28 Volume 34, Number 2 • Porsche 356 Registry

The Porsche-Cisitalia Connection

Very shortly after World War II hostilities were over, Europeanbusinessmen began networking. Of course they did not have e-mail or internet social and professional networking sites with

which to connect. And at the time, you would likely receive better odds ofa winning night in Monte Carlo than you would have completing an inter-national phone call. So the most common means of communication was thepersonal letter written on paper lighter than a whisper to keep shippingcost down. If you used a typewriter the font was likely Courier and thegreasy black ink left blotches around each symbol. When you signed the let-ter in cursive style, you used a fountain pen with blue ink.

A significant letter exchange between Italy and Germany occurred inlate 1946. A German expatriate by the name of Karl Abarth sent his Merano,Italy stamped envelope to Louise Piëch (Ferry’s sister) in Gmünd Austria of-fering his services as a Porsche business representative in Italy. Herr Abarthwas German born but to survive during the war he had made his way toItaly, where his father lived. With the move, he established an Italian iden-

tity including changing his first name to “Carlo.” His relationship with thePorsche organization was a bit of a stretch; he married Anton Piéch’s(Louise’s husband) secretary, and during the war apparently acted as aPorsche ambassador in Yugoslavia. His letter to Louise may have been oneof several he sent out in search of work.

Like Abarth, the Porsche firm was searching out any business con-nections they could to provide income. So on December 10, 1946, KarlRabe provided the following written, Power of Attorney to Carlo Abarth.“This is to confirm that Mr. Karl Abarth... has been appointed as the legalrepresentative of Dr. ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG, Gmünd/Kärnten, in Italy. In thiscapacity, Mr Abarth has the right to negotiate and prepare contracts on ourbehalf, for the design and construction in the area of vehicles and ma-chinery in Italy. Finalization and signing of such contracts require our priorapproval and the approval of the country of Austria.” In March 1947 Louiseand Ferry followed up Rabe’s agreement with a letter bearing their per-sonal signatures.

GTLA Happy Marriage of German Engineering and Italian Style

Abarth Carrera

By Phil Carney

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www.356Registry.com • July / August 2010 29

The initial outcome of this deal with Abarth was a contract betweenPorsche K.G. and Cisitalia. There are conflicting stories about how this re-lationship matured but the names of a number of important intermediariesare mixed in the hat. In addition to Carlo Abarth and Piero Dusio, whoowned Cisitalia, the prominent names that were involved include famedpre-war racing legend driver Tazio Nuvolari; LeMans founder CharlesFaroux; Italian automobile engineer, racing car driver and journalist Gio-vanni Lurani; and former Porsche employee Rudolf Hruska.

Contract negotiations between Porsche and Dusio carried on for sev-eral months but on February 3, 1947 two documents were signed in Turin.First, Porsche was to provide the design of a race car (Type 360), a sportscar (Type 370), a tractor (Type 323.1) and a turbine (Type 385). This doc-ument also indicated Porsche would receive installment payments followedby a royalty on each production unit. The second document identified de-livery dates for engineering products. Although not set in writing, two otherimportant transactions occurred at this signing. In the eyes of the Porschefamily, the most critical element was that money was to be funneled throughFaroux to affect the release of Professor Ferdinand Porsche and Louise’shusband, Anton Piëch, who were imprisoned in France. A more subtlearrangement, though more germane to this article, was that Carlo Abarthnow became Cisitalia’s racing director. This provided him with an incomethat allowed him to venture forth on his post-WWII destiny.

The Sign of the ScorpionKarl Abarth was born in Vienna on November 15, 1908

– under the sign of the scorpion. In his early days he spe-cialized in successfully racing motorcycles as did many fu-ture race car drivers of the time. In 1928 he perceived that

an “extractor” exhaust system was an overlooked means toincreasing the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, and he

fabricated his first muffler. Perhaps it seemed inconsequential at the time;but it was a harbinger to Karl’s future.

After Hitler seized Austria, Abarth fled the conflict that engulfed Eu-rope and as related in the previous paragraph, Karl – now Carlo - estab-

lished Italian roots following the war. The Cisitalia Grand Prix adventurenever bore fruit but Carlo was asked if he would like to head up a privateventure to maintain and race Dusio’s Cisitalia sports cars. This resulted inthe birth of Squadra Carlo Abarth whose stable consisted of three cars andthree famous drivers - Nuvolari, Scagliarini and Taruffi. The importantname in this mix is not Tazio’s but Carlo Scagliarini because Scagliarinibankrolled the Abarth operation then and for many years into the future.

