The Porsche Inspiration – The Berlin-Rome Coupe By Kent Caveny

The word “museum” derives from Greek and means a place of inspiration. The first exhibit the visitor encounters in the Porsche Museum, the Type 64 or Berlin-Rome Coupe, represents the Porsche inspiration. As you reach the top of the museum escalator, a streamlined coupe in bare aluminum is revealed. It is low and light with fully enclosed wheels and a full belly pan. You recognize the family profile of 356 and 911 coupes. There are no bumpers, no windows, no upholstery, not even wheels. The air vents below the rear window tell you where the engine would be.

The first exhibit in the Porsche Museum is this bare aluminum body. The Type 64 design dates from September 16, 1938 and represents the culmination of 40 years of Porsche design experience and the first step to the 60+ years of Porsche sports vehicles we know today. This display evokes that 100 year period. [KPC]

And on the front, 7 letters spell out “Porsche”. This was the first design to physically carry that name – even before Porsche 356 Number 1. The Type 64, was the culmination of the Porsche designs that came before and the inspiration for those that came after as revealed during the rest of the Porsche Museum tour. The guiding words for the tour are: Light, Strong, Clever and Fast. As we shall see, the Type 64 incorporated each of those characteristics.

The body is streamlined with a full belly-pan, enclosed wheel wells, a low profile and a very narrow greenhouse. The family resemblance with the 356 is clear. The Type 64, Berlin-Rome coupe was designed to be fast, by being light, strong and clever. [KPC]

The Berlin-Rome Race The Type 64 coupes were built for the Berlin-Rome Race. The German government in the ‘30s used motor racing, as exemplified by the Silver Arrows, to stimulate national pride and foreign trade. Those Grand Prix cars were wonderful but they were not approachable to the man-on-the-street. There was a desire to have a “people’s race” like the Mille Miglia for sports and touring cars. The chance came with the opening of the Autobahn from Berlin to Munich. Adolf Huehnlein, the German Motorsport Director and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Furmanic developed the plan for an endurance race and gained the backing of their respective governments. The Autobahn would be the first leg of the 1500km run that would continue through Austria, the Brenner Pass and finished in Rome. As announced in the June 1937 issue of Motorwelt, the German Auto Club magazine, the race would be run on Sept 27 and 28, 1938. The race would occur just after the August 1, start of a national savings book plan for the purchase of the “People’s Car” (Volks Wagen) called the KDF. Lancia, in Italy, immediately announced a plan to build a streamline Aprilia for the race and Wanderer, part of Auto Union, and BMW said they would produce streamliners too. The Genesis of the Type 64 – The Berlin-Rome Coupe In the early 1930, The German Government’s plans to promote “motoring for the people” lead to the signing of a contract with Porsche on June 22, 1934 for the design and development of a peoples car prototype. That created Porsche design file for a Type 60 vehicle. Some early calculation sheets and reports were labeled VW60. Eventually, on May 28, 1937 the “Gesellshaft zur Vorbereitung des Volks Wagens” (Company for the preparation of the People’s Car) was formed to bring the car into production and in early

1938 the name was changed to Kraft Durch Freude (Strength though joy) or KDF for short. Dr Porsche was a very early proponent of the concept that would be described in the ‘50s as, “Win on Sunday and sell on Monday.” As Ferry Porsche relates in his biography, there were always special KDF engines being tested with better cams, dual carburetors and other performance enhancements. The Porsche group proposed a sports or racing model of the KDF that was rejected as inconsistent with the image of the “people’s car”. They then proposed to build the sports car themselves with KDF components, but that concept was also rejected for contractual reasons. Separately, Porsche was developing in-house designs for a possible “Porsche” like the Type 114 or “F-Wagon” sports touring project being development under the supervision of Karl Fröhlich. The 114 was to be powered by a rear-mounted 1.5liter V10 engine and carry two occupants on a 2700mm wheelbase.

Both these Porsche designs are dated Sept. 16, 1938. On the top is the 60K10 body – the type 64. On the bottom is the Type 114, 2 place sports coupe on 2.7m wheelbase that was developed with wind tunnel testing. The Type 64 has a very similar although lower profile on the 2.4 m wheelbase KDF chassis. The full body drawings still exist for the 114, but only the center profile for the Type 64 survives. [PA]

