Each time we spot a Porsche 356 Speedster barn find, I tell myself it has to be the last one left, yet some how another one has just been pulled from barn storage. I guess considering there were 1,170 or so Speedsters built just in ’57, there could still be a few more still in hiding! That’s an exciting thought for any 356 nut, but I think the odds are slim these days. As much as I would love to have one of these, they have been out of my price range for a long time and it looks like the gap is just going to keep growing. This one, which is said to have been parked in a Connecticut barn since 1985, is being offered here on eBay with a $185,000 asking price! And that doesn’t include what it’s going to cost you to fully restore it.
I honestly get the appeal of the Speedster, it was a stripped down sport model designed for drivers who wanted a car they could drive to work on warm weekdays and then take hill climbing or to the track on the weekend. I look at them the same way I do the Plymouth Road Runner, a standard model car, stripped it of all the unnecessary features to make it lighter and then offered with a lower price tag to entice buyers with a need for speed. It’s a great formula, but it seems today manufactures have caught on and now charge a premium for stripped down sport models.
This particular car has a lot of issues, all those years being parked weren’t kind to it. The floors are about gone and rust has really taken over. We all have seen how serious these cars can rust out, so it could be worse. I wouldn’t say this one is a good starting point, especially with this kind of price tag. Everything to restore it is available, but it isn’t going to be cheap or easy. With this price tag, I’m sure whoever buys it will have the means to have it fully restored.
I’m not sure I care for the seller’s attitude or unwillingness to release the car’s numbers. I feel like that would be something that’s important to prospective buyers looking to drop $200k on a Speedster. Hopefully, he will release that information to any serious buyers directly though. The seller is a Porsche specialist and dealer and actually has some pretty incredible cars, but it leaves me wondering why they aren’t restoring the car before flipping it. So the question is, if you had this kind of money to spend on a Speedster, would you buy this one or would you go on your own hunt to find one still in a barn?
Hmm, this one (maybe not as rare) fully restored for less money!
http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/porsche/356/1733105.html
This bubble is only for those rolling in dough.
Wow. I look at that one, and still wonder how the prices got to where they are.
The rust bucket? eh…. (shakes head)
Ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous
That’s what I say about all these rust bucket 356. What the heck is wrong with people paying $185,000 for this piece of Sh_t.
Where are these prices coming from. He is a Porsche dealer . I am sure he picked it up for $500.00 as scrap metal.
I just can’t understand who will pay for that rust bucket. It just makes me sick the prices people ate trying to get .
I don’t think there’s any ‘trying’ about it… this is a little above market, but there has to be wiggle room for negotiation. There’s probably a dozen parties interested in this.
I wonder why he has asked for the ad not to be posted on Bringatrailer.com?
Didn’t see that in the ad.
Probably because he didn’t want a bunch of knowledgeable car people saying things like ‘are you out of your Vulcan mind?’
ONLY $185,000 – somebody here needs to buy it,
before a flipper gets it,& makes a ton of money off of it!
– Doug
Har har har!
Having restored Porsche and current owner of 59 speedster for 19 years.
This car is worth buying. But at a 15,000-18,000. There is so much work needed to make this car correct. I would estimate 150,000 in restoration.
Good luck selling this car.
The Porsche bubble has burst already, no one will buy this car at this price.
Al – I’m with you – makes the bombs we buy look blue chip!
Jerry Seinfeld loves these old clapped out Speedsters so much that he recently paid close to $600K for one that was neglected so much that it has lots of surface rust around and under its faded, flaking blue paint.
Then, Seinfeld and one of the writers for Sports Car Market magazine wrote a column in the magazine basically saying how morally wonderful it was of Jerry to buy the car because it was so original. I am just reporting this and am not making it up.
Seinfeld is putting a lot of his perfectly restored vintage Porsches up for sale at auction, and from his column in SCM magazine praising old Porsches in bad condition it looks like he has decided to dedicate his fortune to saving all the old Porsche 356s that are left. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pays whatever the cost is for this one, which according to the seller is “Obviously untouched and very original”. I guess we can overlook that fact that the car is “missing the seats and a few small parts”, as the seller says, plus a lot of the metal structure of the car like the floors.