In 1949, Scagliarini’s father and Carlo Abarth became business part-ners. The initial plan was to fabricate high-performance mufflers althoughthe shop also did a side business in engine tuning and conversions. In early1955, Abarth announced it was building cars for America and shortly af-terwards Cisitalia dealer Tony Pompeo began importing the Abarth 207ASpyder. Pompeo supposedly took a Boano-bodied 270A to Daytona andSebring but I could find no mention of the car in the records. Regardless,the 207A proved unpopular with buyers and production was discontinued.

A breakthrough came when Fiat started selling a diminutive, rear-en-gine 600-cc car. The production engine produced 22 hp but after the handsof Abarth were laid upon it, it put out 47 hp. That was no small improve-ment and the car was an immediate success in competition. But lightningstruck again for Carlo in 1955. It was in the form of a Fiat-Abarth-Zagatocreation. Suspension and transmission were from Fiat, Abarth stroked theFiat block from 600 to 750 cc and added his intake and exhaust goodies.Zagato produced a striking, aluminum, double-bubble-roof body style. Itwas a car that cash-ready Italians longed for and six hundred hand-builtmodels were fabricated before Fiat, Abarth and Zagato tired of the designsome six years later. In 1957, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (yes, the sonof Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and the 32nd President of the United States)

Carlo Abarth, left, and Rudolf Hruska.Far left: the 1947 letter bearing LouisePiech’s and Ferry Porsche’s signatures,ratifying the agreement with CarloAbarth. The Abarth Scorpion logo wasapplied to many different exhaust sys-tems, including one for the 356.

The first Porsche contract in which Carlo Abarth was instrumental was a Type 360Grand Prix car for Piero Dusio’s firm, Cisitalia. The project was a bust in terms ofwinning races but the contract payments resulted in paying a bond to secure the re-lease of Professor Porsche and Anton Piëch, held in custody by the French. In 1960,one of the two cars made was uncovered in Argentina and shipped back to Germany

in a containerthat was sup-posed to holdthe NSU shownin the back-ground. Stand-ing beside theCiitalia is notedracer/authorPaul Frére. Photo courtesyJürgen Barth.

Opposite: The Targa Florio was a major F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship race.In the May 8, 1960 Targa, Paul Strähle entered both his 356B GT and a GTL in therace. Strähle and Herbert Linge brought the GTL home first in the GT 2.5 class andeighth overall. In the April 1961 Targa, Strähle’s co-pilot in a factory entered GTLwas Italian driver Antonio Pucci. Again the GTL finished first in class and sixth over-all. This photograph was taken at the 1962 Targa. This GTL was entered by ScuderiaSSS Republica di Venezia and piloted by Strähle and Fritz Hahnl. They were blackflagged for having an unsafe car and did not finish the race.All photos except where noted courtesy of Jens Torner and Porsche archives.

30 Volume 34, Number 2 • Porsche 356 Registry

ran a Fiat distributorship in Washington D. C. He established Team Roo-sevelt which raced Abarth Fiats across the hemisphere from Nassau to Den-ver. They won at Lime Rock, Sebring, Nassau and Daytona.

It would take over 100 pages just to list all of the car models andraces in which Abarth & Co. played the key role. Carlo Abarth performedhis magic in cooperation with the world’s most brilliant automotive bodystylists; Vignale, Bertone, Zagato, and Pininfarina, just to name a few. Un-questionably the Abarth company’s strongest bond was with Fiat, but healso worked with Alfa Romeo, Ghia, Simca, Ferrari, and of course Porsche– which leads to the focal point of this article.

Porsche 356 GTL DevelopmentThe Porsche four-cam engine was first introduced in the Type 550

Spyder but became available in the 356 very shortly afterwards. A 356model called the Carrera 1500, to commemorate Porsche’s victory in thefamous Mexican race, became available in July 1955. The 356 Carrera wasexceptionally competitive for several years but eventually other builders,like Alfa and Abarth, began to produce lighter cars with excellent per-formance. So when Porsche committed to the 356 B revision, which wasexpected to be even heavier than the 356 A, the company decided a lighter,more aerodynamic body was required for their Carrera model. They as-signed Type 756 to their new Grand Touring Light-weight (GTL) project.

According to the original copy of Ludvigsen’s Excellence Was Ex-pected, “in the summer of 1959 Porsche asked two suppliers for bids onthe manufacture of twenty special lightweight bodies for the 356 B Chassis.”

Porsche appended the GT andGS tags to their 356 Carreras.

The suffixes stood for Grand Touringand Grand Sport which refer to therace classifications that were in use at thetime. In general, the GT was the moreperformance oriented car while the GScars were more drivable and had morecomfort features. If you participated in356Talk during early April, you are awarethat the GS, GT and the GS-GT labels wereapplied in a confusing manner by Porscheto a variety of body and engine configura-tions.

