The Official 356Talk Forum

A friend of mine has a couple of A's and a Speedster. He also has this on his unrestored '57 Oval. I tried the cooler yesterday and it does work somewhat. I wondered if any of these had ever found their way on to a 356 (shudder!).

Necessity is the mother of invention I guess.

yes I have one in the back of my roadster, fits perfectly under the rear cowl, have the amp under the wooden floor board and have converted it to 12 volt, I can keep up with the best of the down town crowd!! I will add a picture tomorrow (notice the Blaupunkt cd under the dash that drives the amp)

I did see one mounted on a 356 during an East Coast Holiday some years ago. The car was a street driven coupe, an early A , if memory serves. Somewhere I do have a photo.
The owner said it did work somewhat at sustained highway speeds, nothing much around town.
More common to domestic cars of the 1950s than Porsches.

I think you're talking about a different kind of animal, George. This "Bazooka" is a mini swamp cooler. You'd also want a desert water bag to hang off the side view mirror to fill out the image.

Every one thought it hilarious when I mounted a bazooka tube under the rear cowl of my roadster, and the sound was really great. Had no idea the above picture was a cooler! Thanks for the clarification

That answers the question. Yes, what is known in the US as a 'swamp cooler' (although better in low humidity air). It does look odd but has an internal water tank and, by pulling a small cord on the side, water runs to a foam pad and forced air induction across the pad produces evaporative cooling. Probably only really effective at highway speeds? The VW guys who are always looking for interesting accessories, really liked this addition. I wonder what the local constabulary would think of it in the era of terrorism?

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Put a fake gun barrel on the front of it and you'll probably find out!

There are a few currently listed on The Samba. Search "swamp cooler".

Mike