With Enough Documentation, a Wrecked Porsche Can Win at Pebble Beach
Originality matters for concourse car shows, but sometimes a car’s history carries much more weight. Pebble Beach proved that.
At some point in the late 1960’s, a light blue 911 was crashed at a race track. It’s the same car you see here, which just one its class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. So how does a race-wrecked 911 end up with a trophy? It’s all in the details.
This car could have been restored in any configuration. It still would send Porsche purists into a head-spin. That’s because this Porsche – a 901 – is believed to be the oldest 911 in existence. It was assumed to be lost to time.
Entered into Pebble Beach by a gentleman named Alois Ruf (yes, that one), this “Quickblau” prototype was gifted to Ruf for his 19th birthday in 1969 by his father. Quite a generous dad. But it was a wrecked car by the time it reached the teenager. Research and restoration on the car wasn’t started on the car till forty years later. All this time, Ruf never even knew what he had.
It turns out that Quickblau is prototype number 6, and had quite a pedigree. It was no other than Ferdinand Piëch‘s own company car. He sold it to some chap named Hanz Mezger. While cars like this rarely get released from Porsche’s grip, Mezger somehow managed to sell it to a German entrepreneur who proceeded to wad it up at a race track.
It is unclear how bad the wreck was, but considering Ruf didn’t touch it for 40 years, it probably wasn’t a pretty sight. With a restoration kicking off in 2019, it would be evident that this car would be brought back to as close to original condition as possible, now knowing they had just the 6th Porsche 901 ever built. Presumably the car had undergone some changes before seeing its fateful day at the race track. And all of those changes would be undone.
Two awards now belong to this car. The Art Center College of Design award, and Best In Class for Porsche’s 75th Anniversary category. Although Ruf’s restoration of this car is meticulous, we feel the car would get those awards almost regardless of its condition. Because of what it is. And that’s all it takes to have a wrecked Porsche that can still win at top level car shows.
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