 was designed primarily for military use, with hopes of spinning off a civilian version. But the project never gained momentum, and only 71 Hunters were made. Porsche purists will enjoy learning 597s were built in the factory race shops-period photos show them being assembled alongside 550 Spyders.

In concept, the Jagdwagen was similar to the four-wheel-drive Volkswagen Kubel variants; naturally, it included the classic rear-mounted, air-cooled, four-cylinder opposed engine. Early versions employed a Porsche 1488-cc unit; later, a 1582-cc unit was used, detuned to 60 horsepower with a single carburetor and a 6.5:1 compression ratio. The rear axle incorporated VW Kombi reduction hubs for increased ground clearance, while drive to the front wheels was taken from the front of the transaxle. The ...