interesting 1952 engine 527 supplement typed sheet

[Ned Gorski]

Thought this was cool and worth sharing.
ebay find
pink letter about the 1952 356 porsche
it was included with a 1952 brochure and technical supplement i purchased.. probably over paid, but i wanted an early original yellow brochure for my collection... i was told this is what you got when you inquired about purchasing a new porsche back in 1952.
but i would think the pink papers are a letter from the factory to the dealer about the changes between 51 and 52..


Regards Ned
55 cab
56 coupe

[Drew Ogden]

Thanks for sharing that.

All of the information I have seen so far indicated that 527 motors used only 40 pbic carbs. Looks like they substituted the 32mm carbs for improved performance before the end of the brief 527 run??

[Alan Hall]

Ned,
That is really neat! And Drew, as far as I know the 527 motors used 40pbic carbs for engines P30001 thru P30250 and 32pbi carbs for engines P30251 thru P30750.
Alan

[Brian R Adams]

That bulletin is dated 25 April, exactly three years before my date of birth, and exactly 28 years after Ella Fitzgerald was born. For what it's worth.

I wonder why they didn't use a PC and word processing software rather than a typewriter? You know, like the Texas Air National Guard apparently did in 1973.

Brian

[James Davies]

That is very cool. Thanks for sharing.

I'm looking at the November 1952 issue of Road & Track right now, and it's their first test of a Porsche. It's a 1952 model 356-4 with the VW crash box, turbo rings and 527 1500 motor with the Hirth crank. From the photo, it looks like it uses the Solex 32 carbs, as the Knecht air cleaners on them are the smaller, squat variety. So a little confirmation there in images of the text above.

Also, the May/June 1952 issue of Auto, Motor und Sport tested a 1952 bent window coupe fitted with a Type 527 1500. It had the Solex 32 carbs as well.

[James Davies]

Here's a scanned photo of the Type 527 1500 with the Solex 32 carbs. From Nov 1952 Road & Track.

[Joe Ruiz]

Here's a scanned photo of the Type 527 1500 with the Solex 32 carbs. From Nov 1952 Road & Track.

The problem with early photos Porsche uses is sometimes mis-leading. I've seen Porsche photos that have been "altered / edited" and re-used
just so they wouldn't have to go through the trouble of staging and taking another photo. I find it hard to trust factory black/white photos.
My .02 cents worth.......

[James Davies]

That was a Road & Track photo of a delivered Hoffman car in the US, not a factory photo. It was a coupe sold by Competition Motors (von Neumann) to Sam Weill.

But yes, you have to take photos in the workshop manuals with a grain of salt, as they are heavily edited in some cases for clarity, or early photos are used in later workshop manuals.

One needs to know what to look for in these photos.

[James Davies]

To add a bit more data to this thread, here's a table of an article written in Auto Age magazine in 1954 by Hoffman's chief mechanic, Karl Grassow. In it, he mentions the use of both 32 PBI and 40 PBIC carbs on the 527 engines, both with 26mm venturis. He also mentions the type 502 engine having the 32 PBI carbs with 24mm venturis and the Hirth crankshaft. And the compression ratio of all the 502, 527 and 546 engines was 7:1.