80 Porsches, 80 years

Ottocar J. (his last name has not been revealed) leans against a new Porsche Boxster Spyder. He’s beaming, having just picked up the car from the Porsche assembly plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany.

“It is not the first time he has done this,” Porsche explains in a news release, “the Austrian collects his cars in person whenever possible. 

“I came the first time in 1977,” he’s quoted by the Porsche. “A 911 Carrera 3.0 was waiting for me then.”

That was then. Now, 43 years later, he’s collecting his 80th Porsche, this one in Miami Blue. Thus, he has met his goal, he reports, 80 Porsches by age 80. 

“For this milestone anniversary, the Porsche Community Management team joined forces with the factory collection team to come up

with something very special,” Porsche noted. “Ottocar was one of the first customers to be allowed to affix the Porsche Crest on the bonnet himself.”

There also were personal congratulations from Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of the automaker’s supervisory board.

Ottocar’s Porsche story began on the race track. 

“The Porsche cars simply flew past me on all sides,” he recalled.

So he saved his money and bought his own Porsche, a 911 E, the “oil cap model,” in Speed Yellow.

Now, he owns a 917, a 910 with a flat-8-cylinder engine, a 956, a 964 Cup car and a 904 with its original Fuhrmann engine. 

“All the cars are roadworthy and he regularly takes part in classic racing events with the 917,” Porsche adds, noting the winner’s wreath from the 2020 Ventilspiel race as it rests on the vehicle as a trophy.

Ottocar has owned 80 different Porsche cars through the years, including 9 versions of the Carrera RS. He still owns nearly 40.

“I can drive a different one every day for a month – and two at the weekends.”

A native of Vienna, Ottocar has built a separate building for his collection. He calls it his “living room.” The building includes a toy shop, an antiques store and a movie theater, the later featuring Steve McQueen’s Le Mans. There also are workshop doors, display windows, advertising signs, posters, trophies and more.

His collection includes a Jagdwagen military vehicle, an early 356 coupe with bent windscreen, a row of 930 Turbo and Trubo-look models, and more. He regularly drives nine of his cars, including a 911 R, a Type 991 911 Speedster, and two Boxster Spyders. 

The one he drives more frequently is a Type 981 Boxster Spyder.

“The sound, how it drives, its suspension, everything that it does – it is the only one of my road-legal Porsche that reminds me of my 910,” he said. 

Ottocar likes Porsche Club events. He’s a member of the Porsche Club Graz and the Classic Club Austria.

“Without the people, the cars are just cars,” he said. “It is people who breathe life into them.”

Although he has met his 80 by 80 goal, Ottocar isn’t finished. He plans to get a Cayenne to drive at least a goodly section of the Pan-American Highway, which starts in Alaska and ends at the tip of South America in Chile.

“When you are 80-years-old, you don’t think so much about the past any more but more about the future. You look forward to things that are still to come.”

His goal for the Pan-American drive is 2022, 50 years after he bought his first Porsche.

“Since I bought my first Porsche in 1972, that anniversary will be 2022,” he said. “So the circle from the past to the present is complete. Because that is how everything began.”