The folks over at RM Sotheby’s are preparing to sell an incredibly significant piece of Porsche history. Namely, the Porsche Type 64 race car that was the very first car to wear the Porsche name. In the video below, put out by the auction house this afternoon, you can see the Type 64 in action, driving around Willow Springs race track in California, driven by none other than Porsche’s two biggest fanatics, Jeff Zwart and Patrick Long. They discuss the car’s significance and what it means to them. It’s a short and sweet video that is worth watching. I’ve seen the Type 64, but watching it zoom around a race track is next level cool.
The Porsche Type 64 will be offered during the Saturday evening session of RM Sotheby’s 2019 Monterey auction. It will be one of the more than 180 auction lots sold therein. To see more information about the car, as well as more auction-ready photographs, click here.
The Type 64 was originally built for the Berlin to Rome race, but World War II broke out just a month after the car’s completion. The first of three cars planned, this one was appropriated by Dr. Bodo Lafferentz, the head of the German Labour Front, who promptly damaged it in a heavy crash. The second car was commandeered by a few U.S. Army soldiers, who cut the roof off the car and rallied it around until the engine blew up, then they scrapped it. The crashed car was ultimately returned to Porsche where it was rebodied with the sheetmetal planned to be used for car #3. That third car was never built, and this is the only car of its kind remaining.
