The Professional Amateur Herbert Müller
The Müller family came from the Aargau (Argovie) Kanton, which lies about 50km west of Zürich. In the mid 1930s Herbert’s father, Arthur Müller, established a metal plating business in the town of Reinach. A relatively new field, metal plating was much in demand in the war years and the company would flourish. Arthur had three children, the eldest of whom was Herbert, born in May 1940. The young Herbert, soon known as ‘der Herbie’ was always interested in wheels and soon graduated to motorcycles. But his relatively carefree childhood received a shock when he was 17: his mother took up with another man and departed, taking Herbert’s siblings with her. Herbert elected to stay to help his father and, sacrificing further studies, became involved in the metal plating business.
From bikes, he moved to cars, building himself a Formula Three car with a BSA engine while still only 16. At 20 with a competition licence he sold his various motorcycles to pay for a Cooper-Norton, and in 1961 he was 2nd in his class in the Schweizer Meisterschaft. Der Herbie was evidently talented and with support from his father, he acquired a three-year-old Porsche RSK which he drove to 2nd overall in the 1962 Swiss championship. This achievement opened doors for him: not only did he get a letter from Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche’s racing manager and talent scout, congratulating him for his success as a Privat
