PORSCHE LEARNS TO RACE
Karl Ludvigsen turns the clock back to when Porsche first went racing
The mid-engined Porsche Type 356 roadster was granted road registration in Austria on 15 June 1948 with the awarding of licence number K 45 286. The authorities in Spittal recorded Porsche as the producer and the model as ‘Sport 356/1’. In that high summer of 1948 the Porsche engineers at Gmünd were entitled to pause in their efforts and congratulate themselves.
They had built and were driving not only the first car to bear the Porsche name but also the world’s first modern midengined sports car. Everyone on the team felt immense pride at its creation, which gave a welcome boost to their spirits four years into their ostracism in Austria in the remote and primitive quarters they were assigned in wartime.
Among the legends surrounding this historic car that have come down through the decades are two in particular. One is that its handling was treacherous thanks to the way that not only the Vw-sourced engine/transaxle but also the complete rear suspension was turned 180 degrees to effect the mid-engined placement. The other legend is that the roadster, in the hands of Ferdinand Porsche’s nephew Herbert Kaes, scored the first-ever competition success for the Porsche marque.
Starting with the first legend, many armchair experts have said that this realignment of the Volkswagen’s components possessed a fatal flaw. The effect, they pointed out, was to cause the wheels to toe outward when they rose, instead of inward as they did on the Beetle. The rear-wheel-steering effect thus generated would tend to make the car turn more sharply than the driver intended, producing unwanted oversteer. In the VW Beetle the effect was the opposite, combating the car’s inherent oversteering tendency.
But what did knowledgeable people make of the 356 roadster when it was freshly minted? It was driven to
Switzerland late in June 1948 so it could be tested by journalists who were on hand for the Swiss Grand Prix at Bern on 4 July. One of these was Robert Braunschweig, editor of Bern’s authoritative Automobil Revue.
Calling the 356 ‘the youngest offspring of a great name,’ the experienced Braunschweig wrote that he ‘became very confident with it in a short time’ on the difficult and fast GP circuit. ‘This is how we imagine modern road motoring to be,’ he continued, ‘where the advantages of modern springing and the resultant driving comfort are combined with the adhesion of an equally modern, low and handy sports car. In tight corners it is handy and stable while in longer, fast highway bends it precisely holds the desired course.’
Another reporter in Switzerland had the inside track with Porsche on the story of its new car. He was Max Troesch, an engineer who had been in charge of experimental work at Steyr in 1929 when Ferdinand Porsche was director of design there. Troesch later moved to Switzerland to advance his education and was still there when the first Type 356 arrived. He gave his impressions of it in The Motor of 21
July 1948.
Driving the 356 in both town and country, Max Troesch reported that ‘it is not only speedy but also very comfortable and above all almost unbelievably stable.’ Its suspension, he said, ‘in conjunction with the very small overhang and concentration of weight at the back, gives remarkably steady, straight running on bad roads. Due to the raised roll centre at the rear of the car, plus the low centre of gravity, the car has really remarkable road holding, combined with a pleasant softness of springing and very light, accurate steering.’
That summer a British visitor, David Scott-moncrieff, paid an impromptu visit to Gmünd and to Porsche, he and his wife driving ‘up a valley to a group of what looked like army huts and were very graciously received.’ A purveyor of fine
motorcars, Scott-moncrieff made himself known to Ferry Porsche, who showed him the works and the first 356.
‘I was allowed to take the prototype for a test run,’ Scottmoncrieff said. ‘I was absolutely shattered by its roadholding. We were emerging from the decades during which only vintage cars and a few sports cars sat on the road; the others wallowed and floated about. So to find this new prototype as taut and road-hugging as a Grand Prix Bugatti was an incredible experience.’
All these assessments of the 356’s handling were positive. None mentioned excessive oversteer. Respecting the standing of Ferdinand Porsche, who was well known to all who understood European motor engineering, those who drove and reported on the first ‘Porsche’ might have been inclined to see it in a positive light. Nevertheless their own reputations were such that they would have given their honest impressions of its attributes. That they didn’t even hint at oversteer is significant.
