The Prototype Museum was on our bucket list for a long time, and the recent trip to Wolfsburg allowed us to pay a visit. The three-story building offers an interactive, exciting and immersive experience for at least half a day, making the good 150 km extra detour more than worth it (for more info, check out their website).
The Museum describes itself as a prototype of a car museum, but this is also true the other way around. It is a museum of prototype vehicles, as most of its exhibits are unique (i.e. tailor-made, coach-built or race) cars and prototypes.
Its premises are located in Hamburg’s harbour district, in an old factory site, constructed in 1836. The Museum, in its current form, was opened in 2008, and its layout and decor reflect a careful and refined overhaul without damaging the landmark building’s historical impression.
The Prototype Museum lives by a particular motto, “personen. kraft. wagen.” using the components of the German word for passenger car: “People”, “Power” and “Car”. The acronym of these words add up to the term “PKW”, the standard expression used in (both colloquial and official) German for passenger car (given the length of the complete expression, of course). The Museum, however, follows the literal meaning of this abbreviation, as their motto:
“People” stands for all those who first made these cars possible and who contributed to writing their history. These personalities include legendary automotive pioneer Dr Ing. Ferdinand Porsche as well as race car drivers Otto Mathé and Graf Berghe von Trips.
The Museum uses info sheets and wallpapers extensively, beautifully integrated into the decoration. We also have to add here that the Prototype Museum is also very people-friendly with immersive and interactive elements (our favourite was the simulator, built into a Porsche 356).
By adhering to “Power”, the Museum connects to the power of the engines and the passion, willingness to take risks, creativity and the dedication of car enthusiasts. Accordingly, most of these cars are breathtakingly exciting race cars and prototypes, like Michael Schumacher’s Benetton or NSU’s land speed racer.
Those few not oozing power and coolness make you wonder even more about the balls of steel those drivers had. Back then, prewar and early postwar drivers were racing vehicles that were not much more than an engine tied to an aluminium sheet with the safety of a modern skateboard.
The last word of the motto (“Cars”) focuses on the design and the art of engineering of the sports and race cars on display. The exhibits include some extraordinary cars, like one of the two existing Porsche Type 64, the prewar Porsche speed racer developed by Ferdinand Porsche. The wards also stressed that the exhibits are original pieces and no replicas of classics.
With this motto in mind, the Museum focuses on connecting people and technology. They emphasize the independence of any brand and operating without any state funding.
The Museum occupies three floors of the factory building, but the vast majority of exhibits are on the floor of the ticket office. And they are not beating around the bush, as they hit us with one of the most exciting prewar cars of the exhibition, one of two original Porsche Type 64.
This automotive unicorn is considered the precursor to the very first Porsche model, the 356 (that had a truly spectacular 70th anniversary a few years ago).
The Porsche Type 64 was designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the ‘30s for demonstration purposes, i.e. to break land speed records and to race, of course. The Type 64 is often referred to as the first Porsche automobile. It is undoubtedly a true design precursor to the post-war Porsche models, with its lightweight rear-engine layout.
The model number comes from the fact that it was built mainly from design drawings for the Type-64 “record car”. Most mechanical parts came from the VW 38, the prototype of the KdF-Wagen better known as the Volkswagen Beetle.
The hall also hosts two VW Beetles, including a 1939 VW 39 (1-00003) pre-series car, the fourth oldest still existing VW Beetle.
This first segment is quite heavy on the post-war reconstruction, focusing on Austrian race driver and constructor Otto Mathé (1907 – 1995). He was a trained mechanical engineer and also used his experience as a designer of successful self-made products. Although his right arm was paralyzed, he won all (some 20) the races he competed in 1952, sometimes against factory drivers. The most significant part of Otto Mathé’s automobile collection is now in Hamburg.
The Red Cisitalia D46 was designed by Dante Giacosa for the Italian sports and racing car brand Cisitalia (Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia). The company was founded by Piero Dusio and left lasting memories with its iconic 202 indicted into the permanent exhibition of MoMa in New York.
Fiat street car parts were used as a base for this first Italian racing car type after WWII using a tiny 1090 cc engine peaking at 68 hp. Thanks to its 370 kg lightweight chassis, the car could reach 182 km/h.
With this car, famous prewar Auto Union racing driver Hans Stuck won the first official circuit race in postwar Germany on the Hockenheimring in 1947. Later the car was acquired by Otto Mathé.
The naked aluminium Delfosse DVD is from 1947 and looked like a UFO with wheels.
The Delfosse family were stemming from Belgium but became an important milestone of the early industrialisation of the Ruhr area.
The aluminium car with a Porsche engine and the sheepskin seat is the 1952 Mathé MA-01 „Fetzenflieger“. Today relatively unknown, it was one of the first postwar mid-engined cars powered by a Porsche engine. With this car, Mathé won all the 20 races he entered.
The second segment features prototypes and more recent race cars, starting with a blue 1951 Porsche 356 Glaser cabriolet with star power.
Glaser provided tailor-made solutions for individual customer requests, and this convertible was sold to the Austrian opera diva Maria Reining.
The second silver car is a predecessor of the Porsche 550 Spyder, the 1952 Glöckler-Porsche of Richard Trenkel. He became German Champion in the 1100 cc sports car class in 1953.
Our personal favourite of this line-up was the white 1951 NSU World record car. 70 years ago, this small aerodynamic record car established several world records, driving with an average speed of 254 km/h on the autobahn between Munich-Ingolstadt.
Driven by Ferdi Lehder, the vehicle was powered by a 500 cc NSU supercharged motorcycle engine.
The next car is a silver Porsche 718/2 F1 race car. With the Type 718/2, Porsche won the Constructors champion title in Formula 2 racing in 1960. This 718/2 was then modified for Formula 1 and competed there for several years.
At this stage, we take a rhetorical break before we continue with the modern cars and the lower floors.
The Prototype Museum’s chambers hold unique treasures and an overdose of Porsche
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