The legendary Type 64 Berlin-Rome Car, hailed as the first ancestor of all Porshe sports cars, is coming to America, Porsche announced in a statement.  

To celebtrate the 60th anniversary of Porsche in America, the Porsche Museum is sending its legendary Type 64 Berlin-Rome Car to the  High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, 21 March to 20 June 2010. This is the first time the most prominent exhibit at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen will be exhibited outside of Germany for the first time.


Type 64 is of very special significance to the history of the Porsche brand. Built in 1938/39 under the guidance of Ferdinand Porsche, this unique car already had all the features that make sports cars from Zuffenhausen so very special the world over to this day: lightweight construction and superior aerodynamics, exceptional performance, reliable technology, and that unique design so characteristic of a Porsche.  The car’s streamlined aluminium body already showed distinctive indications later to be admired in all of Porsche’s sports cars, its DNA living on in the Porsche 356, Porsche 911 and all the way to the Panamera.

Originally developed for the Berlin-Rome long-distance race, Type 64, due to the war, never entered a race in its lifetime. But it marks an essential milestone en route to the first Porsche, Type 356 built in 1948.

The symbiosis of motorsport requirements and the use of production elements made the car a perfect grand tourer able to reach an average speed on public roads back in 1939 of more than 130 km/h or 80 mph. No surprise, therefore, that Ferdinand Porsche himself used Type 64 for long journeys.

In its special exhibition, “The Allure of the Automobile,” the High Museum of Art is expressing its recognition of outstanding automotive developments in the period 1930 to 1960, focusing on differences in the development of American and European design. Type 64 will be presented next to other icons in the world of the automobile from Bugatti, Duesenberg, Jaguar, Ferrari, Pierce Arrow, Packard, Cadillac and Tucker as a synthesis of innovative construction and design, supreme craftsmanship, and exceptional design.

Below: The Type 64 prepares for transport to the USA. Photo Credit: Porsche