In the world of air-cooled Porsches, the earliest models tend to command the most interest and money. This is a curious listing for a 1952 Porsche 356 Pre-A coupe that appears to be for sale by a dealer in Europe despite the photos showing it in what is presumably a Florida garage based on the “rescue” photos and then a U.S.-based insurance facility given all the wrecked late-model cars in the background. Whatever traveling it’s done lately, the Pre-A is now offered for sale here on the Classics World website which appears to belong to a dealership based in the Netherlands. Details are non-existent, but if you’re shopping for an early 356, you’re likely just happy to know another one still exists.
The Pre-A coupes represent the best opportunity to get into a vintage 356 that’s as close to the original clay model as possible. The initial batch of 356s featured hand-formed aluminum bodies before production became more standardized, with coachbuilder Reutter taking over manufacturing responsibilities. The original engines were small, being shared directly with Volkswagen, before Porsche began assembling their own engines. The Pre-A shown here has rusty Florida license plates in the photos showing the area below the engine lid, and while no details are provided, the background is pretty convincing that the 356 was a bit of a garage fine where it’s presumably been hiding, awaiting restoration.
The Pre-A is rough, inside and out, with visible body rust and a trashed interior. The seller includes a few different pictures of each area, and the photo of the cockpit out in the daylight reveals that the seating surfaces were once a very pretty shade of blue. With all of the surface rust, it’s near impossible to determine what color this 356 was when it left the factory, but white over blue seems like a logical combination. Given how much rust is present on the body, it seems safe to assume the floors have perished as well. Still, the coupe appears to be, by and large, complete, with no evidence of it having ever been taken down or apart for restoration purposes. The duct tape over the windshield is concerning, however, as it usually indicates a temporary fix to stop water from coming into the cabin.
Amazingly, there’s still an engine in the back, as this is usually one of the first things to go missing on a forgotten air-cooled project. Photos of the car inside the garage show its exceedingly rare bent windshield is still intact, and this feature is unique to only the Pre-A models. I am hoping tragedy didn’t strike because the later photos show it with a cardboard box straightened out and taped to the windshield area, which is either being done to protect the insanely rare bent windshield glass that came on these early models or to cover up a gaping hole where the front glass once resided. Overall, this is a project worthy of restoring, but I’ll bet you wish you spotted it stateside first so you didn’t have to weigh the potential transport costs of bringing the 356 back stateside. Would you ship a project like this home?
So where is this fine rusty Porsche I wonder??
I can guess where it probably was based on its condition..somewhere in the Everglades for about 30 years.
Somehow, this little jewel made it over to Holland after rusting away in the USA for decades. Usually, the Europeans only scarf up nice examples of American iron to send over there, now they’re grabbing German rust buckets too?
Let’s see. Sis weeks alongside the docks at Hamburg before it gets loaded on a ship. Four weeks on the Atlantic. Another six weeks anchored off the port of Newport News waiting to berth, and another four weeks sitting in the yard waiting to get loaded on a truck. Yep, the current supply-chain issues should be just about enough to finish this example off. Of course my estimates could be way off. If there is another flare-up of a certain medical issue in Europe, it might not get off the docks.
I always wonder….if these Porsche cars were kept all these decades and not crushed, why weren’t they taken care of in the first place?
Use your imagination….
A successful businessman treats himself to a new Porsche. A few years later, his business fails and he’s forced to live a more modest life. He manages to keep the Porsche, both as a reminder of his glory days and in the hope that those glory days will return. They never do, and since he can no longer store or maintain the vehicle properly, it deteriorates. At some point, the man or his heirs realize that even a rusty 356 commands big bucks, and the car hits the market.
Or, maybe because rich people are not like you and I. Perhaps money means little to them and once the fun of an expensive show off purchase has worn off, they neglect it and move on to the next shiny trinket they can show off. I knew a guy who had rich parents and they bought him a new late 70s 911. Such a beautiful car, but he treated it like a rusty Pinto, and it soon looked like one. He could care less. He came from money, did not have to worry about what things cost, and when others pointed out how much value he was losing, I swear it made him smile that others knew he was able to not care. Despite what others might say on here, the snob factor has always been at least part of the allurer.
You have to re pare this classic car, Porsche’s are not made for being unmoved in a barn!
Had a customer buy an Austin Healey from a guy whose ex wife left it behind 50 years before! He said he “FORGOT” it was there???
Don’t forget that these cars were a dime a dozen in the 1960s. You didn’t have to be rich to own a 356. They were right around $1000 for a nice one. My uncle owned two, and he was broke!
I would ship it to the junkyard….
Collectors are drooling over this now. Will sell soon. If you stumble over an old one like this, it’s like winning the lotto!
When you have something this special, why take crummy pics with your smart phone?
judging by the fuel pump position, looks like a derivative of the 25 or 36 hp VW engine. Would need a good inspection due to the lousy pics. Once again, shame to see a beauty like this get in this condition.
Cheers
GPC
Hurricane survivor???
Hurricane survivor???
It slightly unbelievable that the price of entry is a hundred a tweny five thousand euro’s. And then you need to finance the restoration. So you could easily have 4 to 5 hundred thousand dollars in this when completed. Air cooled Porsche prices have gone crazy.
Yes, and in the end you will still have an uninspiring fancy VW Bug. A half a million big ones, and for what? Some frumpy little car to sit on a garage floor that the hired help dust off once in a while? That is life changing money for most people, and yet there are a few who for what ever reason can just toss it around quickly like sh*t through a goose. Morality has gone through the window and has been replaced by smug indifference. Justice will prevail, however. We are being watched and eventually judged.
Price is obviously on the moon but in reality the ’52 through ’54 cars didn’t have big numbers. When the A series was introduced with the pure Porsche engine and transmission the popularity rose considerably, leaving the original cars out of favor. Porsche historians, like my friend who asked me to help restore his ’52 coupe in the early ’80s, was as much into saving the car for historical purposes as he was using it for car shows etc.. We played with Porsches for many years, owning 16 356As plus many other newer cars and really didn’t see but one or two of the pre A cars during that time. No big difference here than saving “69 Camaros and Mustangs.