Between 1956 and 1958 the rollerbearing, 1,489 cc Type 547 was used for Car-rera cars. The GS version was rated at 100 hpwhile the GT was listed at 110 hp. Beginning in1958, the plain bearing, 1,587 cc Type 692 en-gine became available and eventually offered ina 134 hp configuration. The final choice, be-tween 1962 through 1964, was the 1,966 ccType 587 which was listed at 130 hp for the GSand 160 hp for the GT. Cars with the last engineoption are referred to as the Carrera 2.

Although the four-cam engine was theprime distinction between the Carrera and theother 356 models, there were several additionalchanges which made the GT and GS cars differ-ent from their siblings. The gas tank size was in-creased to 80 liters which allowed for muchgreater distance between refueling. Equally im-

portant, effort was made to reduce weight asmuch as possible in the GT. Initially this con-sisted of not installing sound deadening insula-tion, replacing the standard seat with speedsterseats and replacing carpeting with vinyl. Whenthe T2 was introduced, GT cars also receivedaluminum doors and lids and, except for thewindshield, Plexiglaswas installed allaround.

The Carrera GT and GS models are obvi-ously considered rare, collectable cars today.Between 1956 and 1965, approximately1,200 were built and the 2010 Sports CarMarket price guide places a value of around$200K on Coupes and Cabriolets with Speed-sters drawing closer to $300k.

The “Scraper”During the 356B time frame there was

another four-cylinder, two-liter Carreraproduced about which you hear very little.Perhaps that is because it was never in-

tended to be anything more than a works racecar and it was only used by the factory for a bitover a year. The car is officially designated Type798 but also goes by the names “Dreikantsch-aber” (“Triangular Scraper”), 2000 GT/GS and2000 GS LM (below left).

Two cars were built on 356B chassis(122991 and 122992) and fitted with the 587/21966-cc engine and Dunlop disc brakes fromthe beginning. Chassis 112991 is now in thePorsche Museum while 122992 is in the hands

of a private collector. The body styling isunique; the front is something of a crossbetween an Abarth and the RS61. The rearof the car has an unusual chopped rooflineperhaps explained by the fact that Butzi

Porsche contributed to the design who was notan advocate of the fastback look.

Left photo courtesy Dirk Layer

It was initially reported that Porsche’s Abarth-branded bodies were built by Zagato.But no body-build records have been located and the Zagato firm has denied it wasinvolved. Today the general feeling is that some bodies were built by Rocco Motto(who built other bodies for Carlo Abarth) and later by Viarengo & Filipponi. Theearly GTL bodies had quality issues and lacked design sophistication. But the use ofaluminum saved almost 100 lbs and the frontal profile was reduced by 16%. Overthe course of development, panel fit improved on each handmade body and subtlestyling refinements were incorporated such as recessing the lights and forming afairing around the windshield wiper bases.

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The two suppliers were Wendler (who built Porsche’s Spyder bod-ies) and Zagato. Ludvigsen goes on to say that Zagato was the pre-ferred body builder but due to Zagato’s involvement with carmanufacturers that competed against Porsche, Carlo Abarth’scompany was employed as a store front. The latest thinking, par-ticularly with Italian authors, is that Zagato’s services, althoughpossibly expected, were never realized.

Some credit former Bertone stylist Franco Scaglione with de-signing the GTL body but there is no evidence of this and the bi-ographies of Scaglione do not mention any such project. It ispossible the design might have originated within the Abarth or-ganization itself. There exists a formal profile drawing of the GTLwith the Abarth crest shown in the lower-right data block. One au-thor speculates that the design was possiblydone in conjunction with Rocco Motto whowas initially hired to fabricate the GTL.

Presently, there are two schools ofthought on the body builders. One concept isthat Rocco Motto built 17 bodies while theremaining three were built by another Turinfabricator by the name of Viarengo & Filip-poni. Italian writers with an Abarth-centricpoint of view, credit Motto with only the firstthree bodies before he disappeared on anunscheduled vacation and Abarth switchedwork to Viarengo & Filipponi. To make mat-ters a bit more confusing, there is a car withchassis number 1021 (i.e. part of the GTL se-ries) as well as two type 798 Carreras thatmay also have been bodied through Abarth &Co. More on those three cars later.

The 356 GTL achieved two of Porsche’sobjectives. The aluminum body resulted in acar that was almost 45 kg (100 lbs) lighterthan the equivalent Reutter-bodied Carrera.Another achievement was that the front pro-file was reduced by approximately 16% mak-ing the Cd .365 versus .398 for the Reutterbody. This was accomplished by reducing thecar’s width by 4.7”, height by 5.2” and length by 5.1”. Of course this meantthe car was difficult to enter and exit and exceptionally difficult for anydriver over six feet to pilot for any length of time.

