From the beginning, Porsche and motorsports have been inseparable; it is impossible to imagine a time when Porsches did not compete in, and win, everything from top-level races to amateur events globally.

This is not to say that Porsche always had the resources to fund a world-beating works team, however.

In its earliest years, while Porsche was still establishing itself, the automaker counted on outsiders to explore the inherent performance potential of its offerings.

Walter Glöckler was one such outsider.

A Frankfurt, Germany-based Volkswagen and Porsche dealer from the very early days, he had been a motorcycle racer before World War II; to satisfy this need for speed, Glöckler and engineer Hermann Ramelow constructed a series of racing specials beginning in the late 1940s.

The first used no Porsche components, but that changed as Glöckler recognized the value of Porsche’s engineering.

Watchful eyes in Gmünd, then Zuffenhausen, paid close attention to the so-called Glöckler-Por...