1989 Volkswagen T3 Doka Ex-Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche

When a classic car auction house is offered a diverse vehicle of impeccable provenance it must treat such a consignment with reverence and respect. This Volkswagen T3 double cab pick-up truck may be a strange offering by an auction house noted for selling sports cars, but the history of Volkswagen intertwines so beautifully with its first owner, and our record of selling Porsche that the story must first be told.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, affectionately nicknamed "Butzi" meaning baby in German, was the son of "Ferry" Porsche, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, and the German-Austrian designer is best-known for the first Porsche 911. the car that secured Porsche as the titan of automotive design and the famous silhouette still lives on today. Whilst his grandfather and father were engineers, he was more involved in working out the appearance of a product and he never thought of himself as an artist or designer, but more as a technically talented craftsman.

When it came to the design of the coachwork for the company's most successful car so far, the 911, Ferdinand Alexander was heavily involved, as it was a family tradition that every generation of the Porsche family took part in the genesis of a new car. Ferry Porsche was keen that the356's should provide more space and comfort in the cabin, though he was also cited as saying, "Comfort is not what makes driving fun, it is actually the opposite."

After it was decided to change the company's legal structure and to keep the family out of its management, Ferdinand Alexander founded his own industrial design company, Porsche Design, in Stuttgart, Germany, which was later moved to Zell am See, Austria, where the Porsche family owns an estate called Schüttgut. It was for this estate that Ferdinand Alexander bought this T3 Doka double cab pick-up on 12th December 1989. Used on the estate for various purposes it has the distinction of being one of the few cars registered privately in the Porsche's family name rather than the company's. Supporting paperwork clearly lists Ferdinand Alexander Porsche as the first owner. Butzi Porsche died at the age of 76 on the 5th April 2012, but his designs live on.

When our vendor, a Porsche racing driver, who has long-standing links with the Porsche family in Austria, bought the car in 2014 he undertook a fully comprehensive bare metal restoration, with sample pictures below. After a restoration that took over 700 hours at his Porsche racing garage, the car was reborn and presents superbly today. Showing some 141,000 kilometres it has done virtually no travelling since. What a super opportunity to add a quirky and historically significant vehicle to the ultimate Porsche collection.