On March 12, 1960, photographs of the lightweight Carrera were pub-lished in Auto Motor und Sport and the factory announced a price of DM25,000 ($5,995). But Ferry Porsche was not happy with the build qualityof the early GTL examples. Glass and door seals leaked, finish work wasoften substandard and the steering radius was too severely constrained bythe tight body work. Another incidental: on the first car, the engine wouldnot fit in its compartment without extensive hammering to the sheet metal.

Right: This photo of Herbert Linge piloting his GTL to a class win at the October 1963Trier airfield race, shows that the GTL cars generally carried an Abarth badge andscript on their fenders. Notice also the special exhaust; three different options al-lowed for extra tuning. Standard mufflers with baffles in place were used wherethere were noise restrictions. The same mufflers without baffles allowed a bit ofextra horsepower. The high performance system was known as the Sebring, providingas much as 15 extra hp at high rpm. All cars appeared to have the big air scoop inthe engine lid and gas tank filler through the front lid. This car also has an externaloil filler over the rear fender. At the front, some cars had exposed headlights whilein others they are covered. Similarly, auxiliary road lamps were fitted to some cars.

The GTL original engine wasthe 1.6-liter, four-cam Type692/3 (115 hp) or 692/3A (134hp) Carrera engine. Stoppingthe car were large 60mm Spy-der front brakes. Later on thefactory established an up-grade program to install thetwo-liter engine and Dunlop-Porsche annular disc brakes inselected cars.

The second major Porsche contract conducted through Carlo Abarth was for twentyspecially bodied aluminum race cars built on the foundation of the 356B T5 chas-sis. Like most 356 models, the GTL was not bodied by Porsche. Instead they soughtout the services of Carlo Abarth. Abarth, however, did not have a manufacturing ca-pability that would support an order this large and so he was dependent on otherTurin firms for performing the metal work.

Second, fourth, sixth and ninthoverall places were captured byRSKs, the factory’s GTL with discbrakes took ninth overall,Strähle’s GTL was in 10th,Koch’s GTL finished 13th, and356B GTs placed 12th and 14th.Again, the results were just whatthe engineers would expect. Interms of performance, theAbarth GTL was sandwiched be-tween the Spyder and the Reut-ter 356 B Carrera.

The big 1960 race forPorsche, of course, was the June24 Hours of Le Mans endurancerace. The factory brought alongtheir three RS 60s and their GTL

with the drum brakes reinstalled. Two private parties, Baron Carel Godinde Beaufort of the Netherlands and Jean Kerguen of France also broughttheir RS 60s to the race. The event was almost a complete tragedy forPorsche. Four of the five RS 60s failed to finish, all due to engine prob-lems. Fortunately, #39, the 718 driven by Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel,persevered until the end coming in first in the Sport 1600 class and 11thoverall. The hero of the day was the GTL however, which not only won theGT 1600 division but finished 10th overall, in front of the 718. HerbertLinge, while driving the GTL, was clocked at 138 mph on the Mulsannestraight and later remarked that the car still had some more to give.

Results in the same three 1961 F.I.A. races were almost identical ex-cept the RS 60 was replaced by the RS 61 and there were more GTLs in thehands of private parties. In 1962 there were many more World SportscarChampionship races and the GTL made it to the United States to participateat Daytona, Sebring, and Bridgehampton. Alec Ulmann, the originator of theSebring endurance race, was furious with the F.I.A. for authorizing the 1962Daytona three-hour sports car race. He considered Daytona a banked,stock car track and furthermore any new Florida sports car venue should

32 Volume 34, Number 2 • Porsche 356 Registry

Throughout their two-year production span, body refinements weremade to the GTL. The rear engine lid started out with ten louvers and finallyended up with 48. The tail lights were initially just bolted on, but recessedin the body work on later cars. To make engine replacement easier, body-work above the muffler was made removable. While most GTL cars usedstraps to raise the side windows, some had roll-up windows. Depending onrace requirements, the headlights could be left exposed or covered withplexiglass. After just 20 GTL bodies were built, work in Italy was halted.

These were a few of the reasons for the GTL’s short life span. In 1962Porsche introduced a new Carerra 2 GT. It utilized the two-liter Type 587engine that produced a whopping 160 hp. The other factor involved wasthat Porsche was looking into a new technique for producing light-weightbody panels. Fiberglass was experimented with in the 1962 and 1963 timeframe with some success. So, when Porsche’s newest GT project camearound, Type 904, a commitment was made to an entirely fiberglass bodyrather than expensive hand-formed aluminum.

