Record price expected at auction for ‘first’ Porsche

The road race was going to speed along Germany’s new Autobahn, into the Austrian Alps and on to Rome, through the new heart of fascist Europe.

To maximize the propaganda value of the affair — in part marking the Nazis’ 1938 alliance with Italy and the absorption of Austria — the German entry in the 1,500-kilometer race (about 932 miles) would be based on the KdF-Wagen, Hitler’s new people’s car.

With its Nazi origins largely forgotten, that car became famous after the war as the cuddly Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle and the Berlin-to-Rome racer — known as the Type 64 — shared the same prolific designer, Ferdinand Porsche.

The 1939 race that the car was designed for was never held. The start of World War II got in the way.

Of the three Porsche-designed Type 64s planned for construction in the late 1930s, just one remains. Although technically a Volkswagen and not a Porsche, it eventually became the first car to bear the Porsche name.

This car, which some view as the absolute origin of the Porsche sports car story, will be sold at auction in Monterey, California, on Saturday. It is likely to sell for millions.

Viewed strictly as a car, the Type 64, while advanced for its time, is hardly impressive by today’s standards.

It is tiny, and with a body made from thin sheets of hand-formed, aircraft-grade aluminum, it exudes fragility. It doesn’t make up for its lack of robustness with any significant power. The car’s modified, air-cooled Volkswagen four-cylinder engine is estimated to make 40 horsepower, and its top speed is around 90 mph.

The Type 64 stands in stark contrast to the impressive-tothis-day 1970 Porsche 917K race car (200-plus mph, 520 horsepower), which holds the record as the most valuable Porsche sold at auction. That model was auctioned for $14 million in 2017 by Gooding & Co., based in Santa Monica, California.

Clearly the lion’s share of the Type 64’s value lies somewhere other than in performance or imposing presence.

Andy Prill, a Porsche historian and restorer, points to the Type 64’s rarefied status. “In over 130 years of automotive history,” Prill said, “how many opportunities have there been to acquire the very first car of a storied marque?”