1957 Porsche 356A

Description

1957 Porsche 356A Coupe LHD

The 356 was the first production automobile to carry the Porsche badge, being conceived in 1948 by “Ferry” Porsche, son of the company’s founder. Although it shared a number of features with its cousin, the VW Beetle, the 356 was specifically designed with speed in mind and so featured a completely new Porsche-designed chassis and 2-seater body, which was significantly lighter and more agile. When these weight reductions were combined with the new Porsche’s uprated engine, the 356 delivered vastly improved performance compared to the Beetle.

Over 17 years of production, the 356 would be progressively uprated and four main series of car can be identified charting this evolution. The earliest, or Pre-A, models were built from 1950 to 1955. These were followed in 1956 by the 356A (divided again into Type 1 and Type 2 variants) which ran to 1959 when the B series was introduced. The final C series saw out the last years of production from mid-1963 to 1965. Within these series a number of different body styles were available including the Cabriolet, the Speedster and the Coupe.

The Coupe offered here is a highly original LHD example that is finished in its correct and very rare Porsche Orange paint, a special order colour, and displays a number of features that are restricted to the later 356A Type 1, or Type “1 1/2”, cars. Originally delivered new to the USA it remained the property of two brothers for the majority of its life and spent many decades in dry storage in Arizona, a fact that no doubt contributed to its excellent degree of preservation. More recently the Porsche was imported into the UK where it received a full professional restoration at the hands of noted specialists Sportswagen and PR Services. The work was comprehensive and involved completely stripping and repainting the body, rebuilding the original engine, gearbox and other mechanicals and fully re-trimming the car, which included sourcing and fitting the correct German square-weave carpets. During the course of the work it was decided to replace the original roller-bearing crankshaft with a much more reliable normal crankshaft, although the original unit was retained. The engine work also included uprated pistons and cams, a new aluminium high performance oil cooler and reconditioning of the original date-stamped zenith carburettors.

The car now presents in excellent restored condition and yet pleasingly retains a very high proportion of its original fabric including the engine and gearbox, whose numbers match the factory records, almost all of the bodywork and chassis, the mechanicals and even the correct date-stamped wheels and correct hub caps (not shown in photographs). It is accompanied by an extensive history file and is eligible for many prestigious events worldwide, including the Mille Miglia. Please contact us for further details.

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