Happy reunion! A real fairytale.

For those who obsess about exactly how their 356 left the factory!
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Tom Markussen
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Posts: 88
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 11:43 am
Location: Denmark, Europe

Happy reunion! A real fairytale.

#1 Post by Tom Markussen »

I guess it is not very often that it happens that a “lost engine” finds it way back to its origins and “birth car”? But I come from the land of fairytales (you know, Hans Christian Andersen) and sometimes the extraordinary happens. I bought my 356A T2 Speedster from a Californian dealer back in 2005. The car was sold as a matching numbers car. But during the negotiation, I casually searched the internet to see if could find any specific history of the car. And coincidently, I found the engine number registered on the 356Reg website by a Jim Kellogg. I wrote to him, and he was very kind to inform me that he had the third piece in his storage. And if I ended up buying the car, he would send it to me – for free. Amazing! I ended up buying the car, and Jim shipped me the third piece. Extremely kind of him. But in his letter, he wrote that he was not 100% sure if this was a correctly stamped number. I looked at it and I was kind of disappointed because it actually looks like it had been fettled with. But why would anyone do that if they didn’t own the matching car? A mystery.

When I received the car here in Denmark, I found the pink slip in the documentation file. I could see the car had belonged to a Bob Tone from Florida. I was lucky to get in contact with Bob and he told me he had owned the car for 25 years (from 1980). Bob is a very nice man with a lot of knowledge and experience with classic Porches. When he bought the Speedster, the engine had been crashed – one of the connections rods stuck out of the side of the crank case. He found a 1958 motor, renovated it, and installed it. Bob moved from Colorado to Florida in 2000 when he retired. He sold the car to the dealer with a non-matching engine number.

I kind of forgot about this matching numbers subject until recently, when I pulled the engine of the car out to restore it. In my garage I found the third piece from Jim and examined it again. Now, I could compare it with the correct original engine of my 356A T2 Coupe. And suddenly I realized that the third piece from the Speedster is in fact the correct original one! It looks like the guy who stamped it at the factory had a few attempts with the star before using the big hammer. But comparing it to other numbers (found on the internet), I am now convinced it is the genuine one. And the Colorado link also makes a lot of sense. Yesterday I looked up Jim Kellogg to try and find his email and let him know about this and thank him for his kind help back in 2005. But sadly, I can see he passed away in 2019. I will keep his label (tag) on the piece as a memory. “See, this was a real fairytale”.
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Tom Markussen
1958 Porsche 356A Speedster T2 #83967
1958 Porsche 356A Coupe T2 #104598
1960 Austin Healey Sprite MK1 Frogeye #AN5/43259
1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint #349

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Tom Markussen
356 Fan
Posts: 88
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 11:43 am
Location: Denmark, Europe

Re: Happy reunion! A real fairytale.

#2 Post by Tom Markussen »

Another nice little thing. When visiting Bob in 2007 in Florida, he was very kind to give me this badge that was sitting on the Speedster when he bought it back in 1980. It was attached to the back of the car. It is assumed that the car was sold first time by this VW Porsche dealer in Colorado Springs. I have now attached the badge to the inside of the passenger door. Re-attached to the car after 40 years.
Tom
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CIMG7161.JPG
Tom Markussen
1958 Porsche 356A Speedster T2 #83967
1958 Porsche 356A Coupe T2 #104598
1960 Austin Healey Sprite MK1 Frogeye #AN5/43259
1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint #349

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Vic Skirmants
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Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:02 pm
Location: SE Michigan
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Re: Happy reunion! A real fairytale.

#3 Post by Vic Skirmants »

Great story!

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Doug McDonnell
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Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:21 am
Location: Augusta,Michigan

Re: Happy reunion! A real fairytale.

#4 Post by Doug McDonnell »

Jim's son is still running 356restore I think.
1965 356C 2000 BMW 740i Sport 1967 Honda CL77 There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over.

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