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Kevin Wiggins
356 Fan
Posts: 341
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:05 pm
Tag: Fight the Power!
Location: Southeastern PA

#16 Post by Kevin Wiggins »

Michael Cass wrote:250 large for a VW convertible?
That is not a fair comment. Just because it has the chassis of a VW, I certainly would not call it a VW convertible. If you truly understand what a coachbuilt car really is, you should understand that. Its not like somebody took a VW beetle, removed the body and stuck a fiberglass body on the chassis. These cars were built from hand and since there are people out there (including me) that would take an odd-ball one off or limited production coachbuilt car over any mass produced car, given supply and demand well....


Need a part for your D&S? Good luck! Everything needs to be built from scratch if that is the case except of course for some of the drive train components.


Given that far more common coachbuilts built on a VW chassis (Hebmullers for example), that very much look like a VW Beetle are going in the $100k plus range for nicely restored examples, $250k for a handbuilt coachbuilt like this is not that unreasonable. Heck, while I love the lines of the D&S my favorite variant is the Rometsch.

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Notice the trim piece over the front wheel? Years before they showed up on the Gullwing.

Doesn't look anything close to a VW to me!

Anyway, just my $3.56.
Fight the Power!

Michael Cass
356 Fan
Posts: 133
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:06 am
Location: Sydney Australia

#17 Post by Michael Cass »

Kevin Wiggins wrote:
Michael Cass wrote:Well, it is vw underneath so it would drive like an open VW and an early one at that.
Yeah, but so were very early Porsches......
Kevin, the only thing underneath early Porsches that was VW was the running gear including gearbox and the engine that was considerably modified internally.

Early Porsches had their own chassis which was a unitary construction with the body and therefore very rigid, gracing the 356 with it's fantastic handling compared to a VW.

These coachbuilts while special and undeniably pretty are still built on VW underpinnings i.e. a VW chassis separate to the body and carrying VW running gear including engines which were SOMETIMES modified with BOLT ON go faster bits and RARELY modified internally. These modifications certainly would enhance straight line performance but they certainly did not help these cars go around corners any faster than a VW equipped with the same bolt on mechanical modifications.

No they did not have fiberglass bodies and rather hand beaten steel or aluminium which are works of art in their own right in the same way that the hand beaten and finished bodies of our 356's are works of art but they were still the same in concept to a VW in terms of their mechanical engineering being that they were built on VW platforms with a separate body to the chassis, and as such they would handle like VW's.

The key thing to remember here is that an early Porsche chassis is very different to a VW chassis and as such all things being equal a porsche 356 will always outhandle a similar vintaged coachbuilt VW regardlass of the body that is on it because the Porsche is designed to be inherently rigid to the benefit of enhanced handling.

Furthermore, I never said that these cars looked anything like a VW. My point was that these cars are VW's with different bodies to what VW sold from their own factory. Porsche 356's ARE NOT VW's with diffefent bodies. All Porsches are Porsches and SOME early Porsches are Porsches with internally modified VW engines , gearboxes suspension and brakes.

I do still love these coachbuilts though because I love VW's :) .
59 Porsche 356A Coupe
59 VW Kombi
60 VW kombi x2
61 VW Karmann Ghia Coupe
92 BMW E30 325i Convertible (at least it's German)
02 Toyota Townace SBV ( aka. The Unspeakable)

jeff sabel

#18 Post by jeff sabel »

Hi Michael. I agree i love any VW coach built or not! I have a friend here in Australia who has a Heb. a D&S and three Australian only Ascort tsv. I have an Ascort which i love! I also drive a 356 SC which i adore! They have a similar feel to drive but the Porsche is so tight and feels so well made which of course IT IS! Here are a few pictures of the 1959 Ascort which came with an Okrasa tsv 1300 VW motor or a 356 motor. Enjoy. The last few pictures are after i added some stripes for an Outlaw photo shoot.
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jeff sabel

#19 Post by jeff sabel »

Here is the Ascort with Outlaw stripes! One shot of my 356sc.
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Michael Cass
356 Fan
Posts: 133
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:06 am
Location: Sydney Australia

#20 Post by Michael Cass »

Nice Ascort and of course nice SC!
59 Porsche 356A Coupe
59 VW Kombi
60 VW kombi x2
61 VW Karmann Ghia Coupe
92 BMW E30 325i Convertible (at least it's German)
02 Toyota Townace SBV ( aka. The Unspeakable)

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