Over 50 years ago, Porsche commissioned a perfect scale replica of a 911 Targa from a model builder. The exquisitely detailed model was hand-built from scratch over a period of over 1,200 hours.
The model was built by Elmar Robmayer, who was chosen for the job after a member of the Porsche club saw a model ship that he had built on display at the Württembergischer Yacht Club in Lindau on Lake Constance. A small brass plaque showed the name and address of the model maker, leading to a phone call from Porsche.
Robmayer is a virtuoso craftsman who trained as a mechanic and loved to build things. He had previously built a model of the 911 Coupe, but the Targa posed him with the additional challenge of adding a full interior, as well as a set of Fuchs wheels that can be removed with a set of bolts – just like the real deal.
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Something like this could easily be built today with the aid of a 3D printer, but Robmayer didn’t have one in 1968 because they hadn’t been invented yet. Instead, he built a two-piece mold out of wood, which was then filled with epoxy resin to make the body. The gauges were made by taking photographs of real gauges and shrinking them to the correct size, while the textured part of the dashboard was made from the sole of a shoe.
The level of detail is immense and would be difficult to distinguish from a full-sized 911 when viewed in photographs. Robmayer charged the automaker 10 Deutschmark an hour to build it, and it took him a staggering 1,257.75 hours, for a total of 12,577.5 DM. In today’s money, that’s around $7,000 USD.
Robmayer is 80 years old now, but he still remembers the model as if he built it yesterday, and recalls being so nervous about presenting the model to the executives that he smoke a pack of cigarettes before arriving, and another pack after leaving.
The model returned to Robmayer’s workshop after its time with Porsche (along with a 1:5 scale 914 replica), but after many years he decided that it should return to the brand’s possession to preserve his legacy.
“At some point I stood here in my little realm and thought, what would happen to these treasures once I was gone?” remembers Robmayer. “I knew at once: I had to call Porsche. The models had to return home to Zuffenhausen.”
The 911 Targa was restored to its former glory and will be displayed at the ’50 Years of Porsche Design’ exhibit at the brand’s museum in Zuffenhausen.
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