Porsche - Origin of the Species - by Karl Ludvigsen - Excerpt

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Saga of a Gmünd Porsche

A

Thinking of himself as the current custodian of 356/2-040, Jerry Seinfeld did not want anything done that would be frowned upon in the future when viewed from a historical perspective.

mong the many collections dedicated to Porsche cars, that of actor/comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a special personality. First, Seinfeld likes to collect an early and a late example of each version as a way of illustrating the technical and styling

changes that the model underwent during its produc-tion life. Second, Seinfeld is a strong believer that his cars should be exercised regularly on the road or the track and not simply parked on the 18th green or under museum spotlights. Seinfeld can often be found driving his Porsches through the streets of Long Island, up and down the hills of Santa Monica and around the track at Daytona.

Although the Seinfeld collection of Porsches spans the timeline of the air-cooled 356 and 911 models, early in 2002 Jerry perceived a gap in the collection that he wanted to fill. He already had several 356s including a 1958 pushrod Speedster, a 1959 Carrera GT Speedster and an original 2,000-mile 1965 SC Coupe. But none of these examples could speak for the very beginning of the 356 lineage. As a result he initiated a search for an example of an aluminum 356 built in Austria during the late 1940s. During the course of that year Seinfeld inspected several cars but was not satisfied with what he saw. Though many had been restored to a very high level, they didn’t speak to him of the originality he desired in a car for his collection. Nor were all owners of these rare early Porsches eager to part with their historic cars.

In early March of 2003 Sam Cabiglio, the primary facilitator behind the Seinfeld Porsche collection, was visiting Europe. During a casual conversation Cabiglio heard that an unusual example of a Gmünd car might be

available. After returning to the States he made several follow-up phone calls to assess the subject car’s prov-enance as well as its current condition and availability.

With Jerry Seinfeld’s support, Cabiglio traveled to Vienna on March 20. Sam inspected the car the follow-ing day at a factory owned by number 40’s then-owner Franz Rathkolb. Cabiglio already knew much about this car’s unique history but did not quite expect to see the level of unreconstructed originality displayed by the coupe before him. Its look of a battered veteran was owed to 356/2-040’s distinctive history, not to willful neglect of a 54-year-old Porsche.

Sam Cabiglio was impressed by the car after being given the opportunity to drive it. He took note of the documentation Rathkolb had and also the example of an engine that was also in Rathkolb’s possession. He took numerous photographs, expressed keen interest to Rathkolb and stated that he would quickly relate to Seinfeld what he had seen. That’s what Sam did that night during a phone call from his hotel. The car’s originality and extraordinary provenance got Jerry Seinfeld’s attention.

Returning to the U.S., Cabiglio shared his photo-graphs with Seinfeld, who was quickly convinced that this Porsche would make an excellent addition to his collection. Sam had been quoted a price by Rathkolb before his trip to Vienna so a starting point for nego-tiation was already on the table. Communication by phone and e-mails established a value that satisfied both seller and buyer.

Later in 2003 a blue-tailed Lufthansa 747 cargo jet landed at Los Angeles carrying a Gmünd Porsche with chassis number 356/2-040. Sam Cabiglio was on

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With trophy and victor’s

wreath atop his Porsche

tow car — none other than

356/02-040 — a pleased Otto

Mathé posed in front of Zell

am See’s Grand Hotel. Races

on the frozen lake were a

big local attraction.

Shown here with the more

modern wheels and tires

that were later fitted

to many of the Gmünd

Porsches, this was one of

the aluminum 356/2 cars

first owned by Otto Mathé.

After Mathé’s death in 1995

it would eventually make

its way into Jerry Seinfeld’s

collection.

hand to meet the plane although no special EPA, DOT or other import requirements were applicable due to the car’s age. A quick inspection determined what was needed to make the car driveable and reliable on the road, followed by some initial work on the Porsche. Seinfeld was interested in getting behind its wheel as soon as possible, so the car was shipped to his Manhat-tan garage for Jerry to enjoy.

356/2-040 Provenance

Although indisputably a Gmünd production coupe, chassis 356/2-040 is one of several enigmatic chassis numbers whose delivery details are unrecorded in the list of chassis manufactured at the Karnerau works. The underlying reason for this is that the list was compiled not later than 1951, while chassis number 40 wasn’t released by Porsche until December of 1953. Only then did it cease being a Gmünd test car and pass into private hands.

Thanks to contributions by contemporaries and research by Franz Rathkolb, Marco Marinello, Paul Rus-

sell, Jerry Seinfeld and others, the provenance of the Seinfeld 356/2 has been established. Some details of this process are worth our attention. One source was Ernst Piëch, Ferdinand Porsche’s eldest grandson, who was active for many years at Porsche Salzburg. “Chas-sis 356/2-040,” he advised, was “the last handmade Porsche in aluminum out of the Gmünd production. The motor is from a later date and out of the production from Stuttgart… .”

This meant not that number 40 was the last to be made, but rather that it was the last to leave the Porsche/Piëch nest for a private home. A Porsche Salzburg prog-ress report of June 16, 1950, showed the chassis as one of four in its workshops for which all necessary com-ponents were available for assembly save one engine. Four other cars were in process of completion while nine coupes were still at Gmünd, lacking the Volkswagen parts needed to finish them. For the most part these were the cars being prepared to meet the Swedish order from Scania-Vabis. Gmünd also had two coupe frames and one completed chassis ready for testing. One more coupe was being completed by Tatra in Vienna.

