AutoCult Zunder 1500 Porsche (1960) (Argentinia)

About the Original:

With the Heart of a Porsche

In the late 1950s brothers Nelson José and Eligio Oscar Bongiovanni were dreaming to produce a passenger car which could allow Argentina independent from the auto imports. Until then South American countries had no own automotive industry and were reliant on cars from other countries.

The brothers were presenting a design of a two-door car to the government offices and got the permission to produce it. In 1959 they founded for this purpose a factory under the company´s name, Industrias del transporte Automotor srl, in Rio Cuarto, Cordoba. The car was christened on the name Zunder 1500 and was presented to the public in 1961 for the first time. The car body consisted of glass-fibre reinforced plastic, the frame was made of tubular steel and they were very proud to point out that the four-cylinder engine came from Porsche, which was installed in Porsche 356 sports cars. This drive was accelerating the Zunder to an impressive speed of 130 km/h. The company Porsche not only was delivering the engines with a four-gear transmission, but also was allowing the brothers to refer to the special permission, which was especially expressed in the Zunder 1500-brochures by an addition “homologado por Porsche” and the print of the Swabian company logo. The Zunder 1500 was however unhappy designed, which was especially visible on the front.  The result was that the passenger car got very little support from the Argentinian population and within two years only 200 buyers decided to buy a Zunder. This extremely low turnover resulted that the brothers Bongiovanni disappointingly stopped production in 1963.

The Zunder 1500 was forgotten, and it only remains nowadays because it was powered with a 58 hp strong engine of Porsche 356.