This might be a good side trip to add on to this year’s Historic Challenge at Road Atlanta. To celebrate Porsche’s 60th year in North America, the Porsche Museum will be exhibiting the 1939 Berlin-Rome Type 64 at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art exhibit The Allure of the Automobile from March 21-June 20. The car is undoubtedly the spiritual ancestor to every Porsche made since and was the first appearance of many of the design hallmarks that would define the cars. The exhibit will also feature the ’53 550 LeMans Coupe.
The 64 was a prototype hand built special assembled in Zuffenhausen immediately before the Porsche family left Germany for Austria during WWII. The car was designed for the Berlin-Rome race, the nimble and lightweight car would be a perfect competitor for a long overland race through the Alps. Three examples were made: one was destroyed in a bombing raid, one was joy-ridden to death by celebrating American soldiers, the only remaining example holds a prized place in the Porsche museum since it was re-acquired by the factory in 1951.
This is indeed a rare opportunity to see this priceless and important machine in the only setting anyone is likely to ever see it again, a museum pedestal.
CarCulture.com has some marvelous photos of the Berlin-Rome car here.
Update: Still looking into an inconsistency on this bit of news, the High Museum exhibit lists the ’39 on display as a replica, Porsche seems to be listing it as the genuine article – waiting on confirmation from Porsche on this.
0 replies on “Porsche’s 1939 Berlin-Rome Coupe Visits the States”
The car shown at Atalanta is a reproduction of the Type 64 commissioned by Porsche for the new Museum. It is not an actual Type 64 and Porsche did not re-aquire the remaining “Otto Mathe'” car in 1951 or at any other time. That car still survives and is owned by the Arabella Group in Munich.
Kent Caveny