Who decided the 356 Registry should quit being a registry?

[Dan Macdonald]

Take out the distributor rotor.
Easy, invisible,...no tools required..and of course it will never start.

[Sebastian Gaeta]

On another note, recently in the Seattle area some thieves tried to steal a BMW 3 series with a manual transmission. They couldn't drive a stick and were arrested a couple of blocks away. Perhaps a manual transmission is the new Lo-Jack, since knowing how to drive one is a dying art.

[Ron LaDow]

On another note, recently in the Seattle area some thieves tried to steal a BMW 3 series with a manual transmission. They couldn't drive a stick and were arrested a couple of blocks away. Perhaps a manual transmission is the new Lo-Jack, since knowing how to drive one is a dying art.

And to add to Dan's comment, they won't know what a distributor is, anyhow.

[Adam Wright]

Ned is right, if a thief wants your car, he will get it. Two true stories.
1. My brother didn't want his Jetta stolen in the 90's, so he put a kill switch that went to the ground on the fuel pump, the switch was hidden under the carpet. They came, tried to steal it, couldn't. They came back a month later, hooked up a chain, dragged the car 4 blocks and stripped it.
2. I didn't want my Scirocco stolen so I had an alarm, a club, and a lock on the gearshift. They came to my high school, stole it in less than a minute with the football team watching, in fact a later celebrity was there, Ryan Seacrest was the capt. of our football team if you can believe it.
They found what was left of my car, it was a sad sight.

[Brett Johnson]

Gee, I'm sorry to miss out on this. I've been around since Volume 1, Number 1. The simple answer to the question is: The 356 Registry was never a registry. Go back and look at the early issues of the magazine. There have been members who have accumulated this type of information, but in the beginning the 356 Registry was just the club's name.

[C J Murray]

Hi Brett, it is a bit odd that Registry was put into the name if that was not the intention. Maybe Vic can shed some light.

Maybe they were psychic because many people have attempted to gather and make sense of the patterns or changes or whatever. In this regard 356 people seem much more inquisitive than say Datsun 2000 roadster collectors. As you know there have been some fairly popular books on the subject. Porsche and others have a little cottage industry going providing some pretty sparse information certificates. The Registry registry could do a much better job of making sense of 356 data.

We own the cars. We have the CoAs and Kardex. That information could be entered to a database so that searches could be made to determine what colors and what options were ordered and in what frequency. In some cases the city location of the selling dealer and first owner could be listed, no names. With the ability to scan documents the data would have verification.

If the data was organized as a template with all colors and all options and all variations that could possibly show up on a CoA then that data could be entered by checking boxes. Reports could easily determine information about 356 production. Ho many cars have gasoline heaters? When did teardrop taillights appear? When did rear overrider tubes become split? When was the hand throttle deleted? Any item of interest would have its own box to check.

Noteworthy information about the car could be entered in text like "Emory Outlaw conversion 12/10" or "installed sunroof 3/06" or "complete Willhoit restoration 11/17" or "4G gear installed 7/18". Whatever information an owner might wish to share.

If ownership information is part of the registry it needs to be optional and have the ability to shield the owner or past owners if they wish. Blind email should be an option too.

At the very least we should attempt to create a record of CoAs rather than have members pay for those over and over.

Just thinking out loud.

[Brett Johnson]

Yes, well. I wrote a couple of books, because the information you described is not readily available -- well, teardrop taillights is. And oddly enough, I started asking people for this kind of information about their cars and changes in the early 1980s in the public forum of the 356 Registry magazine (and reported all of my research findings to all members). And some people responded. If you want to know how many, I'd guess maybe 5% of the membership. And those very enthusiastic people helped bring this information to the masses who were not members. They had to pay for it.

It isn't any different now. I've posted some inquiries on the Forum about authenticity, because I'd like to bring better information with the oft demanded color images in reference book format once again, while also providing this information on the Forum and in a new column in the magazine -- free to all members -- since Curt Dansby asked me do so. Guess what? I need people to respond or we all won't know anything new.

So far, a small group of rabid folks and my archive of photos have changed a number of my previous findings and if anyone else wants to play, please do. I've just posted a question on Authenticity that everyone (well, you need to have a 356) can answer. I'll tell you how many people reply, if you want me to. I'll wager 5% is way over the top optimistic.

If there was a 356 Registry registry, how many more people would actually answer those questions about car differences? How many would be mad about privacy violations? How many know any history about their 50+ year old car? Was it first restored in 1959? How many others would supply false information about their GT Speedster with the re-numbered engine (yes, there are really fakes out there)? So how useful is a "registry" now -- maybe 50 years ago, when they were cars, not "collectibles" and enthusiastic owners knew about them.

I've been out of the loop the past decade or so and when I rejoined a couple of months back, I found people reluctant to give the last one or two numbers of their chassis numbers in public. I've asked a number of folks why this happened and they don't seem to know, but it really makes a useful member provided interactive registry seem unlikely, at best.

CoAs and Kardex are still warranty records (and never will be build records) with incomplete (at best) information.

It would be better if Porsche would take the Kardex files and purchase order books and do the same database things you suggest. I thought this was a great idea twenty-some years ago, but they didn't -- I get it. It isn't going to happen.

So, I'm updating my book. You can help, if you want.

[Dan Macdonald]

Hi Brett,
I would very much like to supply you info on my cars but they have all been restored, repainted or redone.
Is info on my cars of any help at all?

[Brett Johnson]

Hi Dan! If you follow along with the questions, there are always things that need clarification. Right now I'm kinda bogged down in 1952, but when I get to other areas like that rectangular bump in the center of the tail of 1959 models, your coupe may be the most important car ever built to someone with 105328.

[Martin Benade]

That would especially be meaningful if Porsche never mixed and matched parts, which of course they are famous for.

[Brett Johnson]

Not so much...

[Martin Benade]

That is what I had heard, but I have no expertise myself on that. Keep up your good work.

[Jan Kolm]

...I've been out of the loop the past decade or so and when I rejoined a couple of months back, I found people reluctant to give the last one or two numbers of their chassis numbers in public. I've asked a number of folks why this happened and they don't seem to know, but it really makes a useful member provided interactive registry seem unlikely, at best...

I first noticed it with early Minis about 15 years ago, when the BMW MINIs were first launched and demand for classic Minis spiked. At the time, the value between a plain-Jane 850/998cc Mini and a genuine Cooper/Cooper S was in the $1,000s and forgeries of Coopers, using original chassis numbers screwed onto non-Cooper bodyshells started showing up in the marketplace, particularly in the U.K.

Obtaining a Cooper-correct chassis number was easy; the problem arose when the owner of the original Cooper attempted to re-register their car, only to find it was already registered in someone else's name. As a result, Cooper owners started leaving the last two or three numbers off in ads and on the Web, to reduce the risk of having their chassis number hijacked by someone building a forgery.

[Martin Benade]

In the UK they would give you a title just for the asking, regardless of the serial number already being registered to someone?

[C J Murray]

In the UK they would give you a title just for the asking, regardless of the serial number already being registered to someone?

From what I read in the Velocette and Norton club magazines the English make it very difficult to register a vehicle.