Factory Picture from 1961

[John Clarke]

Just received my 356 Reg Mag and saw the photo of the Porsche factory in June of 1961 on page 17 when John Christian went to collect his new 356 from the factory. Set me thinking, of all the cars being built at that time, Could one of them have been our's in that pic ?
Chassis No 115030, Does anyone have a database of production dates? Also while I'm on, when was the last T5B produced before the introduction of the T6 B ?
Many thanks Jay

[Jules Dielen]

That is actually a pretty well known picture, not sure John was the originator of it....

[Steve Turino]

John-
Mine was produced about 487 cars after yours (#115517), the COA says my production date was 03/15/1961. Do you have a COA or Kardex? That should give you your production date. I have been driving my car more and more as I have been sorting out the little things over my first driving season. Late November and the window to drive is closing here in New England. This old Porsche is really growing on me.

[Doug McDonnell]

John I once looked at a T5 that had a few T6 features with a completion date of July 26th

[Vic Skirmants]

What kind of T6 features?

[Mark Reich]

Foe additional reference, my 1961 T5B Super No. 115155 was built on February 17, 1961.

[Doug McDonnell]

I didn't get into the details with the person who did the PPI Vic. They just told me it was a transition car. Shop was Dumont's in OKC. But car had low compression, trans leaks etc and owner wanted top dollar and wouldn't budge so I didn't pursue the matter in detail. You would have liked it Vic it was Smyrna Green Owner kept insisting it was a 62. Vin was 117450 late 61 T5 Normal

[Stephen Masefield]

Jules - casting aspersions as to my article sources
I got the slide directly from John - he recounted taking it; I had this original slide digitally scanned for the article; what may confuse people is that it was apparently taken from a public viewing area in the factory and many other people may well have taken a similar picture from that location before. See B&W angle pictures below.
Maybe there is an opportunity for a 'sticky' of factory pictures ?

factorysm.jpg (18.01 KiB) Viewed 1450 times

porsche-356-051-3-13.jpg (36.58 KiB) Viewed 1449 times

and for completeness - John's picture...

[GregVandenbussche]

That's a neat picture! would be great to create a sticky!

[Greg Bryan]

A factory picture thread is a great idea and certainly worthy of sticky status

[Dan Macdonald]

A factory picture thread is a great idea and certainly worthy of sticky status

Yes....great idea!!

[Al Zim]

Doug: I am very familiar with the car you mentioned. That car is a 1961 car. It was shown at a lot of the Oklahoma tech sessions in the 70's. I am sure I have pictures of the car at the events but there are hundreds of pictures to look through, most of which need to be thrown away. It would be interesting for you to outline the 1962 parts that were on the 1961 chassis. As an old man doing an analysis of the changes from 61 to 62 I can only picture the bumpers and the doors as not changing. The vent window pivot on the top of the vent window did change and the key type became a 3 hundred number from a one hundred number. al zim 2018/11/27.

[Doug McDonnell]

Al As I mentioned previously I do not know the specifics of things which seemed to be "transition car" as I didn't buy. While complete, solid and very nice interior it had been repainted once and PPI showed rust starting at side deco trim holes, lots of leaks from engine and transmission and very poor leak down (18% and 35%) on 2 cylinders. 10% and 12% on the other 2 cylinders. Since owner was insisting on top dollar I didn't bother going into specifics with Dumont's of transition car specifics and passed on the car. I would have been interested at a realistic price but not for the amount seller wanted. Maybe someone else bought it and can discuss specifics. It was for sale in our classifieds in 2016.

[George Hussey]

Jules - casting aspersions as to my article sources
I got the slide directly from John - he recounted taking it; I had this original slide digitally scanned for the article; what may confuse people is that it was apparently taken from a public viewing area in the factory and many other people may well have taken a similar picture from that location before. See B&W angle pictures below.
Maybe there is an opportunity for a 'sticky' of factory pictures ?

The attachment factorysm.jpg is no longer available

The attachment porsche-356-051-3-13.jpg is no longer available

and for completeness - John's picture...

The attachment img557 (2).jpg is no longer available

that is probably my silver cabriolet in the color picture bottom right!

[Brad Ripley]

Posting factory assembly line photos is a great idea -- BUT, as much as possible, photos should be identified at least by date taken and (hopefully) with some sort of caption.