Considering the awesome achievements Abarth & Co. realized withFiat over the next twenty years, one wonders what might have been ac-complished if GTL production had continued. Of course, Abarth’s successwith Fiat was largely due to its ability to tune engines and it is unlikely thatsuch performance outsourcing would have sat well with the Porsche staff.

Predictable ResultsThe 356 GTL was an immediate success in the hands of both the fac-

tory and private owners. In each of its first three 1960 races, a GTL fin-ished first in its GT class. Perhaps what is more interesting, however, is tocompare the performance of the GTL with the other Porsches that were inthe same races.

In the May 8, 1960 Targa Floria, Paul Strähle entered both his 356BGT and a GTL in the race. He, Herbert Linge and Dieter Lissmann shareddriving responsibilities across both cars. The Porsche factory team wasalso out in force at the race bringing their own 356B GT and three RS 60s.The RS 60s finished first, third and fifth overall with Strähle’s Abarth GTLright behind in 6th and Strahle’s 356B GT finished in 8th place. I am surethis is exactly how Porsche engineers would have predicted the outcome.

Two weeks later at the Nürburgring 1000 Km event, the situation wasvery similar. The factory brought three 718s to the track along with proto-type GTL 1001. The factory GTL was wearing experimental disc brakeswhich took it out of the GT class and moved it into the Sport 1600 category.Strähle brought his GTL to the race and so did Gerhard Koch who nowowned GTL 1003. Porsche cars finished at the top of each of their classes.

A newly-minted GTL in the holding lot at Porsche among its 356B brethren. The windshield and hood profile suggest the timelesslines of the 911, still a few years away.

Porsche assigned special chassis number sequence 10XX to the Abarth GTLs. How-ever, the Kardex data for chassis 1021 seems to indicate it was a heavily cus-tomized Speedster. According to the Kardex, it was equipped as follows: Super 90engine, leather/corduroy black seats, two Speedster fender scripts, electric clock,two armrests, two headrests, fog lights, one sun visor with makeup mirror, one ton-neau cover, side trim, chrome wheels, grills covering headlights, chrome horn ringand two Talbot rearview mirrors. (Courtesy of Jim Perrin)

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not be scheduled just a month before his well-established Sebring event. Asit turned out, the Porsche factory might just have well skipped the Daytonaevent where their single entry, a GTL driven by Bonnier and von Hanstein,failed to finish. There were five private entry RS61s however and they all fin-ished at the top of the S1600 and S2000 classes.

Things were much better for the GTL at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Thistime Bob Holbert and Dan Gurney were teamed up in one of the factoryAbarth Carreras while Edgar Barth and Strähle drove another. The cars fin-ished one-two in GT1600 with a full ten laps separating them from a Sun-beam Alpine in third place. Later that year, Bob Holbert drove a GTL ownedby Chuck Cassel in the September Bridgehampton 400 km race. The carwas equipped with the new Type 587 engine and finished first overall.

The GTL TodayAs mentioned earlier, the Porsche contract with Abarth called for 20

cars and these cars bear a special chassis number sequence in the range1001 through 1020. Eighteen of the cars have survived and most of theseare located in the United States. Both chassis 1002 and 1019 were heavilydamaged in accidents and their existence today is debatable. There alsoexists a chassis stamped 1021 and apparently because of this, some au-thors claim that 21 GTLs were built. What is known for certain is that thereis a Kardex associated with chassis 1021 and based on that information,1021 was not a GTL. What is more surprising, is that the Kardex descrip-tion leads one to believe that 1021 was built as a highly customized Speed-ster delivered directly from the factory to a private party in September 1960.Could it have really been the last 356 Speedster built (see Kardex captionopposite). No one I contacted has ever seen or could produce a photo-graph of the mysterious 1021 car.

Dirk Layer has piloted almost every classic Porsche race car from the550 to the 962 and has had the opportunity to spend many hours behindthe wheel of several GTLs. He competed with a Porsche-Abarth in the RACTourist Trophy at Goodwood co-driving with Alex Gurney and raced an-other at Spa Franchorchamps through the Ardennes Forest. According toDirk, “They are more difficult to get in and out of than a standard 356; yousit lower and your view is not quite as open. But with the lower fender lineyour sight to the apex is great and the large, steeply raked windshield al-lows good views ahead on a circuit or road with elevation changes. On thetrack they handle a little different because of weight distribution. Cornerentry takes a little more precision and with the extra weight of the four-cam engine, oil tank and lines, you want to be aware of oversteer just as inthe standard push-rod 356. The torque of the four-cam engine allows youto be consistent on mid corner speed and smooth on corner exit. This tidy

precise approach works well in endurance racing where the GTL excelled.”Dirk also finds pleasure just taking the versatile GTL for a cruise down

Interstate 5 to San Diego for racing at Coronado. “Everybody loves the car,photographers everywhere, thumbs up from spectators and smiles fromcompetitors. Many people have told me it is the best-looking, sexiestPorsche ever and I tend to agree with them. They just have charisma.”

