Hamburg Museum Hides 10 Wild Car FindsAngus Mackenzie - MotorTrendEvery so often you stumble across a car museum that's entirely unexpected, both in terms of where it is and what it contains. The Automuseum Prototyp in Hamburg, Germany, is one of them. The privately-owned collection is tucked away in one of the lovely old brick industrial buildings that survived the fierce World War II bombing of Hamburg, a city that has been a major trading port for more than 830 years. It's a small grouping—roughly 50 cars—that's almost exclusively focused on post-war vehicles, but the Prototyp includes some rare German production car prototypes, as well as a selection of German-built racing cars. Here are some of the highlights.1) VW 39Photo credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendYou'd expect German car museum to have a Volkswagen Beetle. But this Beetle is very special. It's not a Volkswagen, but a Porsche, one of just 14 prototypes to have been built in Porsche's Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen plant in 1939 and the only one to have survived the war. This car, chassis number 1-00003, was fitted with an engine developed for the ultra-aerodynamic Porsche Type 64 Berlin-Rome race car that produced 32 hp (instead of the standard 23.5 hp), helping it achieve a top speed of 90 mph. It was frequently driven by Ferdinand Porsche between Zuffenhausen, the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg (then still under construction) and Berlin.2) Porsche Type 356/2 Gmünd CoupePhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendThe first 52 Porsches ever made were built in a converted sawmill in the town of Gmünd, Austria. And this is one of them. Built from 1948 to 1950, the Gmünd Porsches—the remote location was originally chosen by Ferdinand Porsche in 1944 to escape Allied bombing raids on Stuttgart—all had handmade aluminum bodies. The 356s built in Zuffenhausen from April 1950 onwards had steel bodies made by Stuttgart-based coachbuilder Reutter, which Porsche would acquire in 1963. The Gmünd 356/2 weighed between 1,360 and 1,420 pounds, almost 290 pounds less than the steel bodied car, which enabled its 40 hp engine to push it to almost 90 mph.3) BMW Tropen-Isetta CabrioPhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendBMW bet big on expensive luxury cars while Germany was rebuilding after the chaos and destruction of World War II, and by the mid-1950s it was losing money. To survive, it did a deal in 1954 with Italian company Iso to build a version of the Isetta bubble car. BMW would build more than 160,000 of the cheap and cheerful Isettas until production ended in 1962. But only 12 examples of this "Tropical Isetta" cabrio, a version destined for South Africa, were ever made. This one has the "big block" 295cc engine introduced in 1957 (earlier Isettas had 247cc engines). It produced 13 hp and could take the baby BMW to a giddy 55 mph.4) Goliath GP700 SportPhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendAdvertisementAdvertisementGoliath was founded in 1928 by Carl Borgward, who also built cars under his own name after World War II, most notably the Borgward Isabella sold in the U.S. between 1955 and 1960. The 1952 GP700 Sport, with bodywork by Berlin coachbuilder Rometsch, is based on the Goliath GP700 sedan launched in 1950. It has a transverse mounted two-cylinder two-stroke engine that drives the front wheels. Bosch direct fuel-injection—making its debut years before the system appeared in the Mercedes-Benz 300SL—boosted the output of its 845cc powerplant to 29 hp. The GP700 Sport was also one of the first cars in the world with a full synchromesh four-speed manual transmission. Just 26 were built.5) Meyers ManxPhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendA little bit of California in the heart of Hamburg. This Meyers Manx was built in San Diego in 1967 using hardware from a 1960 Beetle, and as Manx creator Bruce Meyers did not begin fitting ID tags to his kits until 1968, it's known as a "pre-tag" model. Light, simple, and fun to drive, at home cruising along the beach or bouncing through the desert, the Meyers Manx nailed the late '60s California pop-culture zeitgeist. B.F. Meyers & Co would build 5,280 kits between 1965 and 1971 but stopped making the Manx after losing a court case in which the judge ruled the design could not be patented. By that time, an estimated 250,000 Manx clones had been sold.6) Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0Photo credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendThis Porsche 911 3.0 RSR is one of 15 built for the inaugural IROC (International Race of Champions) series held from October 1973 to February 1974. That this Sahara Beige car was put on pole position for the opening race by 1972 and 1974 F1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi would normally give this car plenty of provenance (he would be pushed to the pack of the grid after arriving late for the race day driver's meeting). But what really makes it one of the more interesting 911 RSRs in existence is that it was subsequently owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.7) Porsche 356 1500 S Cabriolet DeluxePhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendThanks to the effort and intuition on New York importer Max Hoffman, sales of Porsche's little 356 in the U.S. were steadily growing by the early 1950s. In Porsche circles, Hoffman, who would also get Mercedes-Benz to build the 300SL and BMW the gorgeous 507 roadster, is best known for coming up with the stripped-down 356 Speedster in 1954. This U.S.-market 356 1500 S Cabriolet Deluxe predates that car by a year, but Hoffman's influence is apparent in the fitment of the 70 hp S engine in place of the standard 55 hp flat-four, and luxury interior fittings like leather seats and thicker carpets. Just 394 were built.8) VW PlattenwagenPhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendAdvertisementAdvertisementThe VW Plattenwagen—the name means flat-bed truck—was cobbled together by Volkswagen factory workers in 1946 to transport parts and equipment around sprawling Wolfsburg plant. Built on a Beetle platform (the driver sat over the engine), this rudimentary beast would inspire one of the most significant Volkswagens ever built. Having seen a Plattenwagen shuttling parts around Wolfsburg in 1947, Dutch VW importer Ben Pon saw the potential for a road-going commercial vehicle and famously sketched out a forward control van with Beetle suspension and rear-mounted engine and transmission. The idea was put into production in 1950 as the VW Transporter Type 1, a 1958 version of which can be seen in the background.9) Mercedes-Benz 280 GEPhoto credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendIt's not the landau roofline or iconic BBS alloy wheels that make this 1983 Mercedes-Benz 280 GE interesting. It's who owned it. This G-Wagen was purchased in Berlin by an undercover company and sent to Berlin coachbuilder Rometsch, who converted it into a hunting vehicle. Total cost of the car and conversion was about $160,000. The car was then surreptitiously shipped to its wealthy purchaser, East Germany's communist dictator Erich Honecker, who used it to hunt around Berlin. All Mercedes-Benz nomenclature—every three-pointed star and all lettering—was removed from the car, ostensibly so no-one would know Honecker was riding around in a rig made in the decadent west.10) Jordan 191Photo credit: Angus Mackenzie - MotorTrendThis car has a special place in my heart. Thirty-five years ago, I stood at Eau Rouge and watched a young Michael Schumacher put this Jordan 191 seventh on the grid for the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix at the fast and challenging Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. It was Schumacher's first time behind the wheel of an F1 car, he'd never raced at Spa before, and the pretty Jordan was regarded as a mid-field performer at best. Sadly, the Jordan's clutch broke on the first lap of the race. But I knew I had already witnessed an extraordinary talent at work. Schumacher would go on to win 91 grands prix and seven world championships. But he never drove the Jordan again, signing a deal to drive for the Benetton F1 team the following week.