The big news out of Monterey Car Week this year was the attempted sale of Dr. Ferdinand Porsche's 1939 Type 64. What should have gone down as the biggest sale of the week ended in a no-sale with car collectors and casual observers left scratching their heads in bewilderment and booing the auctioneer.
In fact, in was such a blunder …
Yikes on bikes!
Excellent article, my business is to appraise classic vehicles and the writer does an excellent job of adding insight to the current controversy regarding this car. Because of my personal background, I acknowledge that I was happy to see the car not "break the bank", because of its history. My mother was Dutch and lived through the five years of German occupation from age 12-17. My father was an American soldier and they were married August 1945. My father returned to Europe to work for the American Battle Monuments Commission in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and Belgium. I attended American Schools on base in France and Germany graduating from high school in Munich, Germany in 1972. One of our high school "field trips" was to visit the Dachau Concentration camp outside Munich.
I share this background because I feel it is important to understand the context of my comments when I say - cars of the Nazi era should be in Museums for historical purposes but not the source of income for speculators, collectors, and auction houses. The car was built as a propaganda tool to celebrate the Autobahn, which was largely built with slave/concentration camp labor. This particular car has been controversial for years, with several transactions being canceled after the car was supposedly sold. The final paragraph of this article provides additional insight.
https://ferdinandmagazine.com/first-ever-porsche-heads-for-auction
Then my Beetle (Type 60) should be considered a Porsche. That said, it is definietly part of Porsche's history.
it seems to have turned into a RACIST thing, and little to do with the car!
what about the old timer gun collector guys whe collect old German guns?
Didn't mean for it to be a "racist" thing - more a genocide thing.
OK, I'm starting to wonder if anyone looks into history anymore, not just the fake news which I do believe is also included in the article and I expect better from Classic Motorsports!
As a Porsche owner and vintage car lover, I feel I must shine some light here on this specific Type 64 car to which a friend who I had the honor of buying him his 70th birthday meal last week (he once owned said car, also owns some other famous Prosche's too). Yes, the auction house had an issue, and I have been attending these events for years and never seen this type of thing happen. I was in attendance with a prior owner, who also showed me a patch of an invite to Monterey from 1982 and a whole bunch of documents about the car. Like other amazing Porsche's he has shown me in the past, I know he's well known in the community and is an expert in the field, so I know him to be accurate and true over the years.
First of all, Porsche took money from Hilter to build the VW as cheap economical transportation (probably also to fund his true dream of a sports car which this is and not a VW build) Does this make the car a Nazi build, not likely, would that make all VW Bugs Nazi cars, not so sure about that.
So the black car you took a photo of from Rennsport (looks great and I love it) It's not a real one and was a recreation, hey it may even have a correct stamp, but I'm pretty sure it's not the real deal. Also, another car was in the parking area that was aluminum, one I loved, yes this too was a copy and honestly, if you were to have a copy - this is as cool as one could probably get! News flash, the Red and white striped 917 Le Mans-winning car is in private hands in GB, not the one you see at the museum. While yes they have a real 917 in the museum, however, it was painted to match the winning car, still very cool and I love the 917 (I'm even born on 917). Who would question that right?
In Europe, they have some amazing fabrication houses and it's very likely that Porsche is being silent for they may not want to open pandora's box. Porsche was offered this specific car (most significant car in history three times by each of the prior owners and it was declined as too expensive). I believe Porsche also had a video around where Dr. Wolfgang was kissing the black-bodied recreation car where he said welcome back home, this video was quick to disappear from the web.
Oh, the Aluminum 64 shell body in the museum, that was claimed to have been made from scratches of a leftover car, that too is likely not the real deal and the proportions are off. No parts or shells were found with the Otto Mathe car/grounds of the one we are discussing here, some claim this, but various sources say it's not true. Additionally, I hear that when the car went to the Otto Mathe exhibition, this car took a very long time to come back in the hands of the owner (scan and scale in this time.... mmm possibly).
The Berlin Rome car K64 was the 64 th construction on papers and get the name and number of this construction when it comes to reality. Otto Mathes K64 car has a Porsche title from 1939 and built by Porsche (Let's all see some titles people).
K64 base was not a bug and not a KDW ,it was a prototype car made in aluminum for racing and not to produce a mass-produced car like the VW. This car also had a soft 80% restoration in the 90's in Austria and around 2000 photos exist on this car from the restoration.
K64 additional information that seems to be more accurate to the story from a couple of sources:
https://www.stuttcars.com/porsche-models/64/
Current Alum Replica Body at the museum:
https://www.nusgram.com/media/BIYbzy8hi3x
Let's hope this car gets the respect it deserves and finds a true home and a nod to one of the greatest names in history and favorite of so many!
I'm often finding wrong information or missed items in vehicle articles these days when it comes to the historic cars across various brands. We still have people alive in the know and history buffs that can qualify, I'd really like to see more of that going on prior to press.
Thanks,
Vintage car fan of all types.
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