EVERY NOW AND THEN something special happens.

A
car or event appears and it's worth far more than four or
five pages in Aircooled Classics. There's an event that only
comes around once in a while and it's so good it deserves
coverage for which only a magazine like this can do it
justice. In short, it needs space to breathe, and lots of it.

Two such special occasions just happened. One in

Germany and one in the UK. For this we have extended
issue 2 with a special supplement, enabling those that
might not have had the opportunity to attend these special
events the chance to enjoy them, and for those that did
go, well, to re-live the experience with us.

Our vintage specialist, Richard Copping, brings us a photo-

report on the Bad Camberg event, the 'Olympic' event that
happens only every four years in Germany. It is the place
to be to seek out all things vintage Volkswagen, something
respected VW author Richard is awfully good at!

Not to be outdone, UK features editor, Alistair Cox, made it

over to the 5th staging of Classics at the Castle, an event
that pays homage to the pre-73 Porsche, including road
sportscars and racing pedigree classics.

And to wrap up the supplement we tell the story behind

the Porsche Type 64 re-creation (shown opposite). An
amazing machine.

Enjoy!

Paul Cave
Editor – Aircooled Classics Magazine
Lee Maxted-Page's 1955 Pre A Speedster
GERMANY
OUR WORSHIPFUL EDITOR’S
brief (you'll go far, my lad - PC) was
simple – go to Bad Camberg and
take bright and shiny pictures of
Beetles, specials, and military
vehicles at the show. So I did, along
with thousands of other fans from a
myriad of countries.

Sadly, sunshine dazzle and

consequent sparkle was a bit of a
tall order – certainly for the main
day of the gathering, which was
Saturday. Near constant mizzle

would be generous, gloomily damp,

bordering on decidedly murky and
wet, would be more accurate. Such
a shame for a premier-league event
- a pilgrimage for hardcore
enthusiasts that occurs just once
every four years as well – but at
least it didn’t deter the owners of
treasured vintage metal from
turning up in their droves. And as a
consolation for the main day there
was Friday afternoon to dodge
between the showers, and warm
sunshine on Sunday just as
everybody was going home!

Trundling up and down the show-

field like the proverbial hamster in
an ever-turning wheel, the first of
the golden goodies worthy of
several snaps was from Karosserie
Dannenhauer and Stauss, one of a
nest of several that would later
cluster together. This example dated
from after October 1952, as
illustrated by its near oval style
dash and positively modern
bumpers, while those in the know
would have recognised a slightly
longer and wider car than the first
examples – a redesign calculated to
improve the vehicle’s aerodynamics.
Next up was a car from
the house of Rometsch.
But this wasn’t the model
that fans drool over. No,
this was a near complete
restoration of the 1957
revamp. Well, that’s
putting it mildly, as the
design was now heavily
influenced by trends
across the Atlantic so, with
great rudeness to the
House of Detroit,
traditional good looks had
gone out of the window.
Desirable in its day it
wasn’t, but five decades
and a little more later,
here was another vehicle
to add to the imagery
collection.
As for a one off – how about Beutler’s pick-up
(utility) – built by the Karosserie for their
own use and most probably carved out from
a Beetle that had been bashed about in an
accident. Crude in appearance and design,
but an inspiration to the do-it-yourself
brigade in years to come, here was another
quirky car not to be missed and well worthy
of a further run round when the sun peeped
from behind its blanket of cloud.
Similarly, curiosity drove many to
photograph an out of context Papler soft
top. Normally seen in police guise and
conceivably as a support vehicle for fire
departments, this one had the livery of
the German Red Cross. An ungainly
hood, crude doors and a heavy frame for
the windscreen ensure Karosserie Papler
doesn’t win any points for styling. Papler
created their first soft tops in 1950 and
unlike Karmann and Hebmüller didn’t
enjoy direct supply from Wolfsburg.
Carefully shielded from the
elements by a substantial gazebo
were two gems from the family
Grundmann collection. One was a
fully restored KdF-Wagen bearing
the chassis number 38/06 and, as
such, claimed to be the oldest
surviving Beetle in the world.
The other was an immaculate
reconstruction of a VW sports or
Record car (Rekordwagen) intended
to participate in the Berlin to Rome
propoganda race in 1939 that never
happened. Designated T64 - the
vehicle is a mix of original and
replica (body mostly) parts. Only
three T64s were ever built - each a
design from Porsche and made to
look delibarately like a sporting
Volkswagen. It was powered by a
twin carburettor flat four of just
985cc. Yet despite its minscule
engine performance was close to 90
mph (140 kph).
With such a combination of treasured
rarities, Kübelwagens and Schwimmwagens
appeared almost unworthy of photography,
while the Cabriolets produced by Karmann
were bordering on commonplace. Having
made such an inflammatory statement it is
worth qualifying the bluntness by adding that
some of the oldest surviving examples were
present to drool over as the accompanying
imagery confirms. Not then to condemn the
four-seater in anyway, but for many they
paled into the background as a goodly
number of two-seater Hebmüllers were on
show and drew the inevitable crowds.
Rumours abounded of this and that car for
sale, but the prices were astronomical to say
the least!
Obviously the pictures tell the story
of this year’s Camberg better than
words ever can but one further car
deserves its own paragraph despite
the fact that it was one of the
youngest vehicles with an official
presence on the show-field. This
was a prototype – a model for which
the brochures were printed and
distributed before it was decreed in
high places that the soft top version
of the razor-edge Karmann Ghia,
officially the T34, was a no-hoper.
Fully restored, the car was one of
the final prototypes to be built,
dating it to the last months of 1962, or the
first of 1963. Karmann passed it over to
Volkswagen in July 1963, who in turn sold it
to a dealer in southern Germany –
undoubtedly a perk for the young owner
whose dad just happened to be in the trade.
Having passed through several hands it was
restored in the early 1980s and has been
with its present owner since 2005. Mileage
on the clock? A mere 80,000km.
UK
Now in its 5th year, Classics at the Castle has established itself as the
premiere one day show in the UK for all pre-1973 Porsches. With this in mind
it was time for Aircooled Classics to head to Hedingham in the UK as invited
magazine to cover the event.

As settings go they don't come much better than this. The Norman Keep was
built circa. 1140AD and is one of the best preserved Norman keeps in
England. With the exhibiting grounds surrounded by beautiful woodland and
lakes, it makes for the perfect setting. So what better way to add to its beauty
than to fill these grounds with lots of lovely old Porsches!

People entering the Castle grounds were in for a fantastic treat. On your left,
there was a row of several 914s with a couple of genuine 914-6s in there for
good measure. Beyond was a line up of early 911s and 912s; enough to make
most men go weak at the knees! Avert your eyes to the right and you were
met with the sight of over 100 Porsche 356s. The alphabet of styles included
Speedsters and Carreras.

Passing the sea of 911s, 912s and 356s was the road to the main house and
around to the castle itself. Outside the house there was a special display of 3
competition Porsches with a true racing history. On the left was the Martini
Racing Porsche 908/3 chassis no. 006, in the centre was the 1968 Daytona
winning Porsche 907 longtail and to the right was the Dick Barbour Racing
Hawaiian Tropic 1978 Porsche 935 Turbo which was successfully raced by Paul
Newman in to second place at Le Mans in 1979.

The road bears left at the main house and the bridge goes over the old castle
moat in to the main castle area. This is where most of the trade stands were
situated. Many well known names from the world of early Porsche were in
attendance. Historika, Jaz, Roger Bray, PR Services, Maxted Page and Prill,
Early 911, Karmann Konnection and Paul Stephens Porsche who had managed
to bring along over a dozen fine examples of early Porsches for sale, including
a very original, very low mileage 1969 2.0T. On the Roger Bray stand there
was a stunning example of a 1962 Ruby Red 356 T6 and was reputedly first
owned by none other than J. Edgar Hoover!

