Vintage 356 Historic Race & Rally event shots

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In June 1952 Ferry Porsche, helped by Huschke von Hanstein, organized at the Zuffenhausen plant a press meeting to annouce that Porsche was now ready to produce the 356 in large quantities
Amongst the attendants of this meeting were Max Hoffman and the new Porsche dealer for South America the Prince (Furst in German) Alfonso von Hohenlohe-Laugenburg
Alfonso von Hohenlohe-Laugenburg was the 6th child of the Hohenlohe family one of the oldest German aristocratic families
His mother was Spanish and he was born in Madrid in 1924
After the second world war the Hohenlohe left Germany to Spain as their land were in East Germany and occupied by the Russian
He received a very serious education finalized by two years in an US university
He spoke fluently German, Spanish, English French and Italian
Even if they lost their land the Hohenlohe kept some money which helped Alfonso to establish his VW and Porsche dealership in Mexico
Living in Mexico Alfonso was aware of the fast growing celebrity of the Carrera Panamericana race
He then convinced Ferry Porsche to sold him two cars to be raced in the 3rd edition of the Carrera Panamericana in November 1952
To drive these 2 356 Alfonso had the idea to invite two of his cousins the count Beckheim just back from the 1952 Mille Miglia where he drove a 356 to a class victory

and the price Paul von Metternich-Winneburg who had been one of the first Porsche client seen below with Ferry Porsche (2nd from left) at the start of the 1950 Midnight Sun rally in Sweden

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for Herbert Linge to be authorized to use the Mercedes facilities to maintain the 2 356
Two Mercedes 300 SL made 1 and 2
Below Karl Kling the race winner covering the 3500 kilometers of the race at an average speed (stop included) of over 103 MPH

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The expect result was obtain and a publicity campaign celebrate the success

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Now back to the original Vance pic

As you may see the 2 cars have different race numbers which is not surprising if the pic was taken in Caracas ie at a different race than the Carrera Panamericana
I have no certitude that these 2 cars are the same than the Carrera Panamericana ones but I know that if the pilots went back to Germany, the cars stayed in South America

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[356]

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A bit of history around the above pic recently posted by Vance
This pic was taken in November 1954 before the start of the 5th and last Carrera Panamericana race (Novemver 19th/November 23 rd 1954)
The guy who stand alongside this very early steel prev A (end 1951/beginning 1952) was Ernst Joachim Hirz
The entry list says he was German
At first sight I would have imagined he was South American
So may be a German who left Germany after the end of the 2nd WW to escape of being judged
With this car far to be new in 1954, Heinz Joachim finish 70th out of the 85 finishing cars
This car may be found also on a very popular pic several times publidhed in this forum

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As you all know this 5th Carrera Panamericana race was a great success for Porsche with 550-04 (car race number 55) also on this pic who finish 3rd overall driven by Hans Hermann (second from the left on the below pic where you may also recocknise Huschke von Hanstein (porsche race director) Herbert Linge and Jaroslav Juhan

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Hans Hermann and 550-04 awaiting a stage start

A second 550 (550-012) car race number 56 driven by Jaroslav Juhan finish 4th ahead of several much more powerfull cars (Ferrari, Oldsmobile, Lincoln etc

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Jaroslav Juhan with 550-012 (race number 56)

If 550-012 was a relatively new car, it was not the case for 550-04 that Hans Hermann already drove at the 1953 Panamericana race with race number 160 foa a DNF

In 1953 550 had pushrods engines when they had Fuhrmann in 1954

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Two mre 550 spyder did race the 1954 Carrera panamericana

550-06 (race number 5 driven by Fernando Segura (an important Argentinian Porsche customer) helped by Herbert Linge whose nick name was the"Porsche Swiss knife" for is hability to be a as good mecanici as a very good pilot



550-06 finish 12th overall

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A 4th 550 (550-001 race number 51)) was entered by Salvador Lopez Chavez another very rich Mexican Porsche customer and owner of the shoe plant "Canada" who supported him during the race







550-01 did also race in 1953 with Jaroslav Juhan as pilot and race number 154




Salvador Lopez finish 28th

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In addition to these 4 550 spyders and the Ernst Joachim 356 Pre A, race number 53 2 more 356 raced the 1954 Carrera Panamericana

Car race number 59 driven by Otto Becker Estrada who finish 67th overall




and car race number 100 a Gmund 356/02 SL (054) race car borrowed by the famous Vance friend Jacqueline Evans (miss never finish)
who for this time did finsh the race but was diqualyfied to having been overtime

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And to complete this story the epic story of the 7th (4 under his name and 3 for various customers) VW 1200 beetle entered in this race by the German Prince Alfonso vonn Hohenlohe-Lauterbourg that we already talk about for the 1952 Carrera Panamericana


Alfonso von Hohenloe was an authentic German Prince who had the doiuble nationality German/Spanish by his mother
His Spanish name is a complete story by itself : Alfonso, Maximiliano, Eugenio, Alejandro, Maria, Pablo de la Santissima Trinidad y tandos Santos Hohenlohe-Lauterbourg
Alfonso was completely fluent in both Spanish and German
As you know he was VW and Porsche representative for Mexico and a large part of South America
In order to promote the VW sales he had the idea to enter 7 off VW beetle 1200
These cars were supposed to be straight forward beetles
Indeed they had many improvement allowing them to reach 200 Km/H
All these 7 beetle finish the race in time (that Jacqueline Evans was not able to do with her 356/2 SL Gmund race car
They cover the 3600 km of the race at an average speed of 120 km/h to compare to the winning Ferrari who did the same at over 200 Km/h average speed
In order to compensate the low power they raced back to back to take benefit of the wind aspiration
After the race several unfair vexed competitors suggested that these VW were in fact disguised Porsches something who had been never prooved