Suddenly, a week before the Berlin-Rome Race was to occur, and in the middle of the 1938 Sudetenland Crisis, the race was postponed to early 1939 and the stories of the race and the car started getting confusing. Eventually the race was rescheduled for September 14/15, 1939 although the German invasion of Poland prior to that caused the ultimate cancellation. Just days before the race postponement, on September 16, 1938, body

drawings were signed-off for the streamlined Porsche Type 114 and a very similar but smaller two passenger streamliner on a 2400mm chassis, labeled, “60K10”. At Porsche, each KDF, Type 60, body style was given a “K” (for “Karosserie”) number. The three original prototype cars of 1936 and the 30 prototypes of 1937 used 60K5 bodies. The production body design for 1938 was 60K7. The 60K10 body design is the Type 64, Berlin-Rome Coupe. But how could a design that first appeared on September 16, 1938 be race-ready 11 days later. Perhaps, after KDF management initially rejected the concept of a sport/racing car, Porsche developed the Type 64 design as their own independent design file. Then, when the race was postponed KDF recognized the potential benefits of participating in the Berlin-Rome Race, Porsche rechristened their Type 64 design with KDF nomenclature. A confusing point relates to who knew what and when. The KDF management could have known that the race was going to be postponed and taken action, or maybe they revised their plan much earlier and Porsche was just unable to respond quickly enough. Whatever the political, commercial and military motivations might have been, three Type 64s were built based on KDF chassis and engine elements and with a family resemblance to the KDF. The Type 64 -- Light, Strong, Clever and Fast The Type 64 has a light, strong, self-supporting aluminum body and weighs only 550kg. That’s 83% of the 663kg weight of a normal 60K7 design. The body weight was reduced by using very thin 0.5mm (0.02 in) Duralum alloy, a strong, weldable, age hardening aluminum alloy that was originally used in the Zeppelins. That’s similar to today’s AA2024. The self-supporting body also allowed removal of the relatively heavy steel floor pan from the standard KDF chassis leaving only the steel backbone to support the body. The body was designed to be fast. Only two seats were provided and the occupants were cleverly crowded to the center with the passenger seat set 12 inches further back to provide both occupants some shoulder room. That allowed the upper “greenhouse” of the body to be narrowed which reduced the frontal area and related drag. The passengers were also further back in the chassis than in the KDF, which allowed the body height to be reduced from 1.5 meters to 1.25 meters to provide a more streamlined curve to the body and further reduced frontal area. The streamlining reduced the drag coefficient from 0.42 to 0.35. The lower drag coefficient was partly due to fully enclosing the wheel wells with fairings and using a smooth belly pan. Overall, the form of the Type 64 is very similar to the larger Type 114 body form, except that the 114 was dis-proportionately taller. The motor was stronger than the standard KDF motor of 985ccs and 25.5Hp at 3000 rpm. The Type 64 motor displaced 1131ccs, had twin Solex carburetors with 22.5mm throats and the normal KDF 5.8:1 compression ratio. By July 14, 1939, the Type 64’s “Sport Motor VW 3841” produced 32 horsepower at 3500 rpm, an increase of 25 percent. The steering, suspension and transmission were standard KDF including the torsion bar springing with trailing arms in front and swing axles in the rear. There almost certainly

was a change in the rear axle ratio to achieve the performance required. The Type 64 package produced a top speed of 90m/h and the reported ability to average 83mph on trips between the center of Berlin and the VW factory -- fast touring in 1939. There are various reports of higher Type 64 horsepower ratings both before and after the war. The attached table, based on VW60 calculations from May 5, 1937, indicates that the reported 32 horsepower would have been sufficient to achieve the claimed, prewar, top speed. The table also shows the possible performance for other power rating that have been reported for a Type 64 as modified in the late ‘40s and ‘50s.

Calculated Top Speed based on Motor Horsepower Type 60 Type 64 Calculated Top Speed Motor Speed Required

Axle Ratio HP HP MPH KPH RPM 23.5 14.3* 62 100 3000 3.74

n/a

32.0 90 145 3500 3.01 40.0 97 156 4000 3.19 50.0 106 170 4000 2.92 60.0 113 183 4000 2.73

* Required horsepower to achieve indicated speed The Three Type 64 Coupes Three Type 64 cars were built and parts may have been available for a fourth. There are pictures from the late ‘30s and ’40s that show three cars with individual number plates and different distinguishing characteristics. They also show the cars with different paint colors and possibly changing door windows. One writer has said the pictures seem to show at least seven different cars. Today, there are two, the Porsche Museum body and the well known Otto Mathé car that has been raced and displayed from 1949 to the present. The three cars can be distinguished by the registration plate that appear in contemporary photographs. The plates were temporary plates used on experimental vehicles. The first letters, IIIA, indicate Stuttgart and the 4 digits are sequence numbers. There is an interesting photo from 1941 of a Type 82 Kubelwagen wearing plate IIIA 0687 that was previously used on a Type 64 coupe. Had that coupe been destroyed or re-registered by 1941? IIIA 0703 -- There are numerous pictures of a light colored Typ 64 at the Porsche Works and Family Villa in summer of 1939 with registration plate number IIIA 0703. That must be the first car, that was completed in August of 1939, just before the rescheduled Berlin-Rome Race was cancelled by the beginning of World War II. The many pictures are like a family album of a new baby and clearly indicate a very close relationship between the Porsche family and the car. Ferry Porsche even comments in his biography, that before the war the Type 64 was part of a plan to build a Porsche car. The pictures also show unique characteristics that may indicate that there was a rush to complete the car for the race. The window glass (which is actually the first use of plexiglass) is mounted in wide frames with wide rubber seals surrounding them. The rear quarter windows are not aligned with the door windows at the belt line. The door windows have small fold-out vents at the back. The turn-signal semaphores are unique as are the rear registration plate lights and the rear marker lights are on top of the fenders.

