Porsche 64 - Definition

Porsche 64

The Porsche 64, also known as the VW Aerocoupe, Type 64 and Type 64K10, is considered by many to be the first automobile from Porsche. The model number comes from the fact that it was built mainly from parts from the Model 64 VW Beetle. Its flat-four engine produced 50 bhp and gave a top speed of 160 km/h.

The body design was made by the Porsche Büro after wind tunnel tests for a planned V10 sports car that never came into existence. Dr. Porsche promoted the idea to enter the car into the 1939 Berlin-Rome race as a public relations ploy. Three cars were made in hand shaped aluminium by the bodywork company Reutter. One was crashed by a Kraft durch Freude (Volkswagen) bureaucrat early in World War II. The two remaining were used by the Porsche family. Eventually they only used one of them and put the other in storage. In May 1945 American troops discovered the one put in storage, cut the roof off and used it for joyriding for a few weeks until the engine gave up and it was scrapped. The last remaining Porsche 64 was owned by Ferry Porsche who had it restored by Pinin Farina in 1947. In 1949 it was sold to the Austrian motorcycle racer Otto Matte and with it he won the Alpine Rally in 1950. The last time he drove it in a race was at the Monterey Historic Races in Monterey, California, in 1982.