Hmmm, me thinks that you mentioning VWs and Porsches means it was probably also a rear engine automobile... They didn't have a Corvair back that early, did they? Probably not.
Yea! I win?? I was going to ask what outlaw wanted a Franklin so that bullets wouldn't be able to be shot at the radiator to stop the car, but I can't remember who it was. So...I won't ask it!
I will ask this instead.
Ford got credit for the first factory built pickup in 1925. It was a light duty half ton with a steel cargo box. It was called a Model T Runabout. Who technically beat Ford by making a factory built pickup in 1924? A rarely seen truck (3/4 ton with a wooden box).
Dad, who had a car dealership, actually had the oldest Ford towtruck ever, and used it into the 80‘s. And he collected Model T's and Model A's, along with old limos.
So, that has much to do with the question. Not. Sorry.