Founded by the Austrian engineer Wolfgang Denzel in 1948, Denzel Automobiles was an early Porsche competitor in post-war Europe. Constructing a first car with his friend Hubert Stroinigg, Wolfgang borrowed key design prompts from the Volkswagen Beetle-derived Kübelwagen and built the body from resin and textile fibres. Dubbed “the Volkswagen WD Equipment”, it finished 1st in its class in the 1949 Austrian Alpine Rally.

Denzel built a further five examples from 1949 to 1952, at which point the Series II was launched, which featured a chassis made by the Denzel Company and engines from Porsche’s popular 356. WD Denzels would go on to compete in rallies and races across Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Rallye Monte-Carlo and Tour de France Automobile.

In the early 1950s, Denzel had a chance meeting with Portuguese aristocrat Antonio Guedes Herédi, who fell in love with the Austrian’s concept and decided to become a main agent for the cars, founding Auto Portuguesa of Lisbon.

Chassis number DK28 was one of the handful of WD Denzel 1300s supplied new by Auto Portuguesa. This example was registered on 15 April 1954 to first owner Mr Joaquim Filipe Nogueira with the licence plate “FH-20-49”. Nogueira was a famous Portuguese racing driver and, throughout his career, drove a Ferrari 225 S Vignale Spider, Ferrari 750 Monza, Ferrari 250 MM, Porsche 550 Spider, and a Maserati 300S. Nogueira, a serious competitor, found success with his new Denzel, competing in 13 events in 1954. The first outing, the Rali a Aveiro, took place just one day after the Denzel was road registered and he finished in 1st place. Competing in the support race at the 1954 Tangier Grand Prix and finishing 2nd, Nogueira went on to secure various class wins and overall victories throughout the 1954 season. A full race chart of chassis DK28’s results is available to view on file.

For 1955, Nogueira went on to race a Porsche 550 Spyder and a host of Ferraris. By February, he had parted ways with his Denzel, selling it to Renato Azevedo. Mr Azevedo appears to have kept chassis DK28 for road use, with no known race results for 1955. Changing hands again in January 1956, the Denzel was acquired by José Teixeira, who had racing driver Daniel Magalhaes drive with great success for the season. Magalhaes competed in three known events, claiming 3rd in Class in the Praia de Rocha, then 1st in Class in the Rali Emancipação. Come the end of 1956, Magalhaes had purchased chassis DK28 and he continued to race in 1957, with two known results on file. Having retained the Denzel for a number of years, he sold the car to fellow Portuguese racer Rui de Lemos on 24 October 1961. This Denzel remained in Portugal throughout the 1960s and every owner is documented up to 14 January 1999, when chassis DK28 was registered by the vendor.

Remaining in his care for over 27 years, this 1954 WD Denzel 1300 presents an extremely rare opportunity to own one of the 65 examples of Wolfgang Denzel’s answer to the Porsche 356. This example has fabulous Portuguese period competition history and above all else, fully known ownership from new. Furthermore, the car still sports its first registration plate that was issued back in May 1954. At some point, the car’s engine has been replaced with a factory-exchange unit, a common modification for air-cooled motors and especially for those that have been raced.

Opportunities like this are rare. This Denzel is highly eligible to compete in a variety of historic competition events, such as Tour Auto and Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique.