A new exhibition at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany, features the first car designed by the automotive company’s founder when he was just 22 years old. Manufactured in 1898, the car was recently found in a garage in Austria, where it had been stored since 1902.

Ferdinand Porsche’s first car was known as the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle C.2 Phaeton model, or P1 for short. The young Italian, who would not establish his eponymous company until 1931, designed it for car maker Jacob Lohner, who had requested a vehicle with an electric drive train. Mr Porsche designed a motor that was powered by batteries and suspended among shock absorbers in the rear of the vehicle.

The P1 took to the streets of Vienna on 26 June 1898. It could reach speeds of up to 21mph and travel up to 49 miles on a single electrical charge. Mr Porsche entered it in a 24-mile Berlin road race the following year; it won, crossing the finish line 18min ahead of the next car.