This sighting documented in the Porsche Salzburg report is consistent with 356/2-040’s first official registration for the road, which was submitted by Porsche Konstruktionen GmbH on December 9, 1951. It listed the chassis and body as dating from 1950 and the engine as being made in 1951. Running on factory plates, after its completion in the latter months of 1950 the car had been used as a test vehicle for various

Austrian components that were being considered by the remaining Gmünd engineers for the 356/2 chassis.

The tests covered a variety of assemblies over dif-fering mileages. Brake cables from the Stöckel company were assessed for 2,092 miles and clutch linings from Klinger for 620 miles. The same company’s brake lin-ings, tested in number 40 for 2,351 miles, were judged

(Previous two spreads)

Automotive photographer

Michael Furman captured

the texture and personality

of Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche

356/2-040 in these portraits

taken just as the preservation

work was being completed.

The roof rack was a custom

accessory delivered with

the car to Otto Mathé.



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The bizarre appendages

attached to the 356/2-040’s

roof-top rack were the

fenders of Otto Mathé’s

Fetzenflieger (see sidebar),

removed for events in which

they weren’t needed.

(Above) With Porsche

Salzburg’s VW Kombi in the

foreground, Porsche 346/2-

040 was parked next to Otto

Mathé’s racing single-seater

at Zell am See. Mathé was

not greatly worried about its

appearance.

The competition in the Zell

am See “Professor Ferdinand

Porsche Memorial Races”

included standard German-

built Type 356 Porsches. The

Mathé single-seater’s front

wheels were of Berlin-Rome

VW 60K10 origin.

Another view of the “pad-

dock” for the ice races at

Zell am See saw Mathé’s

trailer in the foreground,

carrying the fenders that his

single-seater needed when

competing as a “sports car.”

356/2-040 is filling its role as

a tow-car here.


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Loaded up for departure

from Zell’s Grand Hotel,

356/2-40’s roof rack carried

the racing car’s studded

tires. With their help the

little Porsche-powered racer

was virtually unbeatable.

“the best linings we’ve ever had for our sports car.” British shock absorbers were tested as well, as were transmission components.1

The reports on these tests indicate that they consti-tuted a wrapping-up of the trials undertaken at Gmünd, since it was obvious by mid-1950 that no more cars would be made there. With the Karnerau staff wind-ing down, the tests were reported on as a matter of record, not for actioning. On several reports the author pointed out that in any case the materials in question

1 The report on the tests on units from “Universal Dampers, Ltd.” of London included the following sentence: “Since the chassis had to be scrapped because of material shortages, the experimen-tal department took possession of the shock absorbers.” Neither the reference to the scrapping of the chassis nor the reason given for its scrapping is readily explicable. If in fact the car’s original frame was subsequently scrapped, it was clearly replaced with an-other, still bearing the same chassis number, the car’s identity thus remaining the same.

wouldn’t be available for the cars that were being made in Germany.

The use of 356/2-040 for testing was confirmed by Herbert Kaes, who joined the Piëchs at Porsche Salzburg and oversaw technical activities there. “This automobile was not sold immediately,” Kaes wrote in 1998, “but was granted to the Porsche Salzburg company—the Piëch family—and for a certain time was retained internally for test purposes (testing of the new brake system for the 1952 model and testing of the new 1,500 cc engine Type 527) and racing purposes before it was then sold to Mr. Otto Mathé in Innsbruck.”

This explains why the car’s December 1951 regis-tration in Salzburg lists it as having an engine of 1,485 cc with dimensions of 85 x 64 mm. The VW-based four installed at the time was a highly experimental unit built as part of the Type 502 project, launched in July of 1950, to create a 1.5-liter engine for the Zuffenhau-sen Porsches. It kept the standard Volkswagen stroke,

Complete and original

though it was when it ar-

rived in the United States,

Porsche 356/2-040 would

need a lot of tender loving

care to make it operational.

Fortunately such talents

were available.

marrying it with a bore size in excess of the 80 mm that Ferry Porsche regarded as the limit with the basic VW engine. In fact the bore and stroke given amount to only 1,453 cc. In Type 356 production no bore larger than the 1600’s 82.5 mm would be used.

The Nuts and Bolts of Preserving 356/2-040

This Porsche was over fifty years old when Jerry Sein-feld took possession. In the hands of Otto Mathé (see sidebar) it had seen rough usage. Consequently it was no surprise that many areas needed maintenance and repair. But Seinfeld was not looking for 356/2-040 to be restored; he wanted it preserved. At the recommenda-tion of fastidious collector Ralph Lauren he contacted Paul Russell and Company of Essex, Massachusetts.

The Paul Russell firm had done award-winning restoration work on several of Lauren’s cars. One of Paul Russell’s well-deserved awards was for a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder which won the Preservation Award at the 1991 Porsche Parade. Thus it seemed that this shop would be qualified to handle the work needed to make 356/2-040 usable and enjoyable while maintain-ing its patina.

In July of 2003 Jerry Seinfeld contacted Alex

Finigan at Paul Russell and Company. Together they established a list of the preservation issues that had to be addressed. Jerry emphasized that he wanted no irreversible changes to be made. Thinking of himself as the current custodian of 356/2-040, Seinfeld didn’t want anything done that would be frowned upon in the fu-ture when viewed from a historical perspective. Before delving into the entrails of number 040 the Paul Russell team visited, discussed and photographed several Gmünd coupes in American collections. Miles Collier and Scott George at the Collier Collection assisted, as did Jim Barrington, Gary Kempton and Dave Seeland.

