Porsche Later, the technical college of Stuttgart made him an honorary doctor.
In 1932, Zundapp Works in Nurnberg, Germany, decided thay needed a small car to offset slumping motorcycle sales Poreche used a small car design from this Austrian Daimler days Counsellor Neumeyer, the owner of Zundapp Works, already had a name for the car He called it "Volksauto" - the "people's car" Porsche built three prototypes in 1932 All three had a rear engine, a two-door body, and a spare wheel in the front. Porsche continued working on the people's car, but later that year, the motorcycle business revived. Production increased so much that the company had no time to build the Volksauto. Once again Porsche shelved this dream of a small car but at the beginning of 1934, the project suddenly revived. Porsche was called to the Chancellery in Bernn to meet with Adolf Hitler. Hitler wanted Porsche to design a car that the people of Germany could buy for less than 1,000 marks. It would be called "Volkswagen". Porsche redesigned his small car. It would have a four-cylinder engine, a maximum speed of 62 MPH, and get 36 miles to the gallon. Porsche's company built the first prototypes in 1936, and the German government tested them relentlessly throughout 1937. Porsche's sturdy design held up. Now the time had come to go into mass production. His dream of building a small people's car had finally seen fruition, and little did he know at the time that the Volkswagen would become the world's best selling car.
In June 1945, the United States Army captured Porsche, and sent him to a castle in Hessen. There they interrogated him. Afterwards, the army allowed him to return to his villa. Just when Porsche though his life would return to normal, the French arrested him and sent him to Paris. French officials gave no reason for his arrest, but clearly Porsche played a vital role in arming Germany's war machine.
In Paris, the French held him in the porter's lodge of a villa belonging to Renault, a French car manufacturer. The company sought Porsche's opinion many times to help improve its automobiles. After being transferred to a prison in Dijon (France), Porsche was finally released on August 5, 1947. On returning to his villa, Porsche assisted with a race car design for the Cisitaha works inTurin (Italy). His son, Ferry, and Porsche's chief engineer, Karl Rabe had started the design while Porsche was in prison. When he examined the design Porsche declared, "If I had designed it, I would not have done it any differently". Unfortunately the Cisitaha never saw a race because of financial difficulties. The Argentine company, Autoar, bought Cisitaha but Autoar had trouble running and maintaining me car, and eventually abandoned it. In 1947 Porsche and his son went to work on the first car to carry the Porsche name. It's distinctive design would set the standard for all future Porsche cars.