Yes, you read it right. There’s a ’55 Porsche up for grabs on eBay for just £2100. Okay, it’s a restoration piece, but it’s mostly complete and it comes with an engine…

But before you rush for the power button on your laptop, accept the paltry asking price or make a cheeky offer, we’re obliged to tell you that you won’t be bidding for a historic Stuttgart racer – you’ll be getting a tractor!

It’s a 1955 vintage Allgaier and features a Porsche 1531cc two-cylinder 22hp diesel engine, hence the AP22 model number. The vendor describes it as being a restoration project but confirms that the engine turns freely and the tyres hold air, summing up its condition as “rough, otherwise not too bad.” One thing that stood out for us was just how similar those five-stud front wheels are to a fifties’ era Beetle!

Porsche built engines under licence for the German company Allgaier (hence the ‘Porsche System’ badging) – it’s thought that around 25,000 Porsche/Allgaier tractors were built between 1947-1957 of which roughly 4500 were AP22 models.

German company Mannesmann bought the licence for the Porsche diesel engine design and the Allgaier tractor and used an old Zeppelin factory on the shores of Lake Constance to build its own tractor from 1957, the operation being sold to Renault in 1963. The state of the art site was thereafter used for assembling engines for NATO tanks.

Porsche engined Allgaier survivors are rare, with just a handful thought to exist here in the UK. A restored example being sold in Germany was being advertised at just over £14,000, so if you’re prepared for a bit of hard graft there’s scope to make a decent investment out of this one…

As the old saying goes, where there’s muck there’s brass. And if you decide to keep it, imagine the fun you’d have driving it across a few fields to a posh Porsche meet…

Ian

The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage.