Rennsport VI:
 A Collection Made in Heaven

To Porsche fans world-wide, this is THE greatest show on earth. Some of the finest cars and drivers in the world showed up to race, exhibit and leave fans in awe.


1951 Sauter Porsche /
As I was browsing the immense racing history of the Chopard Collection, taking in all the awe, I paused and remembered seeing this Porsche back in 1998 at my first Monterey Historics. From the stripped down interior to the hand painted numbering, this is the purest of racing Porsches.

Precursor to the Speedster.
In 1951, Heinrich Sauter bought Porsche chassis #10359, a 1300cc 356 Cabriolet and right away sought out Hans Klenk Karosserie to convert this chassis into a lightweight racer.

Klenk went straight to work with the Porsche factory on this design, reshaping subtle areas everywhere they could. The Sauter Porsche was created about the same time as the America Roadster, and shares some similarities. The Sauter however is lower and has many different design features, especially the door swing and position of the handle toward the front.

Along with the America Roadster, and the various Glöckler-Porsche Roadsters, these were the forefathers of the famed Speedster.

It's as exquisite of a vehicle as ever.