Prototyp Museum Hamburg, we went to see it.

by Patrick Verheeken on 25/06/2022

It had been on my to-do list for a long time. Not that Hamburg is far away, but of course you do not just pass by. Because we recently went to see the start of the Baltic Sea Circle rally, this was the perfect moment to visit this beautiful museum.

Old rubber factory

The museum is housed in a restored former rubber factory. The restoration was carried out with great attention to detail. It gives the museum a special touch that makes you feel cosy. The museum is provided with white floors and walls, which seems to give it more space.

Permanent exhibition

The museum opened its doors in 2008 and wanted to be a “different” museum. The way the items are presented and the links that are made between design, execution and result are not so well worked out in many other museums. The permanent collection contains a number of unique pieces that are worth a visit in themselves.

Independent

The museum operates completely independently without government subsidies. You can book parties or receptions here and there is also a small shop where you can buy books or other car memorabilia.

The coffee corner makes a visit complete. And the income that these things generate enables the museum to continue to exist.

80 years of automotive history

We would like to give you an overview of what you can expect in the museum. This Porsche Type 64, also known as the Berlin-Rome car, is one of the first cars you will encounter. Only three were ever built, so it is certainly rare.

Above we see the Petermax Müller world record car. No fewer than eight world records and 22 national records are held by this machine. The car is equipped with a 1100cc VW engine that was built with the ‘leftovers’ from the legendary Porsche 64 Berlin – Rome. This was built at the time by engineer Gustav Vogelsang. One of the records was an endurance test of 72 hours. This test was done with an average speed of 152km and the distance covered was 10968km. The car still contains the original engine. The attentive reader will certainly notice the Goodwood Festival of Speed sticker with number 81. The Petermax Müller participated in the Festival of Speed in 2007.

It is not only very old cars, prototypes or record cars that you come across. We also saw the Jordan 191 F1 from 1991 in which Michael Schumacher made his debut in Formula 1. The debut lasted only 300 metres…

Prototypes

As special prototypes we saw the 1998 Audi R8R LMP prototype as well as the 2009 Toyota TF110 Formula 1 protoype.

No, above you see no DVD as most of us know it. What you do see is a Delfosse Versuch Düsseldorf that was built in 1947. The car had a 500cc two-cylinder engine from Zündapp that produced 45 hp. The racer was designed by Curt Delfosse and weighed just 300kg. At the end of 1948 it was sold to the Austrian Otto Mathé who was a friend of Delfosse. The name Otto Mathé is mentioned several times in the museum. A total of six cars built by the one-armed racing driver are on display.

The Otto Mathé Fetzenflieger is also linked to Mathé. Whether you like it or not, you cannot miss it. This special snow and ice racer is so unusual that it is a real eye-catcher. Equipped with an air-cooled 1500cc Porsche engine, Mathé achieved no less than four victories in the “Prof. H. c. Ferdinand Porsche Memorial Race’s. If you know that Mathé lost his right arm in a motorbike accident in 1934, this makes his victories all the more special.

Industrial (r)evolution

A entire area has been set up to give you an insight into working conditions in the automobile industry from the 1940s to the 1960s. This is richly illustrated with photos and files. Just like everywhere else in the museum, this room has been designed with the greatest care.

There is also an adjoining room where you can find mainly car memorabilia. Trophy cups, posters, overalls, tools, etc.

Car Depot

Officially, this space is a place where events are organised. However, when there are no events, cars are sometimes exhibited here. In this case, we were lucky because in the aftermath of the corona pandemic, not too many events are organised yet.

Above is the original ‘Herbie’ from the Walt Disney film ‘The Love Bug’. The car is from 1963 and has been rebuilt partly thanks to funds from the Walt Disney foundation.

The Porsche 356/2-021 Gmünd-Coupe was also on display in this exhibition area. This is one of the oldest Porsche 356/2 series. The car was once sold to the son-in-law of an Austrian businessman. The price at the time was 66,000 Austrian shillings. That was more than six times the annual income of the Austrian workman!

At the time of our visit, this exhibition space was filled with mainly VW and Porsche models. Nothing wrong with that, although a bit more variation would not have been a bad thing.

In an adjacent room, we came across completely different machines. Above you can see the TCA Formula Junior race car. The name TCA comes from Trips-Clotti-Auto Union and had an engine with 2981cc cylinder capacity. The combination of its low weight (364kg) and 90hp resulted in a speed of over 220km/h.