In late summer of autumn 1939, Ferry Porsche is showing the first Type 64 coupe to two young enthusiasts. This is the first Type 64 and used the temporary registration plate IIIA 0703. Key features are the window frames, the signal semaphores, the narrow front horn grills and the lack of rear side lights. [PA]

This rear ¾ view of the first Type 64 was taken in front of the Porsche Family Villa in Zuffenhausen in September 1939. It shows the fold-out door window vents, the tail lights centered on top of the rear fenders, boxy license lights and a flush mounted reflector. For all those warts, it was the first child and beloved. [PA]

IIIA 0703 in front of the Porsche factory in 1939. The misalignment of the ¾ windows with the door windows at the belt line is apparent. That feature was unique to the first body although all bodies had different arrangements of the window and door lines at the top. I suspect there was never a body buck for this limited series. [PA]

IIIA 0687 & 0701 -- These two cars were finished in December 1939 and June 1940 respectively. They have many similar details including a more “finished” window framing treatment and aligned lower edges of the door and rear quarter windows as well as side-mounted rear marker lights. But there are also small differences. IIIA 0687 has sliding door windows and a narrow spacing between two horn grills in the nose. IIIA 0701 had fold-out door vent windows, a wide spacing of the front grills and a radio antenna at the center of the windshield.

IIIA-0701 or body number 64/3 at the Gmund Sawmill, said to be in 1949, before the sale to Mathé. The door windows have been converted to sliding from the original fold-out. The Cisitalia-like grill would have been installed by Pinnin Farina by then, but the turn semaphores are still visible which is confusing. Compared to IIIIA 0703, the rear lights are on the side, the turn semaphores are longer and lower and the rear reflector protrudes. [PA]

Where Are They Now? In his biography, Ferry Porsche relates that one Type 64 was scrapped after a road accident by Dr Lafferentz, the managing director of KDF. He also tells the story of how GIs, stationed in Zell-am-See, found one of the coupes, played with it, cut the top off it and eventually froze the engine by neglecting to change the oil. So that leaves only the Type 64 which was sold to Otto Mathé in 1949. Where does the Porsche Museum body come from? A recent article in the German magazine Oldtimer Markt by Wolfgang Blaube investigates the provenance and descendency of the Mathé car. One of several important revelations is that Dr Lafferentz’ 89 year old widow has confided that her husband’s accident was only a minor scrape and the car (IIIA 0703, the first car) was repaired and kept in Berlin by KDF. So now there could be two cars again. No post-war pictures exist of the 0703 car with the misaligned windows and neither the Mathé nor the Porsche body have miss-aligned rear quarter windows. Therefore, the first car probably no longer exists. The Mathé Coupe By early 1947, Ferry Porsche and his re-established design team in Austria were thinking about producing a car with the Porsche name and had at least one Type 64 coupe available and running. At the same time they were working with Italians on the Cisitalia GP car project and must also have been developing concepts and drawings for 356 No 1. The Type 64 was sent to Pinnin Farina in Italy for a “facelift”. A Cisitalia-like grill was added to join the two horn grills at the front and the archaic turn signal semaphores were removed. That is probably also when the windshield wipers were revised to provide two wipers mounted below the windshield and sliding windows were installed in the doors. Most importantly, the seven letters spelling Porsche were added to the nose just above the new grill. This was the first car labeled “Porsche”. This updated coupe was shown along with the first 356 Roadster at the Innsbruck Hofgarten race on July1, 1948. By 1949, with the 356 design finalized and in “cottage industry” production at the sawmill in Gmund, Porsche sold the coupe, a container load of documents and associated parts, including at least a second chassis and motor parts to Otto Mathé, the owner of a lubricants additive company and a serious amateur racer. Mathé, who had lost the use of his right arm, converted the car to right-hand drive and raced the car in many events with various engine combinations including a roller-bearing crankshaft engine producing 60hp. The car is most often identified by the registry plate T2222. He “owned” the car until his death in December 1995, including during a four year law suit to recover it, starting in 1991 when it temporarily escaped his control as part of the sale of his company. In 1982 it appeared at the Monterey Historic Races and the 356 Registry 6th West Coast Holiday in San Francisco to the joy and amazement of many. In 1997 it was sold at auction to its current owner, Thomas Gruber of Vienne for 6.1 million Austrian Shillings. Porsche apparently had several chances to recover the car but did not.

