The Official 356Talk Forum

Andrew:

I remember your dad driving the silver Speedster on the Grand and will see if I have any photos of it to send to Leo. I also remember your dad driving a red Speedster (82985?) in an early PCA Club Race (1992 or 1993?) at Second Creek near Denver. I was in my '70 911E, and I caught up with him at the end of the back straight, just before the right-hander. I started to pass but realized somehow that he had not seen me and was starting to turn in. Luckily, I pulled back, or we'd both have had a mess on our hands! I also lusted after his beautiful black Stutz roadster!

As you know, I met Leo when he was PR chief of Mercedes-Benz of North America (now MBUSA) and I was editing The Star, the magazine of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America (even though I'm really a Porsche guy). It was fun to find photos of him in the Speedster in the recent book Racing at Solitude.

Hope you had fun at Rennsport Reunion.

Frank

Just an update on this 1958 Carrera GT Speedster. Honored to have an article on this car, chassis 84912, and on its first owner, Leo Levine, in the current issue, February 2016, of Porsche Excellence magazine. I believe it is still on the newstand now. Once you read the article, I would love to hear any comments. This is my parents car. With my father passing, now 4 years ago, I think he would be proud of the article and learning all this history we uncovered, since his passing. Thanks to Peter Linsky for writing the article, and a big thanks to Leo Levine, who was extremely helpful with sharing his racing and personal history for this article.

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Here is a picture of the cover to look for.

Honored to have the Ex-Leo Levine 1958 GT Carrera 356A “Super” Speedster displayed at Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI and displayed in the Chopard Heritage Display Tent. Here are a few pictures:

This GT Carrera “super” speedster chassis 84912 left the Porsche Factory with a super engine #82309 installed in it. When Leo Levine sold the car in 1960, the next owner immediately took out Super engine 82309 and put another four cam Carrera engine in the car for European racing. We had a 1958 super 1600 engine built up, by Steve Schmidt of Honest Engines, for the car with Abarth exhaust (as Leo was given an Abarth exhaust from the Porsche Factory right after the 1959 Nürburgring 1000km that he raced as co-driver with Pedro Rodriguez. Pictures of this Super Engine are below.
Although this GT Carrera “super” speedster chassis 84912 left the Porsche Factory with a super engine, it originally had Carrera four cam 692/0 engine #91015 installed in it. Engine #91015 left the factory installed in chassis 84908. This engine is currently installed in 84908, and was sold by Jerry Seinfeld at auction a few years ago, so we do not expect to be able to expect to ever get the original engine back.

There were only 20 engines in the run of 692/0 engines, so they are extremely hard to find. We could not find one, so about a year ago, we made the decision to build up this 1958 Super engine.

However, we just found 692/0 engine number 91008. As a result, we have made the decision to build this engine and re-unite a four cam engine with 84912. Jeff Adams of Speedsport Tuning in Connecticut and his team are currently building this engine.

As a result of building this new four cam, we now have a freshly built 1958 super engine that was just finished. If anyone has a need and an interest, please PM me. (Sorry if this is in the wrong place about this super engine being available. The post is meant to be about the history and build for 84912.)

Here are some pictures of four cam 91008:

Andrew - you should have the rollbar repainted silver as it came from the factory, like your picture from 1959 with Leo racing shows it. And obviously it’s a different shape as it was used to race later with braces etc - which you might consider changing back to original if you aren’t racing it anymore.

Talk about a wealth of knowledge. You guys are amazing. ....Jim.

Sorry for the delay, with posting on the engine rebuild. We just finished the 4 cam engine 91008 with speed sport tuning and Installed it in the 84912. We also had a reunion with Leo Levine with the car, once the engine was installed.

Beautiful engine Andrew.

Two other thoughts / questions:

1. You might think about removing the side view mirror as it wasn’t that way in 1959? Especially as they aren’t that functional.

2. You don’t have the cold air boxes a GT Carrera would have shipped with but the push rod GT’s did not. Are you thinking of adding them?

Lookin good Andrew! I like the "Spyder spiegel" too.....my 62 GT Coupe had one and so did my 57GT Speedster.......Bill

bil brown wrote: ↑Sat Oct 17, 2020 10:25 am Lookin good Andrew! I like the "Spyder spiegel" too.....my 62 GT Coupe had one and so did my 57GT Speedster.......Bill

Were yours from the factory Bill?

I think a lot of them were added in the 1960’s as they were a popular aftermarket accessory. My 1959 had one too but it wasn’t stock from the factory, so I removed it. They were an option so would be on the kardex. Andrew’s isn’t either as you can see in the 1959 racing photo.

I only suggest it if he wants to go fully original as from factory or somewhere in between.

They are good looking, not very functional, and I personally like the lines of the speedster without. All personal taste and what period to finish the restoration at. Andrew can’t go wrong either way!

I have seen GT cars where the mirror was delivered separately. Probably to allow the owner to mount it in their preferred position

When my father restored the car in 1991, he did not know the history of the car with Leo Levine. During the restoration, he made the decision to install the Spyder mirror, and the Carrera script. As you can see from these old photos, Leo did have a mirror from the beginning, but not a Spyder one. There was no Carrera script on the back of the car. And during the restoration of the rear lid, there were some cold air box covers made. I will have to look around to see if we can find those cold air box cover parts at my fathers house.

I added the mirror to my Speedster, but my Coupe had "Spyder spiegel" on the kardex.

Here is a picture of Leo Levine with the 84912 at the 2014 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion