Wilhelm Hild

Porsche engineer who led development of chassis project 550 in 1953. Auto Motor und Sport attributes the 550A Le Mans coupé roof used in 1956 to him.

Wilhelm Hild was born in Wiesbaden on 13 May 1909. Heise says that, from 1951, he was to build Porsche’s racing department. Porsche’s 2021 account identifies him as part of the works team and attributes the name “aluminium can” for the aluminium-bodied 356 SL to him. At Le Mans in 1951, Auguste Veuillet and Edmond Mouche won the 751–1,100 cc class in that car.

In early 1953, Hild led Porsche’s new chassis project 550. The 550 followed the Glöckler-Porsche with a flat welded tubular frame; the 550A later had a genuine spaceframe. Hild’s team had only months to build the car for Le Mans. The first two chassis carried 356 engines; the Type 547 four-cam engine followed in summer 1953, initially for testing.

On the 550A, the technical team led by Hild adopted a Daimler-Benz-derived low-pivot swing axle, moving its pivot downward and inward. Auto Motor und Sport attributes the Le Mans-only coupé roof to Hild; it was built to meet windscreen rules and allowed up to 222 km/h. In 1956, Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and Richard von Frankenberg won the 1101–1500 cc class. Hild died in 1973.