A further demonstration of the roadster’s agility came on 11 July 1948. The 356 was back in Austria at Innsbruck in the Tyrol, appearing at the Rund um den Hofgarten, a round-thehouses race meeting on a 1.9-mile circuit through city blocks alongside the Inn River that gave the town its name. Brightening that summer’s gloom in the still-deprived postwar years, the meeting was attended by 45,000 fans. The three local newspapers devoted considerable coverage to an event that was chiefly for motorcycles but featured one sports-car race of ten laps, 19.0 miles.
This contest had a handful of eclectic entries. Alceo Padovani entered a Stanguellini; Trento-based Italian Luigi Vilotti fielded a Fiat 1100 sports. Otto Mathé brought his 1934 Fiat Balilla 508S while a 3.0-litre Austro Daimler of circa 1929 vintage, whose engine could trace its origin to Ferdinand Porsche’s designs, was an entry by Robert Aschkenasi.
Because the Stanguellini didn’t start and the Austro Daimler failed almost immediately, the race became a duel
between Vilotti and Mathé. The reporter for the Tiroler Neue Zeitung summarised the result by stating ‘The Fiat of the Italian driver was much more powerful than the Balilla of Otto Mathé, but the latter ran an excellent race and kept up with the rival Italian for a long time.’
Another paper, the Volkszeitung Innsbruck, said in its story, ‘As for the car race, the Fiat of the Italian Luigi Vilotti placed himself in front of regional racer Otto Mathé. Let it be noted that the one-armed pilot of Innsbruck showed excellent wheel control on this occasion but he finished behind the Fiat which was definitely more powerful than the Balilla.’
Isn’t this the race in which the first-ever Porsche competition success was famously scored by Herbert Kaes driving the 356 roadster, a victory celebrated in song and story? Both car and driver are conspicuous by their absence in the accounts quoted above. The reason for this is that they didn’t officially compete. Instead, between races Kaes drove demonstration laps in the silver roadster. He was accompanied on the circuit by Ferry Porsche in the Type 60K10 Volkswagen coupé, one of the cars Porsche built in 1939 for the aborted Berlin-rome Race.
This appearance ‘at racing speed’ of exotic Porsche creations, giving a glimpse of the future of auto making, caused even more excitement than the race. ‘Much observed and admired were the two new Porsche cars,’ said the Tiroler Tageszeitung, ‘using components from the Volkswagen and tuned engines, not as racers but as sporting touring cars.’ Since the 60K10 coupe was still a secret car, unknown to the public at large, it was thought to be another new Porsche creation. By then it had been rehabilitated in Turin by Pinin Farina and given ‘Porsche’ identity.
Significant in reports of the race was the exceptional driving talent of Otto Mathé. Soon the enthusiastic racer would be won over to the Porsche camp and in June 1949 became the owner of the above-mentioned 60K10 coupe, now styled as a Porsche Type 64. Converted to right-hand steering to suit Mathé’s infirmity, the ultra-rare proto-porsche took part in some ten local events.
The coupé’s first competitive outing was immediately after its purchase in the Austrian Alpine Rally, organised in the western part of Austria not occupied by the Russians. It retired in that event but in the 23-25 June 1950 running of the Austrian Alpenfahrt Mathé drove the claustrophobic coupe to a 1.1-litre class victory, winning an Alpine Cup and an Edelweiss Gold Medal. His Vw-porsche hybrid was joined in Mathé’s stable in February 1951 by a Gmünd-built Porsche coupé.
Meanwhile a tranche of the Porsche crew had returned to Stuttgart to begin preparations for production there of an initial series of 500 Type 356/2 Porsches. In the spring of 1950, on the day before Good Friday, the first such car was sent out into the world. Here was a strange-looking twoseater based on parts of the humble Volkswagen with a price tag in Germany of DM9950, some $2400 at a time when that would buy a Packard or Lincoln in America. Who would risk buying and being seen in such a costly curiosity?