Fortunately neither body nor chassis were found to need much attention. In its long life with both Porsche and Mathé the coupe had apparently never suffered significant accident damage. Also there was minimal rust on the steel doors and chassis and little electrolytic corrosion where the aluminum body was riveted to the chassis. Although the body is now painted silver, the car may well have been repainted during its life. The interior, including the insides of the doors, shows traces of both gray and blue paint.

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I’ve owned over 50 Porsche 356s since buying my first in 1969 and I have five in my garage now. I’ve got a soft spot in my heart (head?) for these early Porsches that I can’t really describe. It evolved from my love of old VWs and I’ve never been without a 356 since my first. Through my job at Paul Russell and Company I’ve been very fortunate to have been involved with most of the European classic sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s—and I still hold the 356 above the rest. As I’ve said many times, it’s a disease with no cure.

Like all 356 fanatics I’d been aware of Gmünd number 040 through many articles and sightings over the years. But I was never really focused on the very early cars. They just never really caught my attention. That was until 2003, when Jerry Seinfeld contacted us about doing a sympathetic preservation of his newest acquisition.

When the car arrived at Paul Russell and Company it simply blew us away. We spent days going over it, putting it up on the lift and inspecting it before we ever touched it. We photographed it and made many de-

my Experience with 356/2-040tailed notes about how it was built. To say its condition was good would be a gross understatement. Here was a car that was driven hard for over 50 years—as a test mule and then as Otto Mathé’s work car and tow car—yet it showed almost no rust or accident damage.

Having said that, it had not been very well main-tained in the last dozen or so years before it was purchased by Jerry Seinfeld. After Otto Mathé’s racing career was over the car sat in his garage in dead stor-age, only occasionally being brought out for special events until his death in 1996. Then it was sold to the collector who eventually sold it to Jerry. He told us that the Plexiglas windows were so cloudy you could barely see through them. Rather than replace them, his detailer spent untold hours polishing them with peanut butter to make them clear again.

One of the things that surprised us when we first went over the car was how crudely it was made. There wasn’t a symmetrical line on the whole body. It literally looked like four guys started on each corner and worked

their way to the middle. It was wonderful—exposed welds, different lamp heights, odd window openings.

The car’s oddities made us curious enough to go back and look at old photos in the books. Of course it was odd: it was built in a sawmill with almost no tools or equipment after a devastating world war by a small company with very limited resources. They were lucky to build anything, much less a car that would turn out to be an icon of the sports-car world.

Going back to the car after doing some research gave us a new respect for what we had in front of us. The challenge was to preserve the Porsche for genera-tions, without making it better than it was. It is usually much easier to restore a car than it is to preserve one accurately. Replacing old parts and upholstery using modern materials and technology is faster, and usu-ally cheaper, than repairing or rebuilding the original using the old-school techniques. But Jerry was the ideal owner/customer in that respect. In fact I knew from his story about polishing the windshield with peanut butter that he would have the interest and the patience for a meticulous preservation.

Jerry came to the shop numerous times to discuss the progress and direction of the project. He was as excited as a little kid when the smallest original details were pointed out to him. That excitement spread to the crew too. Once the car started to come apart, you could almost sense how the original builders were thinking and why they did things certain ways. This car was a test mule before being sold to Mathé and the documented changes would make your head spin.

The challenge here was to do the car over as crudely as it had been done originally. And by that I mean the quality of the welds, the wiring, the uphol-stery, etc. The panel fits were horrible. Looking back in the books, that’s the way they were originally. So we just didn’t touch them.

The interior was a real challenge, trying to preserve 50-year-old material. New stuff just wouldn’t look right. Some of the vinyl looked like it was out of a 1950s diner, material you couldn’t find if you tried. The object was for the end product to look like it hadn’t been touched. Most restored Gmünds are restored to a state that is far superior to the way they looked when they first came off the production line. Jerry definitely did not want that.

As my appreciation of the earlier cars grew, I began to think of the mindset of the builders. Americans at the time were back to mass-producing autos stamped out on a production line to fairly high standards while

these guys were banging out bodies over a wooden buck in an outbuilding. Amazing. In the old photos you can see the determination in their faces. The 356 cars themselves caught the automotive community by storm. These little air-cooled wonders bested cars of much larger displacement. The Porsche legend began to grow.

When we finished our restoration of Porsche Gmünd coupe 356/2-040 it debuted at the second Rennsport Reunion in Daytona Beach, Florida. Even parked among some pretty rare and spectacular Porsches, 040 stopped the most diehard Porsche enthusiasts dead in their tracks. As soon as they walked past 040 people knew this was it: one of the earliest cars that started it all. It was crudely built, slow, border-ing on ugly—and everyone loved it!

I spent the day with Jerry, talking to other enthu-siasts who stopped to admire the car and look at the photo album documenting the car’s history. I never got bored. I’m proud to have been part of this car’s history. And particularly pleased to have played a role in pre-serving it in its original condition so that generations to come can look at it and see first-hand how the Porsche legacy began.

