Hey Folks,
While scanning old publications today I came across this ad. I am curious to know which car this might be. Of course the author could not be correct in his assumption. This is from a 1965 Road and Track magazine. Any one have any thoughts or history on this listing.
Thanks,
Bruce
It's a tough one and the thing that needs to be agreed upon is what constitutes the first.
Here is what I mean. The "#1 Roadster" started life as a "VW Sport Roadster" according to its design drawings. It was presented to VW as a way for the Porsche firm to get more royalties for their fledgling company. They were already getting royalties for the Beetle and wanted VW to build the car and pay them even more money. Heinz Nordhoff said "NO" and they brought the car back to Gmund, slapped their name on it and decided to build cars. The 356/2 cars were completely different because the roadster was designed for high volume construction so they went back to the drawing board and came up with the shape that is now recognizable and famous.
Now it gets interesting. Porsche did not finish cars in order of chassis number. In fact, the Gmund cars had chassis numbers, body numbers and engine numbers. There is little documentation as to which order they were built. Chuck Stoddard will tell you that his car was probably the first Porsche because the cars finished before his were cabriolets built at Glaser. He probably knows more than most that are still around so who am I to question his logic.
So, you have to define what constitutes "first". If just the first one with the Porsche name on it I suppose you could go with the #1 Roadster, the factory sticks to that fairy tale even though it started life as a VW. And what about the beautiful 60k10? The survivor has the Porsche name on it, doesn't it?
How about the first car built that started life being called a Porsche? Well, that would be one of the 356/2 cars. But what if it was finished at another coach builder's shop like the Glaser cabs were. Does that make the first 356/2 finished at the Gmund shop the "first" Porsche? And if so, is it the earliest chassis number, the earliest body number or just the first one that was finished completely?
Opinions will vary and I doubt you'll ever have the answer, especially as long as the factory calls the #1 Roadster the "first" car.
Very good information Sebastian,
I am looking at these old classifieds, to pick out any serial # or build dates. Apparently serials # were not important to most people back in the 50's and 60's. Serials numbers don't start showing up much in the classifieds until our club came into existence in the 1970's. It's fun to try and find a nugget of history on early 356's.
I guess what I meant to say was that the 356/2 was better suited for low volume production and that is why they changed the design. This was according to Karl Ludvigsen in Excellence Was Expected.
Dan Epperly wrote:That San Diego address for the Carerra is walking distance from my house, I ought to walk by and see if He still has it.
One of Adam's more clever ideas in his early days was to look at these old ads and contact them. I recall that he wrote about this in the magazine and that he actually made contact with people that still had the cars, so you never know.
Dan Epperly wrote:That San Diego address for the Carerra is walking distance from my house, I ought to walk by and see if He still has it.
One of Adam's more clever ideas in his early days was to look at these old ads and contact them. I recall that he wrote about this in the magazine and that he actually made contact with people that still had the cars, so you never know.
Yes, but I have to give credit to the recently late Jim Barrington who did this to amass a large collection of 4-cam parts back in the day. I've done it a few times in recent history and it's worked with good success, though the post office hates me, hundreds of letters come back, but you would be surprised what an old fashioned letter will uncover. Most recent find with a letter, 55 Continental Cab.
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Check out my Barn Find column in the Registry magazine, always looking for good stories.
That is a bit unusual. Wants to trade for a 914 coupe in 1965. A bit before the 914 concept was developed, and coupes are a tad rare; Ferry's prototype and the 916's. So I am guessing a typo there.
