ownership

[Thomas Tuccillo]

356 guys is there anyway to track down the orig. owner of ones vehicle. tried to contact previous owner[not orig owner] unsuccessfully.have letter from Stuttgart [1989] detailing all options and HOFFMAN delivery. mot. vehicle. dept in n.y. is useless. they tell me they don't go back to 1959. any real solutions? tom tuccillo-1959a cab

[Larry Brooks]

Do you have a Kardex? More than half of the ones I've gotten have the original owners name and usually their address.

[Mervyn Hyde]

On both of my Kardexes, I have the details of the original owner. Not always useful, given how old these cars are. One of mine is still alive and we keep in contact. I have received a wealth of old documentation, communication and photos. Some of the old owners' club notes and news letters are have information if you can nail down a region.

[Charles H Jacobus]

I learned the name of the original owner of my car from the Kardex. Ironically he was from the DFW area like me. He died in the early 90s.

Chuck

[Thomas Tuccillo]

larry,chuck,merv, don't have a kardex; how does one acquire one ,so after the fact? thx again, tom

[Bob Forman]

After receiving my Kardex I googled the original owner with an address in Germany (European delivery, obviously) only to find out he had passed in 1969. He was a TV personality married to an actress who is still alive in Germany. I was able to obtain the address of her agent and wrote to her via that representative. I provided a copy of the Kardex, current photo of the car and a short history as far back as I could trace it and expressed my sympathies. Hoping to hear from her with what she knew of the car and perhaps photos, I never heard back. I trust others who do this will have more luck.

[Martin Bruechle]

Dave can get you a Kardex. Send him a email with your year, model and vin and ask.

davep@koolatron.com

[Mike Smith]

Dave can get you a Kardex. Send him a email with your year, model and vin and ask.

All this on-line advertising will eventually get the doors closed!!!!

[Bob Kittel]

Some of these cars were sold by the dealership from the lot and so the Kardex would give the name of the dealer? Note that this is a question not a statement of fact.

[Al Zim]

Cars purchased new from Porsche are and WERE expensive. When I started college teaching in 1968 I was one of the highest paid starting individuals when the college opened because I was a PhD. candidate. My yearly salary would not purchase a 911. So it was with the 356 cars. In 1958 a speedster could easily be a good down payment on a large house. The people that purchased these car were usually well to do, older with well paying jobs. They were older! If you were 30 in 1964 when you purchased your car, them you would be 84 now. If you are looking for a person that was 30 year old in 1959 that person will be 89, and possibly not on earth. If you were looking for a someone the census data for that decade would probably be the best starting point. al zim

[Charles H Jacobus]

Yes, my used 4 year old 356 normal was costing me the equivalent of $650 / month in 1967 and my total salary was $4,000 per year.

Chuck

[Bob Kittel]

My 64 in 64 was about 175 a month through my credit union. I was single and doubled up on my payments, after a 1000 down I paid it off in a year.

[Charles H Jacobus]

You had a much better job than I did at that point.

Chuck

[Larry Brooks]

After receiving my Kardex I googled the original owner with an address in Germany (European delivery, obviously) only to find out he had passed in 1969. He was a TV personality married to an actress who is still alive in Germany. I was able to obtain the address of her agent and wrote to her via that representative. I provided a copy of the Kardex, current photo of the car and a short history as far back as I could trace it and expressed my sympathies. Hoping to hear from her with what she knew of the car and perhaps photos, I never heard back. I trust others who do this will have more luck.

I've done the same thing, sometimes successfully and other times a near miss. My 63 Cab Kardex showed me the name of the original Portland owner, but he had died about the same time I bought the car 12 years ago ( I got the Kardex 5-6 years ago). But I was able to contact his son who filled in many details about the car. Interestingly, his son lives a few blocks from EASY in the Bay area now.

I did much better with the Kardex for my 1968 911S Soft Window Targa. It showed the original owner and the small Bavarian town he lived it. I got email addresses for three likely candidates and one of them was him. He spoke very little english, but we relayed my questions and his answers through a Porsche friend who lived in the same small town. Then when I sold the Targa a couple years later his Porsche friend's wife bought the car for her husband for Christmas. Yes, an incredible Christmas gift!

I visited them on my last trip to Germany and hoped to meet the original owner, they were going to surprise him at their annual rally which I participated in. But at the last minute he canceled on the rally because of a business trip. Walter Rohrl, who usually participates, had to cancel too. So he was in very good company. Still had a great time and visited three of my old Porsches in Germany (visited my old 60 and 61 356B's at another friends place).

[Al Zim]

Yesterday (2018 01 03) one of my customers called and managed to track down the owner of his 356. through the Kardex he found our that he was a Diplomat for Germany stationed in France. In WWII he was an Ober Lieutenant in the NAZI army training demolition squads. I have had some interesting cars, and often would have liked them to tell me their history. al zim