The “Otto Mathé” coupe on display last year at PROTOTYP museum in Hamburg. It’s the only “known” surviving Type 64 and is reportedly assembled using components from all three original cars. The body is serial number 64/3. The badges in front of the door are from recent Goodwood appearances. [PM]

The remains of the 64/3 interior on July 7, 1994 when Otto Mathé recovered the car at Schloss Ambrass in Innsbruck after the lawsuit. He had converted it to right-hand drive. He also must have moved the right seat forward since it was originally 10 inches behind the driver’s seat. Spartan as befits a race car. [PA]

The car has recently been demonstrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, displayed at the PROTOTYP Museum in Hamburg and at a recent show in Stuttgart. It was also covered by the recent Oldtimers Markt article. That article revealed that the car is a combination of parts with different serial numbers. The body is marked 64/3, the chassis is 64/1 and the motor is 64/2. Whether the serial numbers ever matched or if the car may have been assembled from remains of the three cars by Porsche or Mathé is not clear.

Herr Mathé with the Type 64 he owned, raced and exhibited for 45 years. On the hood is an Honorary Award rosette from 356 Registry West Coast Holiday No 6. The note in front says the car now has 60 HP and can reach 180 km/h (112 mph). In front of the car are the buckle ski boots he invented and that we’ve all used for years. [PA] The Porsche Museum Type 64 So what is the beautiful bare aluminum body that greets visitors to the Porsche Museum? During the run-up to opening the new Porsche Museum, publications like Christophorus and the Porsche Museum guide book, Passion, showed wonderful pictures of the bare metal coupe body and used words and phrases like, “most unusual restorations project…ever undertaken”, “with original parts”, “the number (body) testifies to the authenticity” and “the homecoming of the primeval Porsche”. Perhaps those are examples of “irrational exuberance”. In the same publications there were descriptions of

Hubert Drescher’s efforts to create a replica of the Type 64 from all new materials and based on a few dozen, mostly external, pictures of the three cars build in the late ‘30s. In truth, the beautiful first display in the museum is an all new construction with no original parts (with the possible exceptions of the headlights or steering wheel). The design drawings were lost during WWII and Porsche did not have (or didn’t obtain) access to the remaining Type 64 example.

The Porsche Museum display is beautifully constructed, but, since there were no available drawings or pictures of the actual bare metal interior, Hubert Drescher, the fabricator, developed the details based on contemporaneous cars he had experience with. There is no central tunnel so it can’t be mounted on a KDF or VW chassis. The doors are similar because there were photos available, while the rear bulkheads are “inspired”. [KPC] Herr Drescher, readily admits that the car is made of 1mm and 1.2mm sheet aluminum, rather than the original 0.5mm, that was formed to fit a body buck that he sculpted based on the surviving centerline profile drawing and the aged photos. He is a very experienced restorer, having done many very high-end restorations like 300SLRs for M-B and the Cisitalia for Porsche during 25 year his company has existed. He did his very best to capture the form and flavor of the information available and filled in the blanks, like interior detail, based on experience with contemporaneous race and touring cars. Many may be surprised at the rough “traces of craftsmanship on the bodywork left by files and hammers”, as Porsche describes the body finish. That patina was intentionally applied to assure a hand-made look on the surface of “a sculpture” when seen in the museum spotlights. Porsche now refers to their Type 64 display as a reproduction or a sculpture. The museum’s designer Professor HG Merz, has even called it a “teaser” for visitors to help them engage the range and meaning of the exhibits. In the end, the Type 64 really was the Porsche Inspiration. It was the result of 40 years of Porsche design experience that came before, including the Prince Henry, the 1911 aero-

engine, Sascha, the Mercedes SS series and of course the KDF or VW. It also pointed the way for the next 69 years that brought us the 356, 911, 917, 959, 962, Boxster, Caymen, Panamera and Porsches. Whether that inspiration is represented in the Museum by an actual Type 64 or a sculpture is not important.

Visitors to the Museum will see this until late summer when the display returns from the Hill Museum of Art in Atlanta. It’s similar to the body buck that Hubert Drescher developed, except that the original was progressively “butchered” to provide clearance to the internal panels as the “sculpture” evolved. The station bucks reveal how narrow the greenhouse is better than photos because they give a reference for the perspective. [KPC] Picture sources: KPC] = The author; [PA] = Porsche Archive; [PM] = PRORTYP Museum

This Type 64 slot car is in the Porsche Archive display case. It has the license of the first car and the correct tail light configuration. KPC]