But I guess what’s left is “very original”, and that’s what counts. In fact, it’s the only thing that counts.
Another Porsche flavored rust spot.
I got out of the 356 hobby as I could not stand listening to those engines on the freeway. I never knew from moment to moment if a piston was going to shoot out left or right.
I will never get the ask on these. Don’t get me wrong, I still like to look at them, I just don’t care to own them any more.
Don’t see it
How much better is this than a 73 beetle
I know it’s light, drop top but,
Isn’t the engine extremely close to a beetle flat 4
I’ve driven 911s and love the feedback though the steering but mantenane cost no thanks.
how original is it when you have to replace every piece of sheet metal, every piece of trim and everything electrical and mechanical except… maybe the block can be salvaged.
180k for a set of build plates and a ‘ Porsche flavored rust spot’ (love that!!)
yehaa!
I have to wonder if it is a typo… Maybe supposed to be $18,500?? Even at that, still to much in my opinion…. but then I’m not a fan of Porsche..
For $185,000 it would have to have the following:
Be the first off the assembly line
Autograph on each part by Ferdinand Porsche himself.
One owner…Ferdinand Porsche
All original with a letter of authenticity from Porsche
and last but not least, it needs to have a bank draft from a Swiss bank account for the total of $285,000…. to cover the cost of purchase and the cost to start the restoration.
This has all the makings of a nice static display.
Peter Mullin did the same thing with a Bugatti.
http://www.gizmag.com/the-legendary-lake-maggiore-1925-bugatti-type-22-brescia/14045/
Sit back and enjoy the show.
1957 Porsche 356. Will require complete restoration, or create static display as is. Low miles. Car parked many years outside. Willing to sell whole or part out. $65,000.
I’ll give you double what your asking and I’ll be there yesterday with a roll back!
Nice one!
Dolphin got the story right and that kind of wealth directed at our hobby destroys any chance for the average or even moderately wealthy peraon to own one
Jeez, didn’t realize BF was only for ‘Murkan muscle, or whatever you whiny boys are into. What were rusted out Hemi mopars selling for a few years back?
How is it different from a 73 Beetle? Do you actually like cars?
Either this is a very old listing (more than 90 days), or it was fraudulent. Either way, it’s gone.
Any chance this has a roller crank engine?
I love Joe’s comment! When ‘on the bum; in Fresno many years ago, my buddy bought a Speedster just like this except all it needed were new shocks & a muffler. What could you expect for $400? Even with no shocks, it easily out-cornered my TR-3. I fell in love and later owned several 356’s, but with a young family, no speedsters.
Rex touched on it a bit. These cars did perform VERY well indeed, and with such simplicity. And Rancho Bella- you are quite mistaken about the sound of them ready to blow up. They SELDOM blew up, unlike many contemporary cars, like the lovely Alfa Giuliettas, and Jaguars. Bosch electrics meant you had a lot more reliability than British counterparts. The VW based evolution 1600 pushrod motors would often last 100-150k miles, a lot more than any but a few American V-8’s. And by the early 1960’s, the obsolete swing axle suspension cars were developing near 1.0g lateral acceleration. The next production car to exceed that was the 1984 Corvette- which rode worse. So, there is really quite a bit to love there, and quite a few bidders recognize this.
C’mon, guys, this car is not THAT rusty. WHY RESTORE IT, and make it into a garage queen that you will not risk getting damaged? Just fix the rusty rockers and floors (probably battery box, K-member and some fix on rear members by the torsion bars, also), maybe touch up the paint where it shows rusty- I’d try to leave the fading- fix mechanicals and tires…. and you just turned the clock back to 1968.
Seinfeld is onto something here. He just sold $20m worth of cars too precious to drive, gonna do like Magnus- drive them in the rain!
If you just leave this beauty outside for another 10 years, all the rust will be gone.