Significant numbers of the first Porsche owners came from the ranks of Germany’s aristocracy – people who had both the confidence to be ‘early adopters’ of this new-fangled auto and the funds to afford one. Among pioneering buyers were the two Princes of Hanover, Count Metternich, the Duke of Harrar, Prince Thurn und Taxis, and Prince Joachim zu Fürstenberg and his brother Fritzi. Sweden’s royalty took the Porsche to their hearts as did Egypt’s potentates.
One of the inspirations for titled Porsche owners was Philipp Konstantin Graf von Berckheim. Into a family both militarily and industrially prominent, ‘Tin’ Berckheim was born on 20 September 1924. Thus he was 25 when the first Porsches emerged from Zuffenhausen. He was just the right age to became a rabid enthusiast for the new marque— which he certainly did.
Tall, good-looking and great company, Count ‘Tin’ Berckheim was the poster boy for the youthful owners that Porsche hoped to attract. They had to be good drivers, too, because the first Porsches had VW’S synchro-free ‘crash’ gearboxes. Porsche’s mechanics paid close attention when they went out with a prospective buyer. If a driver couldn’t manage the 356’s cranky shift and unusual handling the mechanics were known to black-ball their application for ownership.
Berckheim bought a light-coloured 356 coupé. Relishing its performance, he decided to enter it in competitions. Huddling with the Porsche men, he decided on an entry in the first big event available, Sweden’s Rally to the Midnight Sun, run from 15 to 18 June 1950. The first-ever Midnattsolsrally organised by the Swedish Royal Automobile Club, it had starting points at Stockholm, Falsterbo and Gothenburg. Their routes joined at Örebro as they headed north to the finish at Kiruna, well north of the Polar Circle, covering a daunting 1400 miles of Sweden’s well-graded but unpaved roads. Fortunately the rally was held in midsummer, avoiding the punishment of the Scandinavian winter.
For the Swedish event Porsche prepared both Berckheim’s car and a cabriolet to be driven by Count Günther von Hardenberg and Fritzi zu Fürstenberg, whose brother Joachim accompanied Berckheim. In Sweden the entry disclosed a third Porsche, the Austrian-built aluminiumbody 356 of Countess Cecilia Koskull and Christina Peyron running in the 1.5-litre class. Their car was one of the substantial share of Porsche’s Austrian production that was sold in Sweden by VW importer Scania Vabis.
These Porsches were so new to the Swedish scene that the local media didn’t know what to make of them. The newspapers called them ‘Volkswagens in leisure clothing,’ saying of ‘the new Volkswagen entered’ in the rally that ‘the engine has been reduced to 1086cc. The power was increased from 25 to 40 horsepower and the top speed from 115 to 140km/h.’ This suited the propaganda of Scania Vabis, which cheekily credited any Porsche achievements to their ‘VW engine and chassis’.
The Midnattsolsrally enjoyed 126 starters ranging from Oliver Goodwin’s 1931 8.0-litre Bentley through an HRG and Healeys, Citroëns, BMWS, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Austin A90 Atlantics, Fords, Plymouths, Volvos and—in the same 1.1-litre class as the Porsches – Fiats, Renaults, Czech Aero Minors, a Dyna Panhard and the new and lively
Saabs. All pitted their performance and crewing skills against the roads and several special tests, two speed trials and a hill climb before an acceleration and braking test at the finish in Kiruna, following the successful model of the Monte Carlo Rally.
In one of the tests the fastest cars – including an Austin Atlantic! – clocked three minutes flat. In her lightweight Porsche Cecilia Koskull was timed at 3:17.4, beaten in her class only by the HRG and (just) by an MG. The two steelbodied Porsche 356s were timed at an identical 3:26.9. The best clocking by a rival in the 1.1-litre class was a Saab at 3:58.3, driven by company engineer Rolf Mellde.
