This August, the oldest surviving Porsche in the world (and the only of its kind) will go to auction in Monterey by RM Sotheby’s. It’s expected to fetch at least US$20 million which will easily make it the most expensive Porsche ever. The current title holder is the Porsche 917K used in the film, Le Mans, which sold for US$17 million in 2017. [source]
Per Road & Track:
This car is a Type 64, which Ferdinand Porsche designed for a 1500-kilometer race between Berlin and Rome planned for September 1939. It was based on the Porsche-designed Volkswagen Beetle—then known as the KdF Wagen—but fit with streamlined aluminum body panels and a hotter 32-hp flat-four. The race never happened. Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September, 1939, and the Type 64 project was effectively cancelled. One car was built, which became property of the German government.
Ferdinand’s son Ferry built two more examples of the Type 64, though. Chassis #2 was completed in December, 1939, and chassis #3 was finished the following June. Type 64 #3 actually used the bones of the first car, which was crashed by the managing director of Volkswagen. While Type 64 #2 didn’t survive the war, chassis #3 did, and was retained by the Porsche family when they relocated to Austria. Ferry Porsche put the company name on the front of the Type 64, registered it in 1946, and had Battista “Pinin” Farina—who later founded design house Pininfarina—restore it in 1947.
“This is Porsche’s origin story, the car that birthed the company’s legend, and it offers collectors what is likely an unrepeatable opportunity to sit in the seat of Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche.”
The 1939 Type 64 #03 is the most historically significant of all Porsche cars and it is being offered in its original condition. It has only had 4 owners and even a number of original spare parts are included in the auction. You can learn more about this incredible vehicle at Road & Track as well as the original RM Sotheby’s press release which has many more photos as well.
