Ancestor of all Porsches to sell for millions
A car described as the ancestor of all Porsches – the type 64, built in 1939 by Volkswagen as a sports version of the Beetle – is expected to sell at auction in California for more than US$20 million (NZ$31m).
The car, with its teardrop shape, was used by Ferdinand Porsche and still has the original upholstery on which he sat as he travelled around Germany during World War II at more than 130kmh.
After the war, the car was sold to Otto Mathe, a racing driver. It was restored in 1995 and eventually acquired by the company that owns the Paulaner brewery.
It will go on sale at Sotheby’s in Monterey tomorrow.
Strictly speaking, the car is a Volkswagen rather than a Porsche. It was needed to take part in a planned Berlin to Rome road race organised by the Nazis and Italy’s fascists to demonstrate the technical capabilities of the Axis powers.
It was constructed on the basis of the planned KdF Wagen, a project by Kraft durch Freude, or Strength Through Joy, the Nazi organisation, to build an affordable car, which became the Volkswagen Beetle.
The type 64 was completed in August 1939.
The outbreak of war prevented the race being held, but two type 64s were built.
The one on sale is believed to be the only one left. It was branded a Porsche when Ferdinand’s son Ferry stuck the Porsche name on its bodywork in 1947.
The second type 64 was commandeered by the US Seventh Army’s Rainbow division at the end of the war. They cut off the roof and drove it as a cabriolet, wrecked the engine and left it for scrap, Sotheby’s said.
Mathe bought the car in 1949, and won the Austrian Alpine Rally with it in 1950.
Experts who have tested the car before the auction have said that it still drives well.