In the spring of 1947, Ferry Porsche expressed his desire to build a car that he himself would like. This is when the concept of Porsche 356 was ideated. This car was build using Volkswagen components and was initially named VW-Sports and got a construction number 356, which later was included in the name.
Ferry Porsche, who was the Junior Director at Porsche, had a very simple vision, a vision to create a sports cars that he would love to have. The engineers at Porsche were fascinated by the concept and completed the road ready chassis by February 1948. 
The components were taken from Volkswagen and they included a flat 4 powered unit, suspensions, gearbox, steering and springs. It just weighed 585 kg and had a 35 bhp engine. It had a maximum speed of 84 mph or 135 km/h. In June 1948, the first mid-engined Porsche sports car was given official homologation by the authorities of the Govt. of Carinthia through an individual permit. The Chassis number of the first Porsche sports car was 356-001.
Porsche started the production of the regular coupes and cabriolets of the Porsche Type 356/2 in latter part of 1948 and similar to the Type 356/1 it also featured an aluminum body design. But the Type 2 cars offered more luggage space as compared to Type1 and this was because of engine which was placed at the back. The fact that Volkswagen allowed Porsche to avail its components is a testimony of Ferry Porsche being a great engineer along with a smart business man.
