My other Porsche is a tractor

The other day, a conversation overheard at the hospital got us back to our favorite search engine where we looked up Porsche tractors.

A doctor, flirting with a nurse, cooed: "My other Porsche is a tractor".

Porsche, world famous for sleek, flashy, fast and very expensive sports cars, at one time produced farm tractors!

Trust Wikipedia to have a full page (in German) dedicated to Mr. Porsche's foray into the production of slow, diesel powered, but sleek, tractors for post World War II German family farms.

They came in a single color, bright red.

The red Porsche tractors came with ample power between 11 hp and 36 hp, and have long since attained the low tax status of a classic vehicle.

This ultimate open air vehicle, non convertible because it had no roof, no cabin, can be seen in the hills around here every once in a while, if you know where to look and know the Porsche spotting season.

The modern German family farmer, of course, does not go anywhere near the Porsche tractor. It is not powerful enough, not air conditioned, has no GPS autopilot and, above all, it is not manly enough with its seriously rounded snub nose.

The huge John Deere rides we see in hill country here seem a little out of place to the naive former city dweller. While these vehicles could participate in monster truck shows without any prior modification may be quite useful in the steep terrain and soggy forests, no one can doubt that there is an element of "mine is bigger than yours" to owning one. 

Farms around here are simply not that big compared to the U.S.

Next time you hear the US government complain about European farm subsides, you should be grateful to the Eurocrats for the American jobs created by doling out cash to European farmers. John Deere and the other US farm equipment manufacturers benefit big time from the European farm subsides.

Porsche tractor spotting season around here is over for the year, the fleet is sitting in well enclosed barns and sheds until next spring, when in the resurgent green and bloom, you may just be lucky and see a small, slow red dot chugging through the forest and over the fields.