Porsche Type 64 Aerocoupe 1939

[Revo]

The Volkswagen Type 64 (a.k.a Type 64K10) racing car was built in 1938/39 for the long-distance Berlin-Rome race. Based on the Volkswagen Type 60, the Type 64 was seen as the ideal model for promoting sales of the "People's Car".

The body design was made by the Porsche Büro after wind tunnel tests for a planned V10 sports car that never came into existence, the Type 114. By 1939 Ferdinard Porsche had completed three racing coupés boasting a streamlined hand shaped aluminium body built by Reutter and powered by a modified VW flat-4 but then the Berlin-Rome Race planned for September 1939 was postponed due to the War.

Early in the War one built example was crashed by a KdF (Volkswagen) bureaucrat. The two remaining were used by the Porsche family. Eventually they only used one of them and put the other in storage. In May 1945 American troops discovered the one put in storage, cut the roof off and used it for joyriding for a few weeks until the engine gave up and it was scrapped. The last remaining Type 64 was owned by Ferry Porsche who had it restored by Pinin Farina in 1947. In 1949 it was sold to the Austrian motorcycle racer Otto Matte and with it he won the Alpine Rally in 1950. The last time he drove it in a race was at the Monterey Historic Races in Monterey, California, in 1982.

Type 64 is acknowledged by many as the original ancestor of all subsequent sports cars to follow from Porsche in the years and decades to come.

Sources: PR "75 Years of Porsche Engineering Services", wikipedia.org

Edit: Porsche afficionados would call this first Porsche ever, Porsche Type 64

[carweb]

Known as the "Porsche 64" to me, porbably that is just the design.

[Ferrer]

Known as the "Porsche 64" to me, porbably that is just the design.

I also knew it as a Porsche, though as it was using Volkswagen mechanicals and the project was for Volkswagen, it could be considered as VW.

[netburner]

I also knew it as a Porsche, though as it was using Volkswagen mechanicals and the project was for Volkswagen, it could be considered as VW.

No! VW exists since 1938, but this car wasn't built by VW but by Ferdinand Porsche. So you have to call it a Porsche in my eyes.

I know, that F.Porsche also designed and engineered the Beetle up to production, but that was a real VW project (although it was called the "KdF-Wagen" before they invented "Volkswagen").

[Ferrer]

No! VW exists since 1938, but this car wasn't built by VW but by Ferdinand Porsche. So you have to call it a Porsche in my eyes.

I know, that F.Porsche also designed and engineered the Beetle up to production, but that was a real VW project (although it was called the "KdF-Wagen" before they invented "Volkswagen").

Well in the post with the car's history it says that it was built in 1938/1939, so Volkswagen was exisiting when this car was bieng built. And what's more I said that the car was done for Volkswagen, not by Volkswagen. Even if it wasn't called Volkswagen by then, the project was to promote what eventually would became Volkswagen. And another reason to assume that Volkswagen existed, was that it used Volkswagen mechanicals.

Porsche and their engineering consultancy have done vehicles that didn't carry its name, and they didn't become Porsches just because he desgined/engineered them (the Cisitalia Grand Prix racer springs to my mind).

[Revo]

Netburner, I think you are right and I've put wrong title on the thread

Till tonight I thought Porsche AG was founded after WW2 and first car to bear Porsche name was 356. As it turns out, I am completely ignorant.

Porsche AG was founded in 1931. The first car built by Porsche AG was this Type 64, the second Porsche model and first car sold by Porsche was 356.

Mods, can you change the title of this thread?

Yeah, just loving when learning new stuff about automotive history.

[Duell]

The first real Porsche

[Cotterik]

it looks like its been hammered to shape

[drakkie]

it looks like its been hammered to shape

Almost all low-production-run cars were in these days

[kingofthering]

it's nice, but what happened to it?

[Ferrer]

There is talk that this wasn't actually a mistake.

Also, for all the media coverage the car got the weeks prior to the auction, they apparently forgot to tell the car's true story (Nazi origins and whatnot).

[NSXType-R]

There is talk that this wasn't actually a mistake.

Also, for all the media coverage the car got the weeks prior to the auction, they apparently forgot to tell the car's true story (Nazi origins and whatnot).

You'd have to be incredibly dense if you bought a German car from the late 1930s and didn't know it had Nazi connections, especially if you're rich enough to be interested a car this expensive.

[Ferrer]

Well the thing is, this was created specifically for the stillborn 1939 Berlin to Rome race, to celebrate the alliance of Italy and Germany and demonstrate the superiority of the Aryan race.

So while all 1930's German cars are Nazis, some are more Nazi than others...

[NSXType-R]

I get that, but I don't understand why people get their panties in a knot once something has a bad connotation. I mean, couldn't we just appreciate something for what it is- an exemplary specimen of engineering? The fact that it was built during the Nazi regime is regrettable, but you can't deny the engineering prowess behind it.

I feel like these days everything is unnecessarily politicized. Not everything needs to be politicized, however.

[f6fhellcat13]

I get that, but I don't understand why people get their panties in a knot once something has a bad connotation. I mean, couldn't we just appreciate something for what it is- an exemplary specimen of engineering? The fact that it was built during the Nazi regime is regrettable, but you can't deny the engineering prowess behind it.

I feel like these days everything is unnecessarily politicized. Not everything needs to be politicized, however.

I can't say I know much of the provenance of this car, so let me make a straw man, but can you see why some might not want to have one of the Silver Arrows that was built by slave labor in their collection? The Auto Union with the Star of David scratched into the carburetor springs hauntingly to mind. I certainly wouldn't want to own such a thing.