This is a 1:3rd scale model of the Porsche Type 547 Carrera racing engine that has a full functional internal rotating assembly with pistons, valves, and LED light “spark plugs” all working in unison – just like they do in a real engine.
These engines powered Porsche to wins and class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Carrera Panamericana, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1,000 km, the Mille Miglia, and countless other events. In some respects, this was the engine that announced Porsche’s racing intentions to the world.
The model is made up of over 300 parts, no glueing is necessary, it has clear sections to show the internals, and it takes about six hours to complete from start to finish.
History Speedrun: Franzis
The origins of German company Franzis date back to 1828, when Georg Franz obtained a license to run a printing press in Munich. His press business quickly expanded, producing newspapers like the Münchener Tagesanzeiger, official notices, and calendars. By 1886, the firm had earned the title “Herzoglich Bayerische Hofbuchdruckerei,” marking it as a Bavarian court printer of high standing.
The business passed through generations of owners and in the early 20th century became associated with the Mayer family, who soon modernized its printing methods. By then, Franzis had built a strong presence in the fields of technical and regulatory publishing, covering genres like electronics, natural sciences, and even state decrees.
After World War II, the company was re-established in 1948, this time with a focus on technical education – Franzis quickly became known for books and magazines on radio and electronics, including widely read titles like ELO and Funkschau.
The computer age brought another expansion of focus – in the 1980s, Franzis began publishing computer-themed content, and in 1991 it became part of the WEKA Mediengruppe. Relocations followed, first to Poing and later, in 2011, to Haar near Munich. Alongside its technical books, it published magazines such as PC Magazin and Connect.
In the 2000s, Franzis diversified further, it launched photography software tools like HDR projects and broadened into educational kits ranging from radio building sets to working model engines and Arduino or Raspberry Pi experiment packages.
In 2023, the firm officially changed its name from Franzis Verlag GmbH to Franzis GmbH, to more clearly show its modern identity as a developer of books, software, and DIY kits for hobbyists and professionals alike – and not just a publishing house.
The crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, and valves all move with the correct synchronization, and LED lights simulate the spark plugs.
The Franzis Porsche Type 547 Carrera Engine Model
The model you see here is one of the most popular from the Franzis catalogue, it’s a functional 1:3rd scale replica of the legendary Porsche Type 547 Carrera flat-four engine from the 1950s.
The program to develop the Porsche Type 547 engine, often called the Fuhrmann engine after its designer Ernst Fuhrmann, was one of the most ambitious projects to come out of Stuttgart in the 1950s.
The engine was designed to give Porsche’s lightweight sports cars (like the 550 Spyder and 356) the power to compete against larger and more established rivals. The engine was a compact 1.5 liter, air-cooled flat-four that set new standards in engineering complexity for the era.
With dual overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, driven by vertical shafts and bevel gears, and twin ignition, the engine contained many hundreds of individual components and it produced over 100 bhp in its earliest competition form – nearly double the output of the production pushrod flat-four.
First installed in the Porsche 550 Spyder in 1953, the 547 proved itself quickly in international competition. The car won its class at the Nürburgring Eifelrennen, then took a famous victory at the 1954 Carrera Panamericana – an achievement that led Porsche to adopt the “Carrera” name for its high-performance road cars.
Through the late 1950s and 1960s the displacement was expanded out to 1.6 liters and output beyond 135 bhp, powering models like the 718 RSK and 904 GTS to additional endurance racing successes, including multiple Targa Florio wins.
The Type 547 was notoriously difficult to build and maintain, it took a skilled mechanic 120 hours to assemble a single engine – timing could take 12-15 hours alone. Original surviving Type 547 Carrera engines can now sell for over $200,000 USD alone – considerably more if they’re still fitted to their original car.
The Franzis model of the engine recreates in with exceptional attention to detail – it’s an official Porsche licensed product and it was was developed together with the Porsche Museum based on original technical drawings.
The model you see here is one of the most popular from the Franzis catalogue, it’s a functional 1:3rd scale replica of the legendary Porsche Type 547 Carrera flat-four engine from the 1950s.
The model is made up of over 300 parts, no glueing is necessary, it has clear sections to show the internals, and it takes about six hours to complete from start to finish. The crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, and valves all move with the correct synchronization, and LED lights simulate the spark plugs.
If you’d like to get your own kit you can visit the official Franzis Amazon store here.
Images courtesy of Franzis
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.