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we are mocking up some parts made by us, some original, and some NOS parts on a celette bench in preparation for our speedster project. the aim is to be able to stamp out all sheet metal parts instead of relying on handmade parts which can have major fitment variances. we are in the process of making dies/tooling for the front hinge posts for the 356 cars and they will have the variances for the different models. complete inner longitudinals are next and then the outer longitudinals, which are currently made by hand by all the suppliers. We hope to have a speedster chassis for display at Rennsport in September

Anybody, tell me why the photos are sideways?

Hurry.

If you click on them they rotate. That's an exciting project, a replica I would love to own.

Very glad to see that Mike is the one doing this. Huge asset to the 356 community.

Brad Ripley wrote:Anybody, tell me why the photos are sideways?

Certainly.
Recognizing that younger people who might be drawn to the club are web-savy, we as a club want to make sure they are welcomed with a professional web presence.
Or not.
BTW, Nice lookin' work, Mike!

Sideways or anyway --- I guess my computer is old... no amount of clicks make them the leftways.

Brad Ripley wrote:Anybody, tell me why the photos are sideways?

It's a glitch in the software when you go from the camera on your phone to posting the same picture on the forum. The trick I've learned with my I-Phone is to slightly crop the pics on my computer and then when posted it posts them right-side up. There is probably a more technical way to do it, but I'm fine using the work around.

If, if, if. If I were nearby and a bit younger I would be begging Mike for a job. I'd sweep the floors for free just to next to a project like that! I hope he is making a respectable living doing what so many of us wish we were doing now (or could do).

Well done Mike and good luck with the Speedster Project.
Just out of interest, 50 odd years ago when 356 production ceased. Did anyone buy out the tooling Jigs and Dies, etc from Porsche ? Or were they all scrapped as having no further use?
Cheers Jay

PERFECT Mile. A guaranteed success. ..........................Jim.

I have mixed feelings. Mike will do it right but I just don't like recreations. I don't like restorations of badly rusted cars either. I don't like Cobra replicas or even the aluminum continuation version. I don't like replicas of Manx or G50 motorcycles. As Fred Simeone said to my friend Harry Tidmarsh "when you are finished restoring the bodywork on my LeMans winning Jaguar I want it to be a Jaguar, not a Tidmarsh". The more original a classic is the better.

That said I wish Mike a great financial success as a reward for his support of those who need parts to restore their original cars.

I took the liberty to photoshop Mike's images right side up and cropped a little to focus on the body construction. See below.

Mike's New Speedster Body project will be a great service to the 356 community and deserves strong support. In addition to new complete bodies, many new individual body parts should become available which were not commercially viable in the past.

C J Murray wrote:I have mixed feelings. Mike will do it right but I just don't like recreations. I don't like restorations of badly rusted cars either. I don't like Cobra replicas or even the aluminum continuation version. I don't like replicas of Manx or G50 motorcycles. As Fred Simeone said to my friend Harry Tidmarsh "when you are finished restoring the bodywork on my LeMans winning Jaguar I want it to be a Jaguar, not a Tidmarsh". The more original a classic is the better.

That said I wish Mike a great financial success as a reward for his support of those who need parts to restore their original cars.

Ship of Theseus, eh? Or George Washington's axe.

Edwin Ek wrote:Ship of Theseus, eh? Or George Washington's axe.

Exactly.

In the case of Manx and G50 motorcycle recreations their existence has a negative effect on the value of the original bikes because the recreations are legal to race with vintage organizations. They are made from better materials and have superior engineering learned decades after the originals were produced. Sure they look the part but they are not "real" and of course the owners of the real bikes don't bother to race them or they just parade around the track, not being competitive. The same is happening in vintage car racing with Ford GT 40s and Daytonas. Not one single part is from an original car. Our 356s are very highly modified and benefit from some modern technology but all of the major parts are original. In our racing class we face very fast recreation Ginetta G4s. I would rather go back to racing completely modern cars than to pretend my modern recreation is vintage.

Edwin rightfully references two examples that have been the subject of philosophical debate forever. I do see a major negative point for the defense of a completely new Speedster body. No body part of such a thing was ever in contact with any body part that was built by Porsche.

The next thing is we will find out that Mike is going to use modern rust protection! What fun would that be? Blasphemy!