When the final standings were posted at Kiruna, a pre-war BMW 328 was the overall winner of the Rally of the Midnight Sun. Second overall was the quick HRG and third was the Fürstenberg/berckheim Porsche – an outstanding performance. The Koskull/peyron 356 was ninth overall and the Hardenberg/fürstenberg cabriolet eleventh.
Most importantly, wins were achieved in two of the classes for which the Porsches were eligible. The Fürstenberg/berckheim team won their 1.1-litre class ahead of the Mellde Saab and a Fiat, with Hardenberg/fürstenberg fourth. The Porsche coupé drivers received the Royal Auto Club’s gold plaque and a cash prize of 900 crowns – about one-eighth the price of a new Saab.
Financially the girls did even better. Cecilia Koskull and Christina Peyron pulled down 1000 crowns as winners of the Ladies’ Class. Female teams driving Simcas and Volvos were left in the wake of their aluminium Porsche coupé.
Although not strictly to the credit of a Porsche, a week later came Otto Mathé’s class victory in the Austrian Alpenfahrt, driving his Porsche-designed VW racer. The
Swedish successes go down in history as the first-ever competition victories by pure Porsche cars. No minor outing, Sweden’s Midnattsolsrally was a demanding four-day contest that tested the merits of all participants. Porsche was justifiably proud of the success achieved, as Ferry proved when posing with the two male teams when they visited Zuffenhausen after the rally.
This marked the beginning of a successful competition career for Tin Berckheim. He returned to Sweden a year later to win his class again, this time with Porsche’s new 1300. In 1951 he was a class winner in the Travemünde Rally.
That summer of ’51, Berckheim was one of the test drivers when Porsche used the Baden-baden Rally to conduct a high-speed trial of its new 1.3-litre engines. With rules which awarded success to the team that made the most check-point visits, two Porsches raced back and forth on the Autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich, covering 2254 miles at a 75mph average. The fastest completed lap was at 85.4mph. Both Porsches carried ‘Test Car’ placards that allowed them to exceed the 50-mph speed limit imposed by the American occupiers.
Early in 1952 Tin Berckheim was on one of the teams that drove Porsches to second and third in Italy’s Sestriere Rally. In May his agenda turned more serious when he accompanied Giovanni Lurani in an aluminium 356 in the Mille Miglia, using a semi-experimental 1488 cc engine.
Count Berckheim carried out pre-race testing of the Mille Miglia coupé during the night on the Autobahns around Stuttgart. When he roared past one of the American military patrol cars at better than 110mph he decided he’d better not wait around and continued at top speed. Twenty miles down the road a swinging lantern prompted him to stop. However, when policemen there compared notes on the radio report they’d received about a speeding car, they realised that it had come only 11 minutes earlier. No car could have covered the distance so quickly, they concluded. Waiting instead for the real culprit to arrive, they waved Berckheim happily on his way.
Berckheim and Lurani were leading their class in the Mille Miglia when they lost all but third gear with 200 miles to go to the finish at Brescia. Learning of their misfortune, their main rival in a Cisitalia put on speed to make up a seven-minute disadvantage, only to blow its engine. The class victory was Porsche’s as was 46th place overall. Cisitalia was also denied the win in the 1.1-litre class by the Porsche of Count Paul Metternich and Wittigo Einsiedel.
In an ultimate adventure Tin Berckheim took his 356 coupé to Mexico for the Carrera Panamericana late in 1952. His car was fitted with one of the prototypes of Porsche’s then-new synchronised transaxle. Trouble with this stopped his race on the second leg. His riding mechanic Herbert
Linge recalled that Berckheim loyally told reporters that a stone thrown up by the roadway had damaged his transmission.
An accident effectively ended Konstantin Berckheim’s racing career, leaving him partially crippled. He nevertheless kept a strong interest in Porsche’s racing, observing and organising from a wheelchair. He died, aged 60, on 6
October 1964. Tin Berckheim deserves to be remembered as one of Porsche’s first and finest entrants, drivers and enthusiasts.