In front of the main entrance to the Castle was the undoubted star of the
show, the recreation of a 1939 Porsche Typ64, driven over from the Prototyp
Museum in Hamburg.

The great British weather held out long enough for everyone to enjoy as much
of the show as possible.

As a show it must go down as one of those all time greats in the UK, where
the people's sports car becomes the star attraction, and rubs shoulders with
proper racing pedigree. For anyone who has an interest in early Porsches, and
we imagine that is you since you're reading this, make it a date in the 2012
diary.

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words, doesn't it? Go on. Turn the
page... The trees will thank you for it!
THIS IS A REPLICA, but not a
complete replica. It has some original
parts and some new parts – primarily
the skin. Only recently released to the
world, this is the story of how a truly
astonishing car came to be – twice over.
In 1938 the Porsche design bureau in
Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart,
was commissioned to produce three
sportscars running VW components
under sleek VW-looking aluminium
bodies for a race to take place between
Berlin and Rome. The name given to the
cars was Rekordwagen. The outbreak of
WWII prevented the race from
happening. However, all three cars were
constructed in time, each ever so slightly
different from its siblings. The first, built
in August 1939, was given to Bodo
Lafferentz who sat on the newly formed
board of Volkswagenwerk. It was
destroyed in an accident during the early
part of the war years. The second car
was completed in December 1939.
Nearing the end of the war it resided in
Austria, but was wrecked by US army
personnel celebrations when they
created a speedster version by hacking-
off the roof and seizing solid its tiny
engine. What of car #3? It was finished
in June 1940 and survived the war, and
was subsequently used by Ferry Porsche
before being sold in 1949 to Austrian
racing driver Otto Mathé.
The vehicle bodies, made of
aluminium, were prepared by Reutter.
The coach-building firm were located
close to Porsche. The engines to power
the three vehicles were very early VW
aircooled flat fours, massaged by
Porsche into performing as racing
engines with greater compression ratios,
and better volumetric efficiency through
the use of larger valves and two
carburettors. From an initial 23.5BHP the
power rose to 32BHP. Not much, you
might say, but the car was very light at
just 585kg (1287lbs) and also very
aerodynamic. As such, these cars were
capable of 140kph (87.5mph) from just
985cc. The transmission was pure VW38
derived swing-axle, non-syncro with four
forward gears, but with a higher final
drive fitted.
Otto Mathé continued to use the car
for racing purposes. He was an avid
collector of race cars and built his own
'specials'. After a decade of use, car #3
became part of his static collection and
when he died in 1995, the collection was
broken up as highly prized automotive
stock, his own T64 being passed on to a
collector. Some of the remaining cars
and the remaining odds and ends were
bought by Thomas König and Oliver
Schmidt, recent proprietors of the
Prototyp Automuseum in Hamburg -
http://www.prototyp-hamburg.de/
It was during a sorting and
cataloguing session, about ten years
ago, that an important discovery was
made. Thomas and Oliver were in
possession of a large quantity of parts
from the crashed vehicle, car #2. But
how could that be? Well, it turned out
that Porsche had in fact sold car #3 to
Otto Mathé together with numerous
parts gathered from the wreck of car #2,
including the engine. A moment of
serendipity must have fallen upon these
two gentlemen. Here was a chance to
recreate a very important part of
Porsche's automotive history.
An original VW38 chassis was
prepared and the engine from the
crashed #2 car refurbished to form the
basis. The recreation of the body was
awarded to Nolstalgicar in Germany, who
laser-scanned Otto Mathé's #3 car to
prepare a wooden buck upon which to
assemble riveted and welded aluminium
sheets into a body-like shape. And since
all three cars differed slightly, car #2 is
made to look like the original car #2
from early photographs.
Now a major draw card at classic car
events, T64 (chassis no. 38/42) took
three years to complete and only
recently stepped into the lime-light in
April of this year.