Few of us have the need for a tractor, but as Clarkson’s Farm has shown, if you do need one, you definitely want a cool one. They don’t come much cooler than today’s Nice Price or No Dice Porsche. Let’s see what such coolness costs.
Years ago, I met Lee Iacocca at a car show I was helping put on. Upon introduction, I was delighted to find that he totally lived up to my impression of him being a cigar-chomping bon vivant. That’s because, while I was driving him around in a golf cart, he was chomping on a cigar and was very convivial.
I didn’t get the chance to thank him for giving us cars like the Ford Mustang and GT40 or the object of our attention last Friday, the Dodge Viper. I’m sure he knew the impact they all had on the market and the affections of auto enthusiasts. Based on the comments, our 2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10 still has that magic. And, at $49,000, it managed to pull off a solid 60% Nice Price win.
The People’s Tractor
Many people consider the 924 to be the first front-engined car Porsche ever built, and that is the case. Decades earlier, however, Ferdinand Porsche had designed a front-engined vehicle that went on to be moderately successful but is little known outside of the most ardent fans of the marque.
Originally conceived by Dr. Porsche in the 1930s, the Volksschlepper, or People’s Tractor, was developed in parallel with the People’s Car, which would become the Volkswagen Beetle. Porsche’s earliest tractors employed gasoline engines, but he was working on an innovative series of air-cooled diesel engines that could be manufactured in one, two, three, and four-cylinder capacities, each utilizing interchangeable cylinders and heads for efficiency.
Porsche never built anything other than a handful of prototypes before the outbreak of WWII, and couldn’t begin production after the war as the Marshal Plan limited Germany’s tractor production to companies that had been building farm equipment before the conflict. Because of that, Porsche licensed his designs to the German company Allgaier GmbH and the Austrian company Hofherr Schrantz. A decade later, the German industrial manufacturer Mannesmann AG bought the license from Allgaier and began tractor production in an old Zeppelin factory under the name Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH.
Setting the standard
Porsche-Diesel produced four distinct lines of tractors—the Junior, Standard, Super, and Master, all based on output and engine size. This 1962 Porsche 238 Standard Star is one of the lower-tier tractors and is powered by a 25-horsepower 1629cc air-cooled diesel twin. A two-wheel drive tractor, its design is frameless, with the engine, transmission, and rear axle serving as the structure, and features a solid suspension with no springs on either end. The bullnose design of the forward-tilt engine cover is grille-less, as is appropriate for a Porsche. It masks the circular fan at the front of the inline twin engine and the dual battery setup behind that. Between the massive and chunky rear tires is a single “tractor seat” ahead of which is a Porsche-badged three-spoke steering wheel. Fully analog and gloriously mechanical, it must be an experience to pilot. Head and tail lamps mean that occasional excursions on the road wouldn’t be totally out of the question as long as one’s not in a hurry.
Sixteen miles per hour
Per the ad, the tractor’s top speed is a mere 16 miles per hour, making this the slowest Porsche product ever conceived. Of course, speed is less of an issue in the fields than on the street, and, honestly, this Standard’s role in life today is more ornamental than functional.
To that end, the ad suggests it to be used as a dealer display or a fabulous addition to a serious Porsche fan’s collection. It’s described as having an older restoration but still being in “Museum quality” condition. Despite that, there are a couple of issues here. The plastic covering the single instrument (I can’t tell if that’s a speedo or tach) is cracked and foggy, and the tires are old and tired. Aside from those minor issues, however, it all looks pretty solid and in need of nothing. The seller claims it to have a clean California title and to be in “Good running and driving condition.” They also say that this was the last year of Porsche-Diesel production, but the truth is that Mannesmann kept production running through the end of 1963. After that, the factory was sold to Daimler for diesel engine production, and no more Porsche tractors were ever made again. In total, about 125,000 Porsche-branded tractors were built from 1956 to 1963.
Bring a trailer
Another claim by the seller is that similar tractors have brought big money on Bring a Trailer. There, they say, an identical tractor sold for $35,000 plus $1,750 in sales commission. That, they aver, makes this Porsche’s $27,500 asking price a relative bargain in comparison.
Of course, the problem they face isn’t so much valuation as it is audience. How many people want, much less have room for a boutique farm implement? As you can imagine, that market has got to be very small.
However, just as there’s a butt for every seat—including tractor saddles—there’s likely someone out there who will dig owning this cool old Porsche. We need to help them with the decision by weighing in on whether that $27,500 price tag is a fair price for this tractor.
What do you say? Does that seem like a deal to plow ahead? Or is that simply too much for just 16 miles per hour?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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