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1939 Porsche Typ 64 No.2 [38/42] Comments about this vehicle| Author | Message |
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◊ 2019-05-15 21:05 |
According to this auction description only 3 were made, and the only survivor today is the third, chassis 38/41, a slightly shabby silver example with T2222 plates. If true then this one shown here is a replica?? |
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◊ 2019-05-15 21:34 |
Not a replica. This is the reconstructed chassis 38/42, rebuilt from original parts which were bought from the estate of race driver Otto Mathé. Mathé had built his famous Fetzenflieger by using the Porsche chassis and kept all the further parts. This was discovered when two museum owners checked all the stuff they had bought from the Mathé collection - including the "Fetzenflieger". The aluminium body is a replica by NostalgiCar, pretty much everything else is original. (Just a quick summary of what I gathered from various German sources, as I couldn't find much about it in English!) The auctioned one might be the only survivor, but the one above is a reanimated one, so to speak. Probably didn't match Sotheby's idea of having "the only one". .gif ";)") -- Last edit: 2019-05-15 21:51:58 |
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◊ 2019-05-15 21:58 |
Slightly different version from Sotheby's version - "The Type 64 predates the first production Porsche, the 356, and was initially built by Ferdinand Porsche for a road race, the 1500km Berlin-Rome that was due to take place in September 1939. Porsche was by that time already well underway in producing the KdF-Wagen – the vehicle that would become the Volkswagen Beetle – but he also had dreams of creating a lighter, faster version of the model suitable for racing. That chance came with the announcement of the Berlin-Rome race, which was intended to promote both the autobahn system and the launch of the KdF-Wagen. The German government duly commissioned three special long-distance racing versions of the KdF-Wagen for the race, and Porsche and his engineers began work on the Type 64. Although built around the same suspension and drivetrain as the Volkswagen, the Type 64 had a lightweight aluminium body, while its wheels were fully covered with removable alloy panels. The fuel tank was also moved further back, to create space for two spare wheels in the nose, and the passenger seat moved towards the centre and further back than the driver, to accommodate the fuel tank. The engine was the standard 985cc unit found in the KdF-Wagen, but tuned to 32bhp and with a faster top speed of 173.5kph. It was built to race, then, but it would have to wait a while for its chance: soon after the first of the three cars was finished in late August 1939, war was officially declared and the Berlin-Rome race was cancelled. At this point, Ferdinand’s son Ferry picked up the baton and completed the two additional cars – the second by December 1939 and the third in June 1940, using the chassis from the first car, which had been damaged in an accident. It is this third car that will be sold by RM Sotheby’s. Retained by the Porsche family for their personal use, it was driven extensively by Ferry and Ferdinand and was kept alongside No.2 at the family estate in Austria. The second car sadly didn’t survive the war. US forces confiscated it towards the end of hostilities and put it to use on their local base. The roof was removed and the car effectively driven into the ground then left to rot. This car, however, was left unscathed and when Ferry Porsche registered his new company name in 1946 he himself applied the raised letters spelling out ‘PORSCHE’ on the car’s nose. The next year he decided to give it a spruce up, commissioning a young ‘Pinin’ Farina to do the work, then – nearly a decade after its completion – finally started racing it. By this time, Porsche’s plans for the 356 were well advanced and the Type 64 was beginning to be yesterday’s news. Fortunately, Austrian privateer Otto Mathé had fallen in love with it and bought it from Porsche in 1949. He enjoyed a successful racing career with the car in the 1950s – thus becoming the first true Porsche racer – and kept it for 46 years until his death in 1995." So the black one can be #2 [38/42] as explained ^, and the Sotheby's car presented as #3 can have the preceding chassis number [38/41] originally from #1, as #3 was a rebuild of #1. But that means only 2 cars ever existed simultaneously at any point, never the full trio. And if Mathé rebuilt #2 from the wreckage left by the US forces abuse and bought #3 from the Porsche family in 1949, he owned both of them, a point which is not explicitly made by either narrative. |
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◊ 2019-05-15 22:42 |
Makes sense! Thomas König and Oliver Schmidt, owners of the AUTOMUSEUM PROTOTYP intentionally bought two truckloads full stuff from Mathé's assets and the Fetzenflieger. As they subsequently found out, the Fetzenflieger was originally #2 and then, bit by bit, they found all the other components (except the body) to complete #2 again. While Porsche expert Thomas Gruber apparently bought #1 aka. #3 on purpose after Mathé's death, König & Schmidt bought mixed stuff, just to find out what they actually had acquired. That might be the reason why neither narrative refers to the other Type 64. As both parties have an interesting story to tell, they probably aren't interested in mentioning the "other one" anyway: Gruber bought the "only survivor" (= did he know or want to tell the story of #2?), König & Schmidt had the "Kinder surprise egg" - but didn't get the famous survivor car. |
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