An old journalist’s saying holds that children and animals always make for good stories. Hardly anyone can resist the charm of an adorable infant or the eyes of a loyal hound. Add a sports car, such as a Porsche, and you’ll automatically end up with Bernd Pennewitz and his children in the town of Lüdersfeld in the Schaumburg district of Lower Saxony. Boys prefer technology and like playing with cars, while girls are more socially attuned and like playing with dolls. Or so it’s said. Bernd Pennewitz’s daughters turn such hoary clichés on their heads: these girls drive Porsches.

Their father was an avid collector of Wiking toy cars as a boy. In 2000 he started exploring how his personal passion for model cars might be used to enhance the family’s dollhouse. Two years later, the result was a silver James Dean Porsche 550 Spyder, a miniature vehicle measuring 160 centimeters in length and powered by an electric drive. This precisely scaled and detailed replica had everything from a fold-up rear end and tiny instruments to an ignition on the right side of the wheel. Pennewitz has since become a graphic designer and runs a design agency in his chosen field of classic Porsche cars constructed at a scale of 1 to 2.3. And he’s achieved legendary status among model builders.

The Spyder was originally conceived as a one off arrangement but, encouraged by the response to his prototype, Pennewitz decided to produce an entire series. He set up a workshop at his 120-year-old farmhouse in Lüdersfeld. The only problem was that, before he could begin production as the Porsche licensing department wanted to see not just one drivable sample within three weeks, but two. Why? “To make sure I could really do what I claimed and wasn’t just a dreamer.” But as soon as he presented his little Spyder in Stuttgart, the licensing contract became a foregone conclusion. “I didn’t even have to unload the second model from my car.”

Pennewitz threw himself into his work. To help finance his start-up, he sold his real Porsche 356. The requisite technical expertise and craftsmanship were “essentially already there.” His previous work on design objects for trade fairs and marketing projects was helpful in building the car bodies. He fashioned the initial shape of the 550 Spyder’s outer shell from a block of rigid foam. “I set about cutting, grinding, cutting some more first with a chainsaw, then with ever more precise tools.” Once half of the model was shaped, he used templates to transfer it to the other half. The chassis was designed on the computer, and its components and the baseplate were laser-milled from steel and aluminum. The question of what type of drive system to use solved itself. For safety reasons, a combustion engine was out of the question. Pedals weren’t an option because the miniature Porsche was too close to the ground for kids to effectively churn their legs. Pennewitz quickly found a suitable electric motor. A lot of precision work went into getting the drive system to harmonize with the mechanics.

Pennewitz has now made more than 150 small cars, including models of the equally legendary Porsche 904 GTS. the price for one of his 356s starts at €10,000. Hence many vehicles in his fleet are probably driven on winding roads through park-like estates. Of course he has also considered the daring step of making a 911. But for that he would need a sponsor to finance all the development work, like with the 904. Pennewitz hopes to turn over his oeuvre to younger hands and is looking for someone who shares his passion and commitment. This man, who has never actually sat in one of his cars, wants to continue having fun building them. For even if Pennewitz sends his little Porsche gems from Lüdersfeld to the far corners of the earth, he ultimately makes every single one of them for himself.