My first, in-person view of a GTL was many years ago in the paddockat the Monterey Historics weekend. At the time I was not so much im-pressed by the car’s racing capabilities as I was with its panache. Then andnow, I find the styling to be pure eye-candy. During the 1950s and 1960s,German stylists like Komenda may have been able to pen curved lines thatyielded a remarkably low coefficient of drag. But Italian automotive stylistsof the same time period carried the genes of the Renaissance masters andwere able to craft curvaceous lines that reflected their love for sports cars.Perhaps that is what makes the GTL so special. It is the harmonious blendof functional German engineering and sensuous Italian artistry.

As with all my articles, several people helped with the content and Iwant to recognize their effort. Sam Cabiglio, Scott George, Dirk Layer, JimPerrin, Jens Torner, Tommy Trabue, Dean Watts, and Anon Ymous.

I, and the club, thank you for your contributions. Continued

The GTL is still an object of admiration at Porsche events and vintage races, in bothstatic displays and on the track at speed. Here 1006 takes a place of honor amongother Porsche racers from the ‘60s at Rennsport Reunion, 2007. G. Maltby photo.

For the 1000 KM Nürburgring in May1962 the 1.6 liter Carreras were out inforce and they swept the GT 1.6 class.Edgar Barth and Herbert Linge in GTL#20 were first, followed by GerhardKoch and Eberhard Mahle in GTL #22,Dieter Glemser and Rolf Wütherich in#25, Paul Strähle and Fritz Hahnl in GTL#21. Ben Pon and Rob Slotemaker werein GTL #24 but failed to finish. Twomonths later the GTLs were being up-graded and would then compete equallywell in the GT 2.0 class.(Courtesy of Dean Watts)

34 Volume 34, Number 2 • Porsche 356 Registry

The GTL Today: #1006

Just because a nice 1960 Porsche GTL is worth an order of magni-tude more than a nice 1960 Porsche 1600S, it doesn’t mean the

GTL should be wrapped in a plastic bubble. One man who lives this axiomis Tommy Trabue, the current custodian of GTL 1006.

In late July 1960, Porsche-Abarth 1006 was completed and shippedto the Sonauto Porsche dealership in Paris. For the next eighteen years thecar roamed throughout France competing in various road races primarilyin the hands of Robert Buchet who was a Porsche dealer in Poitiers, France.In 1978 the car made its way to the United States. The car had been drivenhard and was in rough shape but very restorable. The aluminum at the rearwas wrinkled and had to be straightened but the front section was damagedso heavily that new metal was required. The Type 692/3 four-cam enginealso needed a thorough rebuild. Restoration of an aluminum-bodied, four-cam Porsche is expensive and due to a changing economic environment,the GTL went through three American owners before being purchased“mostly assembled” by Tommy Trabue in the early fall of 1984.

Tommy had been a sports car buff from the time he first noticed au-tomobiles. “My first 356 ride was probably in the late fifties. A friend ofmine took me for a ride in a ’55 Speedster. It was in December, the weatherwas terrible and it was raining and cold and the heater didn’t work. I fellin love with the car and said I’m gonna have one of these.” He purchasedhis first 356, a well worn 1962 Super Cabriolet, within a month after grad-uating from college but it wasn’t until the early 1980s that he became a se-rious Porsche collector. In the between-time, Tommy had driven manydifferent European cars including MGs, Jaguars, Volvos and an Alpine Re-

The GTL Yesterday: #1010

The 1960s was a time before lawyers became the CEOs of politicsand corporations. While it is true that unethical behavior was ev-

ident during that time, it was also an era when two people often used ahandshake to obtain their goals. Such is the case with GTL chassis 1010.Porsche sold the car to an individual, Ben Pon, but was most willing tocampaign both driver and car as a factory entry when appropriate.

According to the Kardex, the 1010 story begins in January 1961. Earlythat year the car was delivered to Ben Pon Jr in Amersfoort, Holland. BenJr. had the right connections. His father, Ben Pon Sr., was the owner ofPon’s Automobilhandel, Holland’s Volkswagen and Porsche importer. Hisson, not unexpectedly, developed a taste for racing Porsches.

GTL 1010 was originally equipped like many other Abarth Carreras.It had a four-cam 1.6 liter Type 692/3A engine, drum brakes, a (Sebring)Sport Exhaust System II, and aluminum wheels. Later a few of the Porsche-Abarth cars, including this one, were upgraded with the two-liter Type 587Carrera engine and Dunlop-Porsche annular disc brakes. These GTLs werere-homologated by the F.I.A. as part of the Carrera II submission. Begin-ning with declaration #71-C, approved October 25, 1963, they could belegally raced in F.I.A. endorsed events.

Pon took 1010 on seven major race excursions in 1961. The resultswere excellent with podium finishes six times. At his local Circuit ParkZandvoort located in the dunes north of the town of Zandvoort, in theNetherlands, near the North Sea coast, Pon and 1010 finished second inclass every time. His potential must have been impressive because Porscheinvited him to participate at LeMans in June that same year. Pon and Her-bert Linge were assigned a factory GTL and they finished first in the GTclass and tenth overall. The LeMans race may have been his 1961 pinna-cle but Ben loved his personal GTL and continued to exercise it for therest of the season. In September at Monza, he finished second and at Inns-bruck in October a third place finish was produced.

Pon’s second year with the GTL, 1962, produced even more race ap-pearances and podium finishes. The season opener was in Brussels and heand 1010 got off to a great start and finished first. Other excellent finishesfollowed at Snetterton (4th overall), Goodwood (4th GT2.0), and Inns-bruck (1st GT1.6). The big World Sports Car Championship events for theyear were the Nürburgring 1000 Km race, the LeMans 24 Hour race, andthe Paris 1000 Km race.

At Nürburgring in May, Pon and his GTL technically finished secondin the GT 1.6 class but, stating the results more objectively, were a DNF. AtLeMans in June, Pon and his GTL were listed as a factory entry but this didnot equate to an outstanding accomplishment when the car failed with ig-nition problems. This was most unfortunate since two other GTLs in therace made excellent seventh and twelfth place overall finishes. In time forthe last championship of the season in Paris, three private entry GTLs wereupdated with two-liter engines and all three teams and cars did themselvesproud. The Herbert Linge / Gerhard Koch team finished first in GT 2.0,Ben Pon / Rob Slotemaker was right behind and Edgar Barth / RobertBuchet took fourth in GT 2.0. All-in-all, an impressive way to close out theseason.

The year 1963 was a transition period for Porsche and Ben Pon. GTLsand 718 Spyders were being campaigned by privateers and the factory butthere was a big shift in the wind. The first indicator was the appearance oftwo Porsche’s Type 798 Carrera 2000 GT/GSs. Bon had the opportunity torace these factory cars at the Nürburgring, LeMans and Sebring in 1964.Results were very good. But Porsche and Pon’s future from 1964 on wouldbe with the fiberglass, two-liter 904 GTS. That, of course, is an entirely dif-ferent story.

Pon sold off GTL 1010 in 1963 after he and the car finished fifth over-all in the Grand Prix of Angola, South Africa. Car 1010 remained in Africaand went through a series of owners who, over time, removed all of theCarrera mechanical components: engine/transaxle, suspension, steel/alloywheels, oil cooler lines, etc. In December 1985 Dean Watts purchased GTL1010 over the telephone and received a "hulk” in incredibly poor condi-tion. A four year search produced the necessary replacement parts for asubsequent restoration. The car now carries one of the original two-liter,four-cam engines which was originally fitted to chassis 1007. After Watt’srestoration, GTL 1010 returned to racing although it is being cared for withmuch greater love than it saw a quarter of a century ago.

Ben Pon and his Carrera GTL.

www.356Registry.com • July / August 2010 35

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36 Volume 34, Number 2 • Porsche 356 Registry

GTL Registry Synopsis1001 First production unit. Also considered a prototype because of it poor turning radius, overly-restrictive engine compartment, simplicity of body design details and

less than perfect build quality. Delivered to Porsche in February 1960 and used as a Work’s race car. Sold to private party in March 1961 and now on display in Collier Collection, Naples, Florida

1002 Originally sold to Paul Ernst Strähle as a privateer race car. Driven by Robert Buchet in 1962 Tour de France and heavily damaged. Conflicting reports now allege car is restored and in Museum de Haye near Nancy, France, and another that it is unrestored in a private collection.

1003 Originally sold to Gerhard Koch as a privateer race car and later raced by Road and Track owner John Bond. Currently located in Saarbrucken, Germany.1004 Originally sold to private party, U.S. serviceman stationed in Europe who raced it in Coppa Inter Europa. Later raced in United States by Californian Jim Wellington

with a two-liter engine. Now a well-used vintage race car located in Newport Beach, CA.1005 Very unmolested, display/occasional-driver car located in Colorado Springs, CO.1006 Vintage racer and also used as occasional driver. Now equipped with two-liter engine and disc brakes. Located in White Bluff, TN. (See sidebar)1007 Vintage raced in Europe between 2003 and 2007 and now undergoing a major restoration in Italy.1008 Originally exported to Sweden and remained there until late 1980s. Raced very little and very unmolested. Located in California.1009 Tucked away for many years in Rudi Klein’s Los Angeles junkyard and retrieved in 2004. Now restored (at same firm restoring 1007) and in Italy.

Painted a deep blue and displayed at multiple European events.1010 Originally owned by Ben Pon (see sidebar) for racing with wealth of history. Also loaned back to Porsche in the early years as a Works race entry. Now in Oregon.1011 Class winner at Amelia Island. Currently in Saarbrucken, Germany with original engine and transmission.1012 Concours car with roll-up windows still with 1.6-liter engine. Currently located in private location in Nevada.1013 Originally a Works race car with exceptional history. Currently located in a private collection in California.1014 Vintage race car owned by an American but currently located in Germany.1015 Since Porsche’s 50th Anniversary, has made repeated appearances in Monterey Historics. Now located in California.1016 Originally a private owner car that was also loaned to Porsche for Works racing. Historic and contemporary racer that frequents Monterey Historics.

Currently part of a private collection in Nevada.1017 One of three GTLs that spent time racing in South Africa. Now used as a vintage racer located in Midwest, United States.1018 Original Works race car. Currently a Porsche AG Museum car, Stuttgart, Germany.1019 Conflicting reports. Car reportedly heavily damaged and either lost or in France with same owner since 1962, condition unknown.1020 Final production car sold to Paul Ernst Stähle. Currently in private collection in Santa Monica, California.

nault. Owning these different Marques gave Tommy a real appreciation forwhat he wanted in a sports car. He had grown up working on air-cooled en-gines and always loved their simplicity and versatility. In addition to this heliked copious power in a small displacement engine, good handling and re-liability. All of his criteria came together in the Porsche and on top of thathe really liked their unique styling.

Although his GTL was not really purchased with the intent of it beingexclusively used for vintage racing, it saw repeated time on Eastern statestracks for the first four years Tommy owned it. The car proved to be morethan a handful during these outings. “It handled pretty crappy; it was notfun to drive.” Piloting a light, powerful rear-engine car takes some skill butTrabue had considerable racing experience with several 356s, a 550 andhis Denzel so he knew the GTL’s wicked road manners were not due to thefault of its pilot. And naturally, when something isn’t fun, you stop doing it.So the GTL went into temporary retirement from racing.

At the Monterey Historics in 2003, Dean Watts, the owner of GTLs1004 and 1010, put a bug in Tommy’s ear “to get the car right.” Trabueloved his GTL and knew racing was its raison d'être. The previous restora-tion effort had repaired the body, interior and drive train but the suspen-sion was one area that had been ignored. So Tommy had his GTL shippedoff to Vic Skirmants to have everything sorted out. Vic, a very experiencedmechanic and driver, is a master when it comes to setting up a race car. “Itis a dream to drive now.”

For Tommy, vintage racing is all about having a good time. “I’m com-petitive and I want to do well. But most of the time, I am racing against my-self. It is about how did I perform? Did I drive the car well?” In 2004, atMonterey, everything came together for Tommy and the GTL. “I just gotchills when I sat in the GTL and thought about the guys that drove this carback in the 1960s.”

At the moment, Trabue is racing a 1965 two-liter 911 and a 1970914/6. This doesn’t mean that his GTL, or any of the other Porsches heowns, are sitting idle. He drives all the cars in his collection as much as hecan spring, summer and fall. “If it’s not going to rain, I drive a different carhome every night.”

GTL 1006 “is my favorite 356 and favorite Porsche. I get chills whenI drive it. Last week on a pretty day, I took it out for afternoon exercise onthe country roads near where I keep it. What a blast! The local cows won'tgive milk for a month.” Tommy Trabue, March 19, 2010

Through the corkscrew at Laguna Seca, Tommy Trabue pilots 1006.

www.356Registry.com • July / August 2010 37

In order to race in each class at FIA-sanctioned events, a car needed to be homolo-gated for that class. In the GT category, along with the lightened 356B Coupe carry-ing a new 2-liter four-cam, the Abarth body was presented as a “series variant” inthis July, 1962 document. This was near the end of the GTL’s racing career, but sim-ilar paperwork would have been presented when the car was introduced in 1960.Technical data for these applications was carefully scrutinized, and the body designless so. The “GT” photo at left was a heavily airbrushed shot of a standard B Coupewith a gas cap perched on the hood. Courtesy John Tyler

One of the mostfamous carnames in his-tory comesfrom these FIAregulations. In1962, Ferrarigave its new 3liter racingcoupe therather prosaicappellation“Gran TurismoOmologato”, oras it becameknown, the GTO.

POINTof interest

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