The Official 356Talk Forum

when did the hand brake layout change on pre A cars? Did early-early cars have the 3rd clamp for the cross bar and the later ones just have the hand brake mounted to the steering column with 2 clamps?

never mind.

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So when was the change to the different casting?

I think the change occurred at the end of May 1954 sometime between coupe 52033 and 52073 and at cabriolet ~60550, based on existing cars. This is about the same time that they started putting dual horns and horn grills on the cars.

These hand brakes were installed by Porsche at Werk II along with the steering column and steering wheel after they received the body from Reutter, so I suspect there's a strict cutoff date when they started using these. The before and after for chassis numbers would necessarily be a bit fuzzy.

For the record, here's a few photos of the brake assemble from my 1953, 356.

Thank you for the info gents!