The head of Classic Car Sales at Paul Russell and Company, Alex Finigan is the consummate car guy. A boyhood spent treasuring the latest car magazine led him to open his own Porsche restoration business in upstate New York. By the late 1970s he found himself spinning wrenches in Marblehead, Massachusetts, restoring 1950s Mercedes-Benz alongside Paul Russell. An essen-tial founding member and equity partner of Gull-wing Service Company, Inc., Alex spent his first decade there displaying his mechanical talents on 300SL roadsters and coupes. Eventually the business expanded its undertaking to offer full restoration services on other European classics and changed its name to Paul Russell and Com-pany, where Alex has offered expert guidance to classic car collectors for over three decades. Alex was project manager for the preservation work that Jerry Seinfeld’s Gmünd coupe underwent at Paul Russell and Company, and he was thrilled to discover a very active and enthusiastic collabora-tor in 040’s owner. A member in good standing of all the local car clubs, Alex spends most of his free time tinkering with his Deuce Coupe or Porsche Speedsters in his custom-built garage.

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The visible seam welds on

040 are an indication of the

hand-built and relatively

unrefined condition of these

first aluminum Porsches. A

roof seam is shown here

(top). The photo of the front

fender shows another weld

seem along with the evidence

of hand-hammered body

shaping.

The engine was disassem-

bled and cleaned while at

Paul Russell and Company.

The engine’s serial number

can be seen stamped on the

engine block (at left) and

is a match to the factory

technical specifications for

chassis number 356/2-040

(see documents in

Appendix 1).

originally fabricated. The aluminum sheets used for the body are approximately 0.062 inch or 1.5 mm thick. For the bumpers, doors and dash Porsche decided on steel of approximately 22 gauge. The body surfaces were hand-hammered to shape and fitted over a wooden buck by highly skilled metal craftsmen. That this was the final metal-shaping step on 356/2-040 is shown by bumps and weld seams that are obvious. The hand-formed aluminum panel sections closely correlate with the patterns of the stamped-steel pieces later used by Reutter in Stuttgart.

Additional metal-finishing steps must have been performed because paint alone couldn’t hide the rough surface of the body immediately following its forma-tion on the buck. Hand planishing was the most likely method, although it is slow, tedious work that requires great skill. Planishing wouldn’t eliminate the weld-seam irregularities so filing was probably done in these areas.

An alternative to hand planishing would be the use of filler, but today’s fiber fillers were not yet available. Lead can be used as filler on a steel body, as was later done at Reutter, but this material cannot be used with aluminum. When 356/2-040 was in his possession, Franz Rathkolb discussed this topic with Herbert Kaes. Kaes told him that they had a great deal of difficulty in completely hand-finishing the Gmünd cars, thus leading to experiments with fillers.

Addressing the other external preservation needs of 356/2-040, the only issue was sourcing correct lenses for the “beehive” turn indicators. Used on multiple Porsches of the period, a pair was located in Europe. Jack Styles led the sourcing of parts and materials for the preservation project. The unusual center-mounted, amber-red tail-lamp assembly was in acceptable condi-tion. Similar to those used on some prewar European cars, this type of lamp must have been available as an off-the-shelf item in its day.

Paul Russell and Company focused considerable attention on the car’s drive train to ensure reliability.

The car’s engine was removed and freshened up. The aluminum case was split and the camshaft and crank-shaft were replaced. The bore and stroke were mea-sured and found to be acceptable so the engine’s exist-ing cylinders, pistons, and piston rings were reinstalled. For the cylinder heads new valve seats and springs were installed and a minimum fly-cut done to ensure a good seal between the heads and the cylinders. The rest of the engine was completely disassembled and subjected to thorough cleaning and inspection.

The fuel pump, Solex 26 VFJ carburetors and the Bosch distributor were rebuilt in the name of reliability. To restore a sense of the original appearance the en-gine sheet metal was shot-blasted and repainted. Old pieces were cleaned by hand to revive the finish and then a color match achieved. Most of the original colors are semi-gloss black except for silver valve covers and a light gray for the muffler and exhaust. No heater boxes were fitted to the coupe although hot-air channels into the passenger compartment were provided.

The transaxle was removed and shipped to Gary Kempton of GK Restorations in Crawfordville, Florida for restoration. Kempton noted that what he received was a post-1954 VW case with synchromesh on all four

While replacing the lenses

for the “beehive” turn indi-

cators, 040’s center-mounted

tail lamp assembly was

dismantled and found to be

in fine working order. ©2011 Bentley Publish

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These photos show the unique back-

ing plates on the front and rear brake

drums installed on 040. These backing

plates are shown before preservation

on the left, and after preservation on

right. The drilled holes accommodate

cooling air, assisted by the scoop to

sweep air in when the car is moving.

The screens (top right) keep road

debris out of the drum.

Fuse blocks are seen prior

to preservation work.

gears. Obviously not in the car when it left Porsche Salzburg, this modification in favor of drivability must have been made by Otto Mathé.2

The Porsche’s VW worm-and-nut steering box could safely be used with a cleanup and change of fluid. In 1949 VW was still using cable-operated brakes, which were carried over to the 356s built in Austria. Documentation confirms that 356/2-040 was originally equipped with mechanical brakes and was used for testing different cables and linings.

Subsequently 356/2-040 was fitted with hydraulic brakes, using 230 mm brake drums with pressed-on fins. Like the later 356s, its front brakes use dual wheel cylinders activating two leading shoes for optimum retardation. Number 40’s brakes are unique, however, in having been modified from the standard car. At both front and rear its backing plates have two patterns of drilled holes to allow entry and exit of cooling air. A crude scoop covers the forward series of holes to sweep air into the brake when the car is moving. A screen covers the holes to keep road debris out of the drum.

2 The author has some sympathy for this change. When the crash box of his 1951 Porsche 1300 expired, he had a more mod-ern VW transaxle fitted. Mathé may well have made the change for the same reason.

