1964 Porsche 901 Prototype Classic Drive

Your browser, , is out of date and not supported by www.motortrend.com. It may not display all features of our site properly and could have potential security flaws. Please update your browser to the most upated version. Update Now Home  >  Classic  >  1964 Porsche 901 Prototype Classic Drive Our number seven (#13 327) went into suspension testing service in February 1964 with the nickname Barbarossa ("red beard" in Italian -- the nickname of Frederick I, duke of Swabia, later king of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor). It also spent time in the wind tunnel at an automotive research institute in Untertuerkheim. Frequently updated with production-intent parts, Barbarossa helped sort many suspension, braking, aerodynamic, and heating/ventilation problems uncovered during those early test runs. After completing almost 44,000 kilometers, Barbarossa was still in presentable shape, so the somewhat cash-pressed company sold the prototype to a "friend of the family," Porsche race driver and automotive journalist Richard von Frankenberg. Perhaps best known for surviving a horrific somersaulting crash at Avus in Berlin while racing a 550A, he ultimately perished in a road accident in 1973, after which Barbarossa's ownership history gets murky until it surfaced in December 1984 as a derelict hulk for sale to settle a mechanic's lien in New York City. Don Meluzio got his first taste of Porsche's rear-engine magic during his Army service in Germany by riding shotgun in his 1st Sergeant's 911 to watch the races at Hockenheim and the Nuerburgring (his lieutenant drove a 356C). After returning stateside, he started autocrossing a 911 in 1980 and graduated to road racing in '85. He eventually found his way into a 924 D-production ex-works car. It was these deep roots in the Porsche collector and racing communities that helped him identify the battered rusting hulk with the strange forward-sliding vent sunroof, the crashed front corner and the mechanic's lien as the oldest known surviving prototype of the venerable 911. Obtaining proof from the factory wasn't easy. Meluzio mounted an expedition to Zuffenhausen in 1985 to consult with a cadre of engineers armed with photos of all the design peculiarities of his "garage find," things like the torsion-bar struts that support the luggage-compartment lid, the coil-springs that hold the engine lid open, the circular (instead of oval) fuel-filler door, missing trim strips below the doors, the 356 steering wheel attached to a column with an ignition switch mounted to it, and the two large gauge clusters instead of five. Barbarossa's fuel filler lid is indeed circular, not oval. The ignition/steering lock is on the steering column. Then there's the wacky hand-cranked sunroof that retracts only partway forward, but incorporates drain tubes positioned within the structure -- hardly a hot-rod shop job. Oh, and of course there's the serial plate with five digits --13 327. After a call to a retiree from Porsche's body shop who recalled the peculiar sunroof, the car's provenance was confirmed. As Don and expert Porsche restorer Denny Frick set about their extensive research into how to return the vehicle to its original factory-prototype condition, they gradually discovered that very few 911 parts interchange with this handbuilt 901. Dimensionally it's 2 inches shorter and a half-inch narrower than a '64 911.

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