The 21st Porsche Carrera Abarth GTL that wasn't one
04/08/2012
A few years ago, Jürgen Barth asked me to proofread the chapter on the Porsche 356 in his new edition of the Porsche book. As before, I changed the production quantity for the Porsche Abarth GTL from 21, which Barth had noted, to 20. He immediately called me and insisted that he had the production records for 21 cars built. I defended myself by saying that I had all the chassis data records that Porsche had delivered to Abarth at the time and that only 20 had been delivered. I asked him to send me the file card for number 1021, which I had not seen before.
After examining the card carefully, it was clear to me that this vehicle was certainly not an Abarth, at least I had never heard of an Abarth GTL with a spray top. The first owner, a Mr. Folker Rieflin, was listed with a "c/o" address, which seemed strange, because normally a Porsche buyer could certainly afford his own home back then. I imagined that perhaps this was a young Porsche engineer who had made his first practical tests with this vehicle. So I called Jürgen Barth and asked him if he recognized this name somehow. He vaguely remembered the name and we agreed that it must have been a Porsche employee. I next turned to Herbert Linge and he did indeed remember Mr. Rieflin, who had worked at Porsche in Stuttgart for three or four years as a young engineer and then moved to Porsche America and later to Volkswagen in the USA.
I made a few calls and went through my connections in Wolfsburg and finally found Rieflin's phone number in Michigan. That same day I got Folker Rieflin on the phone and learned the whole story of chassis number 1021.
Rieflin finished his engineering degree in 1959 and joined Porsche to gain practical experience and because it was an old dream to work for Porsche. He began working in the engine department and was soon chosen to assemble the four-camshaft engines. He did this until he left Zuffenhausen. His father had been a Porsche driver for a long time and intended to buy a new car in 1960. When he looked at the new 356 B T5, he was not impressed by the design and asked his son whether another A-series convertible was available for purchase.
Unfortunately, all these vehicles had been sold, and only one replacement body, which had been ordered but not sold in August 1960, was still in stock. Folker bought this car and the racing department completed the A-Cabriolet body with a new B-mechanical part and a Super 90 engine. According to the production entry, this Porsche, which was sprayed in Heron Grey, received a variety of additional equipment such as full leather, Dunlop tires, fog lights, Speedster lettering, clock, armrests, sun visors with makeup mirrors, spray ceiling, chrome wheels, stone guard for the headlights, two Talbot mirrors, etc..
As this "hermaphrodite" did not comply with the official specification for road approval, individual approval was necessary. As the last Abarth GTLs were being registered at this time, Porsche simply used the next chassis number, i.e. 1021, to register this unique A/B S90 convertible!
In 1962, his father had an accident with the car and it ended up in the repair shop at Plant 1. As the cost of restoring it would have been too high, Folker Rieflin sold the Porsche to an employee of this repair department. He restored the car to a usable condition in his spare time and sold it on, a common way of earning a little extra cash.
Rieflin had never heard of the car since and was unaware that the car had a very special chassis number. He is now retired and restores pre-war Americans.
A few years later, chassis 1021 turned up in the USA, it had been converted to 356 B T5 after the accident. Just imagine if this car turned up at a concours, the judges would probably freak out because of the strange chassis number and send the good man home ...
Copyright color photos: Folker Rieflin