The rear suspension also manifests changes from standard. Although its basic torsion-bar system and lever-action dampers are identical to other Porsches built prior to the spring of 1951, 356/2-040 also uses telescopic rear dampers that are not prototypes of any Porsche design. The bottom of each damper bolts to a crude plate that attaches at the location where the axle meets the radius arm from the torsion bar, using workmanship not representative of the Porsche stan-dard. These atypical rear shocks may be an alteration made by Mathé to facilitate his use of number 40 as a workhorse. There are photos of it hauling race tires and towing Mathé’s Fetzenflieger to winter races (as shown in this chapter).

In addition to dismantling, inspecting and rebuild-ing mechanical components on Jerry Seinfeld’s coupe, the Paul Russell team led by Alex Finigan gave special attention to the electrical system to ensure reliability. The wiring had spans that appeared unsafe and needed to be renewed. Corrosion was dealt with at most of the electrical connections to avoid a failure-prone six-volt electrical system. Gene at YnZ’s assisted with the Porsche’s wiring loom.

The car’s minimal instrumentation has seen dis-placement in the process of the car’s transformation from left-hand drive to right-hand for Otto Mathé, and


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With the wheel converted

back to its original left-

hand-drive position, the

hole to the right of the large

speedometer was used for

the ignition switch while

the car was in right-hand-

drive configuration for Otto

Mathé.

Worn areas in the car’s

carpet were painstakingly

rewoven by hand during the

preservation process.

Upholstery expert Derrick

Dunbar coordinated the

gentle preservation of the

original upholstery while

040 was at Paul Russell and

Company.

then back to left-hand drive again at some point. At the time Jerry Seinfeld took ownership of the car a large 6,000 rpm tachometer was directly in front of the driver and a 200 km/h speedometer of the same size mounted in the glove-box face in front of the passenger. Both gauges were made by Veglia with green numerals on a black background. Redline on the tachometer was set at 4,500 rpm. The gauges were sent to North Hol-lywood Speedometer & Clock for expert refurbishing while the car was with Paul Russell.

Two holes in the glove box on either side of the speedometer provide positions for the ignition switch that suit a steering wheel on either the left or the right. Centrally located are four prominent warning lamps. The large, white plastic surround of each lamp makes it look like something from a child’s toy but these lamps are common to other 356/2 Porsches. On the left is a

green oil-pressure warning, on the top is a blue lamp for high beams, on the right is a red light indicating the generator output and at bottom is a yellow lamp re-served for fog lamps if they are installed at some point in the future.

Below these four lamps are three switches. The left one is for the interior, the center one is for the instru-ments and the right switch turns on the wipers. The headlamp switch is the only one that fails to support right/left drive symmetry. It is located between the centerline and the leftmost gauge.

According to previous owner Franz Rathkolb, Herbert Kaes recalled that the interior of 356/2-040 was absent most upholstery when it was being used as a Porsche Gmünd test vehicle. Confirmation comes from an invoice that shows basic decor being added at Mathé’s request during December of 1953. The work

included adding carpeting, headliner, seats with cloth centers and padded door panels.

Wear and tear was evident everywhere on this 50-year-old material when the car arrived in the U.S. The team at Paul Russell’s shop turned to professional carpet restorer Marion Petescu at Carpathian Oriental Rugs to address the fraying and holes. She worked miracles by hand-stitching new fiber wherever there was a problem. It takes minute examination of the final result to see where any restoration work was done on the carpeting.

The leather seats suffered from the drying out of their stitching and stuffing but could be salvaged. Paul Russell’s in-house upholstery expert, Derrick Dunbar, preserved the period look of the bench seats with care-ful resewing and restuffing. Except for the lower por-tions around their pockets, the door panels were also in satisfactory condition. Larger gaps were closed by stealing material from nonvisible areas and restitching it at existing seams. When everything was reinstalled the car retained its original patina while the gross damage had been corrected. The hope is that the preservation work will slow down or eliminate further degradation of this historic artifact.


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(Above) The pedal cluster

that was in the car when

Jerry Seinfeld took owner-

ship was not a Porsche or

a Volkswagen cluster, but

most likely an artifact of

Otto Mathé’s modifications.

The mood was celebratory

when Porsche 356/2-040

made its post-preservation

debut in April 2004 at the

Rennsport Reunion in Day-

tona, Florida. Shown here

from left are Paul Russell,

Alex Finigan, Jerry Seinfeld,

and Sam Cabiglio.

West Coast Tune-Up

Porsche 356/2-040 made its post-preservation debut at Rennsport Reunion II at Daytona International Speed-way on Friday, April 23, 2004. Thereafter it returned to California, where it soon became evident that more mechanical work was needed to adapt 040 to the kind of active driving Jerry Seinfeld had in mind. For this work he turned to Adrian Gang of Edelweiss Porschaus in Torrance, California.

When Adrian got behind 040’s wheel he immedi-ately noticed its awkward driving position. As Gang put it, it was like driving a golf cart designed for a jockey. His knees were up against the steering wheel, which was crushed into his chest. As well he found the clutch action very stiff, disproportionately so for such a small engine. Gang’s mission was to make the Porsche com-fortable and safe to drive while respecting Seinfeld’s desire to preserve his car’s originality.

After closely examining the Porsche’s mechanicals, Gang could see that 040 had been subjected to many modifications over the years, some of which had been made quite crudely. The most egregious of these was the reconversion from right-hand drive back to left-hand drive.

