There are special cars and then there’s something
like this: the 1939 Porsche Type 64, the oldest car to wear the company’s name
and personal vehicle of both Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche. This is the most historically
significant of all cars Porsche has ever made and is now heading to RM
Auctions’ Monterey sale, set to take place on August 15.
Ferdinand Porsche wanted to make a lighter, faster
version of the KdF-Wagen, the original version of the VW Beetle. The
Berlin-Rome road race that was set to take place in September 1939 but never
did is the reason behind the Type 64’s existence. VW had commissioned three special
long-distance race versions of the KdF-Wagen to the same design team that would
go on and create the Porsche 356. The three cars were built at Reutter Works
across the street from Zuffenhausen.
The Type 64 may use the same powertrain and suspension
with the original VW Type 1 but it’s very different in every other area; the
chassis and riveted alloy body use WWII aircraft technology and the air-cooled
engine was tuned to produce 32hp. When the first of the three cars was
completed, war was officially declared and it became property of the German
Labor Front. Young Ferry Porsche didn’t give up however and he went on with
completing the remaining two cars, using them as test beds for Porsche, turning
the Type 64 as the missing link between the Beetle and the 356.
The third Type 64 was created out of the chassis of
the first car after it was damaged in an accident with VW’s Managing Director
at the wheel in June 1940. It was used as a family car and was extensively
driven by both Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche. When the company relocated to
Gmund, Austria from 1944 to 1948, it was kept alongside the second car but No.3
is the only example that survived the war.
Ferry Porsche himself applied the raised letters
spelling ‘PORSCHE’ up front when he registered the car in Austria. In 1947, the
car was restored by a young Pinin Farina and nearly one year later, the
refreshed Type 64 was on display next to the then-new Porsche 356.
This is it then, the answer to the biggest Porsche
collectors’ desire across the world. And that’s why it will sell for a
gazillion dollars.
