
The silver Spyder that Ferdi is driving was originally used for club races in the USA before coming to Austria, where Wolfgang acquired it for his collection.įather and son share a love of cars. Named after its inventor, the Fuhrmann engine was Porsche’s first drive system designed specifically for racing. The 1.5-litre boxer engine’s 110 hp made the car a superior performer in the mid-1950s. The result of this streamlined quality is a weight of only around 600 kilograms. Wolfgang Porsche, his son Ferdinand, and two Porsche 550 Spyders on the Großglockner High Alpine Road “This is just the second time that I’ve driven a 550 Spyder,” says Ferdi Porsche (“Please call me Ferdi, not Ferdinand,” he hastens to say.) “Even at 50 km/h it seems like you’re moving fast because you’re basically sitting in the open air.” It feels a little cool, “but that just adds to the experience.” As do the spartan furnishings of this uncompromising racer, with its thin bucket seats and low front windshield that can barely block the airstream. Today, Schüttgut is the residence of Wolfgang Porsche.įather and son have enjoyed driving the pair of historical racing cars through hairpins with nicknames like Piffalpe and Hexenküche. “It was on one of those drives that he discovered the Schüttgut estate.” Located around 35 kilometres away in the town of Zell am See, the Alpine farmstead has symbolised the family’s deep connection with the region south of Salzburg for decades. Wolfgang Porsche over breakfast on the restaurant’s terrace. “My grandfather Ferdinand began the family custom of doing test-drives here on the mountain, and my father Ferry kept the custom going,” says Dr. “My grandfather began the family custom of doing test-drives here.” Dr. This is the first time they have driven two 550 cars together up the Großglockner High Alpine Road, even though the stretch essentially serves as the family’s home course. We enjoy a real premiere: two Porsches – Wolfgang and Ferdinand, father and son – sit at the respective wheels of the two Porsche cars.
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Stopping at the Fuschertörl restaurant at an elevation of 2,407 metres, the two drivers take off the wool caps that protect them from the icy wind. Both the drivers and the cars are very clearly in their element on this challenging mountain stretch. Two Porsche 550 Spyders – a rare pair of the first Porsche sports cars to write racing history in the 1950s. As they approach, the sound of their engines reverberates up from the valley, as unique as their contours, which appear ever more sharply in the morning light. Still at a distance, two light-coloured dots dance their way through the corners with elegance and speed.
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Below the Edelweißspitze, one of Europe’s most spectacular roads – the Großglockner High Alpine Road – winds its way up the mountain in a series of hairpin turns.

But the rising late summer sun is already bathing the highest peak in the Glockner Group in warm light. A landscape like a painting, which has impressed viewers for hundreds of years.Īt seven in the morning, the air up here is still cool.

A seemingly untouched high Alpine landscape stretches out below it. What a panorama: at an altitude of 2,571 metres, the Edelweißspitze offers a magnificent view of the Großglockner, Austria’s highest peak.