The pedal cluster was of an unknown make—not a Porsche or Volkswagen cluster—and had been modified in a way that. forced the driver’s feet into an awkward position. As well, the tubes housing the clutch

and throttle cables were bent and twisted during the conversion to the point where the cables were getting snagged by crimps in the tubes. This accounted for the extraordinarily stiff and sticky clutch action. Much of Adrian’s work centered on correcting the damage done during the successive drive-position conversions.

Throughout the work done at Edelweiss Porschaus, changes were only made to components that had al-ready been altered from the original. In some cases the change restored parts to a condition more akin to work that was originally done at Gmünd. Seinfeld authorized some “modernizing” and improvements to the pedal cluster’s position and the cable tubing for the sake of safe driving. He did request, however, that the mystery pedal cluster be retained since it probably originated with Mathé.

Jerry Seinfeld tolerated some discomfort behind the wheel of 356/2-040 for the sake of keeping the car’s original components intact. However, after the work done by Adrian Gang he reports that the Gmünd is great fun to drive. He could even keep pace with a Porsche Speedster through the twists and turns of Topanga Canyon!

After months of preservation work and mechanical and electrical systems tweaking, Porsche Gmünd coupe 356/2-040 fulfilled Jerry Seinfeld’s goals as its current caretaker. Not only is it the cornerstone of his Porsche collection—representing the foundation upon which all other Porsche cars were built—but also it is the oldest original-condition Porsche that is routinely performing its essential function: joining its lucky owner in driving in its purest form.


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The Otto mathé Story

Otto Mathé and his wife

posed for the camera at Zell

am See during one of the

ice-racing weekends there.

He was an authentic lumi-

nary of these events.

Although born in Zillertal, Austria, in 1907, Otto Mathé grew up in Innsbruck. At the age of 16 he graduated from cycle racing to the motorcycle competitions that were popular in Austria and at 19 was hill-climb cham-pion of the Tyrol. Becoming a dirt-track racing special-ist, he designed and built his own machines.

An able mechanic, Mathé was a trained machin-ist who also enjoyed success as an entrepreneur. He invented and patented a ski binding, began selling

branded oils and additives and after the war opened the Tyrol region’s first workshop for cylinder and crank-shaft grinding.

When he was 27 Mathé suffered a racing crash in Graz that cost him the use of his right arm. Neither his handicap nor his multiple business interests kept Otto Mathé from enjoying racing. On July 11, 1948, Mathé drove his 1934 Fiat Balilla 508S in the Innsbruck race meeting during which the Porsche 356 roadster was


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I’ve been in the Porsche repair business more than 40 years At Edelweiss Porschaus and I’ve worked on many Porsches, including a lot of 356s. But 356/2-040 is the earliest Porsche I’ve ever worked on. It was like being an archaeologist and discovering the earliest homo sapiens specimen. This model was the progenitor of all the Porsche 356s—and 911s for that matter.

For me working on 040 and seeing such an early Porsche up close inspired a lot of wonderment. You can see how much Volkswagen is in this car. It’s the missing link in the evolutionary timeline between Volkswagen and Porsche. I had worked on a couple of 1952 356s, the last year they used a throttle cable. But the 356/2 is what they started with—very Volkswagen-ish. It’s not the very first Gmünd car off the line but it is still not very far from being a prototype.

Take the unfinished bodywork, for example—all the hammer marks and the total lack of showroom finish. One of the Porsche dealers down the road brought a couple of his youngest technicians to see 040. He wanted them to see where it all started. Right away they started criticizing the roughness, saying, “Who would let a car out of the factory like that?” They’ve probably never even seen a Porsche earlier than 1995. They didn’t get it. But the older guys, the people who’ve owned 356s or early 911s, just love the raw quality of 040. They’re drawn to this car. My friend Joe Cavaglieri, who restores Spyders, loves this car because it’s so unrefined.

For a lot of guys who have been around Porsches a long time like me, this car is the source; the beginning of it all. It fills in a lot of missing information about how it all started. You can see—particularly on 040 since it was used for testing—the types of decisions they were making, stuff they were trying out while they figured out whether they could make the 356 as a production car.

When you look at the end of the 356 line—the 1965 C model series—and compare it to 040 it’s just amazing. In certain senses the car is so different, but it is still the same 356 after almost 20 years. Then when you work on early 911s you can see how they transitioned from the 356 to the 911—the same concept with a little more modern thinking—which continued that whole lineage until the end of the air-cooled line in 1998.

Appreciating the missing Link

You’d see some of the new bells and whistles being added to the 911 from the mechanical stand-point, which just made the cars more difficult to work with. Maybe more comfortable for the driver or more competitive with the BMWs and Mercedes, but much less pure. So for me to go back to this 1949 356 is to go back to the pure Porsche. It’s the great-grandfather of them all.

Adrian Gang began working on Porsches as a hobby back in 1967 with the purchase of a ’67 911S. In the course of modifying this car he got to know one of the mechanics at a local dealership so well that they later opened their own Porsche repair shop together.

Shortly after Adrian opened Edelweiss Porschaus for business in 1968 he entered the world of Porsche racing. From 1970–1988 he not only fixed Porsches, but raced them in both the SCCA and IMSA.

Today, after 43 years of working on Porsche cars, Adrian still truly enjoys what he does. His pri-mary focus is on engine rebuilding and mechanical restoration work, with a specialization in 356s, early 911s and 4 Cam Spyders and Carreras. Fixing these older Porsches requires a great deal of patience and perseverance, but it is very rewarding work. Gang finds his greatest satisfaction in successfully trouble-shooting each car’s mechanical problems and then sending the owner away with a fun and responsive Porsche that drives to its full potential again.

