After three years of apprenticeship at the coachbuilding firm Drögmöller in Heilbronn, Kurt Brixner began working at Porsche as a technical draftsman in 1957. His boss was Erwin Komenda, one of the fathers of the VW Beetle. One of his first tasks was to design the coat hook of the Porsche 356 so that it wouldn't injure the occupants in the event of an accident. Brixner also worked on the front hood of diesel tractors. Since "Kurtle," as he is affectionately called by his friends, had his workplace in the design studio of Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche and Gerhard Schröder in the former Reutter building, he also gained insights into the development of the Porsche 904 and thus learned about the advantages of plastic car bodies.
In 1967, he began designing his first Spyders in Stuttgart-Weilimdorf. He earned his living primarily with plastic add-on parts for Porsche road cars. Especially for the transaxle Porsches, he manufactured various front masks from the mid-1970s onwards, but also fender flares for, for example, the Rallye Monte Carlo 924 of Jürgen Barth and Roland Kussmaul in 1980 and 1981.
Because closed cars were too boring for Brixner, and sports prototypes were the coolest thing back then, he started building a spyder. Besides, the regulations for this type of vehicle allowed the most freedom/. He received help from designer Achim Storz, who at that time was also assisting Heinz Fuchs with the development of his first Formula Vee single-seater. Working day and night, they created a plaster model of the first Spyder. The NSU TTS chassis was ideally suited as the floor assembly, supplemented by a lightweight tubular frame. The modifications and the realization of the many details took months.
The planned presentation date at the Heilbronn Hill Climb was fast approaching, and even his friend Siegfried Spieß only finished my engine the evening before the race. The installation then took until two in the morning. Fortunately, the four-cylinder engine, with over 100 hp, started right up. The rest happened in fast forward: brakes, clutch, and suspension could only be tested at the event itself. Brixner's spirited driving quickly landed him in a top position overall, attracting considerable attention and securing his first customer.
In 1968, the manufacturer built a total of four racing cars, all of which were immediately sold. This led to the creation of the first sales brochure, titled "Spieß-Brixner Spyder."
This combination of Brixner's coachbuilding and Spieß's engine manufacturing proved to be a recipe for success for many years to come. Brixner competed in approximately 100 races with his fiberglass racing cars. And the Spyders were always competitive, even against Abarth and Porsche.
