The Official 356Talk Forum

It seems like 50% of the 1955 model year cars I have seen have the ‘early’ plaque used from 1953-1955 and 50% have the ‘late’ plaque that I thought was not used until 1956. Was there a transition at some point or should all 1955 model year cars have the ‘early’ plaque.

LATE EARLY

The new reutter badge was used on the 55 US import cars and the the older reutter badge was used up on the 55 non us import cars until the stock ran out .. So if you see a 55 with the early badge its most likely a non us imported car . but like all things porsche there were exceptions to the rule .

Regards
Ned 55 continental Cab

Thanks for the info. Any idea if the ‘late badge’ would have been on a US market tourist delivery car?

Jonathan
i would think the late badge would be correct for the tourist delivered car as the factor knew from the start where the car was going .

That would certainly make sense. I appreciate the insight. According to the COA my car was sold with US equipment, however, it is a non-continental badged car and void or rocker trim. Two features I usually associate to RoW cars. That got me wondering about the Reutter badge. Does anyone happen to know if the hole spacing is the same for the early and late badges?

This an original '55 Hoffman delivery car badge. Hole spacing for it and for a '59 badge are ~36mm. I think the earlier badge you pictured is the same, but what's really critical is the hole spacing on your car.

Would a 53 coupe Germany (not USA) delivery have a badge ?

My '53 German delivery cab (08/17/53) had a badge. Accurate reproduction badges are available from ERLKÖNIG CLASSIC https://erlkoenig-classic.de/en/Reutter ... es-Decals/.
The '50-'53 version is enameled with 32mm hole spacing. The '53-'55 version is aluminum with 37mm hole spacing. Evidently there was no standard for the application during model year '53. James Davies' '53 coupe was a Hoffman delivery Deluxe car completed 3-weeks before mine with 32mm spacing, yet there are a couple of February and March '53 cars with 37mm hole spacing.
'50-'53 Badge - (edit 32mm spacing): '53-'55 Badge - (edit 37mm spacing): Hole spacing for 60238:

So it sounds like the 2nd generation ‘flat’ Reutter Badge has the same spacing as the ‘late’ Reutter badge.

That's correct to my knowledge.
I had my photos mismarked, but I've corrected the spacing description via edits.
I remeasured my '55 oval badge and still come up with ~36.3mm.

Thanks Spencer.

The pictures of 53-55 Reutter badge shown on “Porsche 356 made by Reutter” and “The 356 Porsche Dr. B Johnson” are some differences.
I am thinking that Dr. B Johnson’s one seems like the reproduction, or there were two types of badge at that time??
I would appreciate if somebody could tell me the truth.

The one pictured in Brett's book is the incorrect reproduction badge. This has been corrected in the 2nd printing I believe. The one pictured in Frank Jung's book is original and correct.

Thank you so much for your reply Mr. Davies!

I am not going to draw too many conclusions from this, Best to ignore my comments, of the time
I will leave this to others with more time on their hands - BUT these are what I recorded many years ago from production records at Porsche

Perhaps someone can manipulate this spreadsheet for me