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Celebrating after the Zell am

See races were Otto Mathé,

right, Louise Piëch and, just

visible, Ferry Porsche. In the

foreground was Louise’s

eldest son Ernst.

demonstrated. Also shown off during the demonstra-tion was the surviving 60K10 Berlin-Rome KdF-Wagen. Almost exactly one year later on July 8, 1949, Franz Binder—an Englishman who was an employee of Porsche Salzburg—offered the Berlin-Rome coupe to Mathé. For the keen driver this was a great opportunity which he seized, acquiring the by-now-unique racing Volkswagen.

Mathé initially received a provisional registration for the car. To suit his driving style, which saw him bracing the steering wheel with his chest while he shifted with his left hand, the 60K10 had to be converted from left-hand to right-hand drive, work that was apparently completed by August 10, 1950.

According to VW Beetle expert Chris Barber, Otto Mathé ran his Berlin-Rome coupe in some ten events with decent results. Most notable of his successes was an Alpine Cup and victory in the 1,100 cc class in the 1950 Austrian International Alpine Trial. The win fell to Mathé after his great rival Wolfgang Denzel retired with engine trouble. The achievement merited a special telegram from Ferry Porsche congratulating Mathé and wishing him many more successes.

The car was taken off the road in 1958 and given a full restoration in 1980. In 1982 Mathé brought the unique Volkswagen survivor to California for the Porsche Club of America Parade and turned demon-stration laps at Riverside. Still in private hands, the

An enthusiastic and talented

competitor in spite of his

handicap, Mathé fielded

his Type 60K10 Volkswagen

in several events, winning

his class in 1950’s Austrian

Alpine Trial.

60K10 can be seen at various classic gatherings around the world.

Clearly pleased with the performance of his Berlin-Rome coupe, Mathé was an early customer for the new Porsche-badged sports cars being built in Austria. On February 9, 1951, Mathé purchased aluminum Coupe 356/2-052, whose final assembly was completed at Porsche Salzburg. Originally equipped with a 1.1-liter engine of the latest type, the Porsche was intended by Mathé to be primarily used for racing.

Though the track records of 356/2-052 have not been completely reconstructed, one result is that of September 1953 at the Gran Premio Supercortemag-giore in Merano, in which Mathé placed second in class.

Other records show that during 1953 the coupe was used in as many as 19 races in both 1.1- and 1.5-liter classes. Many of these and later races were on street courses, dirt tracks and frozen lakes. Porsche 356/2-052 continued to be raced by Mathé throughout Austria, Switzerland and Italy until 1956. His many campaigns in coupe 52 made Mathé the first serious racer of Porsche sports cars and forged for him a friendship with the Porsche and Piëch families. Mathé’s number 52 coupe still exists, appearing at various Porsche-related func-tions, displaying Mathé’s good-luck horseshoe across its nose.

Otto Mathé first crossed paths with 356/2-040 late in 1952. He was a frequent customer at Porsche

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Bearing number 5, which

manifested his primacy

among Austrian competi-

tors, Otto Mathé’s racing

license showed his birthday

of July 31, 1907, and his

residence in Innsbruck.

Issued on July 13, 1949,

this registration document

identifies the Porsche simply

by its plate number “T2222”

and specifies its displace-

ment as 1,085 cc. Mathé is

described as a “salesman.”

Porsche’s people at Gmünd

were pleased to welcome

Mathé and a colleague dur-

ing their visit to the Austrian

works with one of the three

VW 60K10s that they had

built in 1939.

Salzburg where they carried out regular maintenance on his cars as well as modifications such as the conver-sion to right-hand drive. Since 040 had been used as a test mule by Porsche’s Austrian engineers, we can only speculate that Mathé may have seen it tucked away in the Salzburg shop or one of the Salzburg employees may have told him about a neglected aluminum 356 sit-ting in storage. Having developed some brand loyalty by this point, Mathé was happy for an opportunity to add another Porsche 356 to his fleet.

Mathé agreed to purchase the car, but only after it had been “restored.” Restoration meant making the car roadworthy and reliable, converting it to right-hand drive, installing upholstery, fabricating a special roof rack and probably installing a trailer hitch. It was around mid-summer before Mathé took delivery of 040, which he soon started using to carry parts, tires and later skis. The main assignment of 356/2-040 was to tow Mathé’s single-seat Fetzenflieger ice racer to various events up to 1960.

Its name loosely meaning “plum crazy,” the Fet-zenflieger was an open-wheel racer fabricated by Mathé from his personal stock of Volkswagen and Porsche parts, including pieces from the wrecked Berlin-Rome coupe he had also acquired. From these he built the remarkable single-seater that he completed in 1952 and first exploited in Austrian racing in 1953.

The Fetzenflieger consisted of the bare essentials: a simple ladder frame connected to the familiar VW front torsion-bar tubes. Mathé sat right in the nose, close to a big steering wheel and ahead of a central fuel tank. Behind that, just ahead of the rear wheels, was its 1½-liter Porsche engine.

Although Mathé reversed the engine/transmission system in his racer he did not swing the whole rear-suspension assembly around—as Glöckler had done in his cars and as the Porsche people did in the 356 roadster and in their first 550s of early 1953. Instead he kept the rear torsion-bar housing forward of the engine and lengthened the trailing arms at each side. Every-thing was rigidly bolted in place so that the engine and transmission added strength to the frame.

