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But the auction in California, whose bids rose to $ 17 million, resulted in the sale of the unsold car. Auction sellers often have an undisclosed minimum price below which the car will not be sold. Apparently, this figure, called the reserve price, has not been reached.
The troubles began at the RM Sotheby's auction in Monterey as soon as the Type 64 bidding began.
Many spectators gasped and others laughed. According to the auctioneer's voice, it was not clear that he was saying, in fact, "-14 years" and not "-ty". The problem persisted up to $ 14 million, or $ 40 million, and then $ 15 million on the screen. The board read $ 70 million before the auctioneer became aware of the problem right behind him and demanded that it be corrected.
Some members of the audience booed as the price was corrected. After that, bids stopped coming in and the sale was closed at $ 17 million.
It was an honest mistake, said RM Sotheby's in a statement, and that was not staged. "We are proud to lead our world-class auctions with integrity and take our responsibility to our customers very seriously – it was in no way a joke or a trick. forcefully from anyone at RM Sotheby's, but from an unfortunate misunderstanding amplified by the excitement aroused by the play. "
The Type 64 looks a bit like the clay model of a child of a modern Porsche. It was Ferdinand Porsche's first attempt to design a sports car with the engine at the rear. This is the same basic idea that the Porsche car company would use in its first car, the 356, and later in the 911.
"If you put somebody who has a good knowledge of the cars in front of that car and you ask him what it was, they would probably say" Porsche ", because it's really very obvious." Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, said in the weeks leading up to the auction.
Porsche saw the potential of a race car based on KdF-Wagen's rear engine design. Having the engine at the rear exerts a weight effect on the wheels that propel the car, which facilitates traction on slippery roads and during acceleration. In the hands of an experienced driver, a rear-engined car could also take tight turns without the weight of an engine at the front pulling the car's nose to the outside. Of course, this tended to pull the tail out and could turn the car, one of the risks inherent in this type of design.
The first Type 64 was built to compete in a road race from Berlin to Rome, scheduled for September 1939. Its chassis and engine were borrowed from KdF-Wagen, but the engine was slightly modified, bringing its power to 32 horses. It was a respectable figure for a car of this size and weight at the time. Aircraft construction technologies were used to make the light alloy body.
On September 1, 1939, the German armed forces invaded Poland, triggering the Second World War. The Berlin-Rome race never took place. The factories which were to build KdF-Wagens for German families were assigned to the production of military vehicles designed by Porsche. Only one Type 64 had been built at that time, but a second one was completed later.
The car sold in Monterey was, technically, the third car, but it was built on the chassis of the first after being crushed by a Nazi-era Volkswagen executive. The second Type 64 was confiscated by Allied forces after the war and crashed shortly thereafter. It was later rebuilt and is now exhibited in a museum in Hamburg, Germany, after having stayed at the Petersen Museum.
The Porsche family was allowed to keep this type 64, flown by both Ferdinand and his son Ferry, who then created the 356. Ferry applied the family name to the front of the car. In 1947, this type 64 was restored by the car design and manufacturing company of Turin, Italy, known today as Pininfarina.
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