Last year, the beautiful 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS of Stefano Martinoli earned 1st in the “Excellences from Stuttgart” class at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705 in Italy. Located in the heart of the Bolognese hills, the Palazzo di Varignana resort was created from the restoration of an 18th-century palace and today, it offers high-end hospitality.
Stefano’s Porsche 904 Carrera GTS is obviously lightweight and powered by the famous four-cylinder engine that the Germans called “the clock” for its mechanical precision. Presented at the Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705, this car not only wrote important pages in racing history but also represents the perfect union of technical ingenuity and timeless beauty.
Interview
What is the story of the car you brought?
“I brought a Porsche 904 Carrera GTS. It’s a car I love very much for its lightness, its incredible stability, and its four-cylinder engine – the Fuhrmann Motor – which the Germans nicknamed die Uhr (the clock) because its components are so small, almost like those of a watch. It’s an extremely high-performing engine but also a complex one, requiring over 200 hours of fine-tuning by a well-trained mechanic. That said, it’s a car that was created to compete against the Ferrari Dino in the hill climb championship, and I must say Porsche found quite an effective solution.”
How long have you owned the car?
“We have owned the car since 2018. This car competed twice in the Nürburgring 1000 km, in 1964 and 1965. In ’65, driven by Udo Schütz, it finished 11th overall and 1st in the GT class. It was later acquired by a young Rudy Linz, an Austrian driver, who used it to race in the Austrian national hill climb championship — and won with this very car.”
What is special about the car?
“What I truly love about this car is its mechanics, the technical solution not only of the engine but also of the bodywork, which I consider to be brilliant on Porsche’s part. At the time, Porsche did not have the connections to secure the collaboration of the great Italian coachbuilders, who were unmatched in producing aluminum bodies. And, of course, it would certainly not have pleased the Italian manufacturers if their coachbuilders had worked for the German competition. So Porsche turned to Hankel, which at that time was still restricted by wartime conditions that prevented them from producing military aircraft. They put their expertise to use to create not something to support flight, but something that would provide downforce and lightness. They were the only ones capable of working fiberglass at an industrial level in those years, and so it was a brilliant and winning synergy.”
Was there a particular reason you wanted to own it?
“We purchased this car because, although it was designed by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, we find its design to be very similar to that of Italian cars of the 1960s — especially when looking at the rear of the car. It has an absolutely sleek line, with aerodynamics that seem almost of Italian school. It’s a mechanically precise object and one of pure, wild beauty.”
Retrospect
The Porsche 904 Carrera GTS is much more than a competition car: it’s proof of how engineering genius and the pursuit of lightness can be transformed into pure elegance. With its sleek lines, reminiscent of Italian style from the 1960s, and its mechanics precise down to the last detail, it remains an absolute icon, capable of uniting performance, design, and authentic passion.
Interview Video
Above contents © Andrea Mazzuca / Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705 / The Outlierman, reviewed and edited by Rex McAfee