A specialist in sideways motoring, Mathé went to a dirt-track race at Krieau, near Vienna, on October 18, 1953. To the credit of his new car he came away with first place in the racing-car class. Running with spiked tires, the Mathé special became the terror of the winter races held on Austria’s many frozen lakes. It could also be equipped with fenders and lamps to compete where these were required by the rules.

To stave off the competition Mathé later took out his Super engine and installed a four-cam Carrera four under a more sophisticated-looking rear deck. He also updated his Fetzenflieger with later Porsche wheels


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Among Otto Mathé’s many

outings with his Gmünd-

built Porsche coupes was this

hill climb on a loose surface.

This is likely to have been

356/2-052.

Mathé cannibalized

components from a

wrecked VW 60K10 to

build his Fetzenflieger,

seen here after his October

1953 victory in a dirt-track

event at Krieau, Austria.


239

and brakes. Even with the heavier four-cam engine its weight was a scant 870 pounds.

One of the best-known winter competitions was held on the lake at Zell am See, known as the “Profes-sor Ferdinand Porsche Memorial Races.” Mathé and his tough little Porsche hybrid gained a hammerlock on these events in the late 1950s against competition that was anything but token. Early in 1959, for example, he had to beat Spyders driven by Richard von Frankenberg and Huschke von Hanstein to hang on to his unofficial “Ice King” title.

No evidence suggests that Mathé ever raced 356/2-040. He said he raced two Type 356 Porsches but this is open to several interpretations. In addition to 356/2-052 Mathé may have been referring to his Berlin-Rome coupe or his Fetzenflieger because both were powered at one time or another by engines from the Type 356. Or he could have been referring to 356/2-022 which he briefly owned in the mid-1950s.

Ultimately Otto Mathé was credited with some 100 national class victories. He was often Austrian national champion. After his death in 1997, his Porsche

356/2-040 was sold to Franz Rathkolb of Vienna in that year and resold to Jerry Seinfeld in 2003. Otto’s sur-name lives on in the brand name of his additives, which had the reputation of extending oil-change intervals for thrifty Austrians.

In 1959 a ten-year-old Viennese lad was just old enough to be inspired by the exploits of Otto Mathé,

who became a hero to the youngster. Here was a man who achieved much with little. In his schooldays the boy’s first wheels were a 1949 Beetle cabriolet, setting him back $180, in which he could emulate Mathé’s exploits. He continued to take an interest in cars, growing up to become triple Formula One world champion Niki Lauda.

Making a virtue of simplicity,

Otto Mathé’s single-seater

was excellent advertising for

his special lubricants. Spiked

tires were the key to success

in ice racing.

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established 1950Automotive Reference™

Bentley Publishers, 1734 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1804 USATel: 617-547-4170 • Toll Free: 800-423-4595 • Fax: 617-876-9235http://www.bentleypublishers.com/contact-us

Porsche—Origin of the Speciesby Karl Ludvigsen Foreword by Jerry Seinfeld

Price: $119.95Bentley Stock No: GPGCPublication Date: 2012.09-01ISBN: 978-0-8376-1331-4HardcoverCase quantity: 5356 pages 436 photos and illustrations

Bentley Publishers is proud to announce the latest Porsche heritage book by renowned automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen.

Within Jerry Seinfeld’s renowned Porsche collection resides an unassuming yet extraordinary piece of Porsche history: Porsche Gmünd coupe 356/2-040. Captured exclusively for this book in a series of evocative portraits by acclaimed automotive photographer Michael Furman, 040s unsullied originality conveys with startling immediacy the combination of artistry, innovation and determination that went into its improbable creation. This cornerstone of the Seinfeld collection serves as the inspiration for Porsche—Origin of the Species, an in-depth exploration by the eminent automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen into the specific influences and circumstances that brought forth the first Porsche-badged sports cars.

How and when did the people of the Porsche firm find themselves in a sawmill in Gmünd? What was the influence on the 356 of the cars and engines built by Porsche before and during the war? How and why was the first 356 shaped as it was? What was the real relationship between the tube-framed Type 356 roadster and the first 356/2 coupes? Questions like these deserve answers because the resulting DNA is so powerful, so robust, that it still influences the shape and style of Porsches well into the twenty-first century.

Karl Ludvigsen, author of the award-winning Porsche: Excellence Was Expected and Ferdinand Porsche – Genesis of Genius, tackles these questions and more in Porsche—Origin of the Species. The saga that emerges encompasses mechanical revelations, human drama and the turmoil of world war. Porsche—Origin of the Species will appeal to all car enthusiasts who are eager to know what events really ignited the spark from which all other Porsches evolved.

BentleyPublishers.com

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Table of ContentsForeword by Jerry Seinfeld1 The Species Porsche2 Automaking Ambitions3 Turbulent War Years4 Sawmill Survival5 Italy to the Rescue6 A Volkswagen Sports Car7 Miracle of Production8 Saga of a Gmünd Porsche9 Why Porsche?10 Origin of the SpeciesAppendix 1: Factory Documentation for Porsche 356/2-040Appendix 2: 1949 Porsche 356 Owner’s Manual (40 pages plus cover)

Otto Mathé in front of Zell am See’s Grand Hotel with Porsche 356/2-040.

After its careful preserva-tion, Porsche 356/2/040 is back on the road and providing its lucky owner with the joy of driving in its purest form.

Porsche - Origin of the Species - by Karl Ludvigsen - Excerpt

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