When you think of “the ultimate sports car,” what comes to mind? Corvette? MGB? Miata? The “sports car” signifier doesn’t necessarily mean fast, remember, it just means fun to drive on bendy roads, so you can forget about your Mustang. I’m sure a lot of people would put the Porsche 911 right up at the top of that list, and rightly so. Today we’re featuring the car that came before the iconic 911, a proto-911. The 1958 Porsche 356. You can find it here, at no reserve, on eBay.
More closely related to its Beetle cousin than the 911, it featured a hopped-up 1.6-liter version of the Beetle’s four-cylinder, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox. It produced enough horsepower, and certainly more than the Beetle. Having said that, the seller of this car explains the car’s condition beautifully, so I’ll leave the artistry to them and just give you the highlights. The engine was stored indoors, so it’s in better shape than the rest of the car. It still doesn’t run, but it can turn over by hand.
Inside you can find proof that this car’s former owner was none other than Fred Flintstone. It’s not that the floors are bad, it’s that the floors are gone. I guess he decided to get a Porsche during his midlife crisis, and who wouldn’t? They’re amazing cars. It’s easier to say what doesn’t need to be rebuilt or replaced than to say what is wrong with it. So, focusing on the positives: the dashboard looks complete and is in good shape. The gear lever and pedals are present, and it looks like the car used to be red.
Red’s a great color. Whether it was original or not is irrelevant, because whoever buys this will live out the ship of Theseus thought experiment. The benefit with that is that the restoration will be easy: just replace everything. But at that point, why not just buy a kit car? A kit would be infinitely easier to work with and you won’t get tetanus from trying to find a clean place to attach the new frame to. Regardless, this is probably the cheapest classic Porsche you will find. For less than twenty thousand dollars at time of writing, you can have the bragging rights to say that you, too, own a genuine 356. At what point does it stop being a genuine 356 and start being a tribute car? That’s something that only the new owner will be able to answer.
Ben… Fact check… The 356A engines did not share a single part with any of the VW engines. You can hook them up to a VW transmission but that’s as close as you can get. Anyway, this car bought right will take a bunch of money and time but like all the sports cars of the era a lot were just used up and thrown away and not a lot of them left. We’ve had quite a few of them go through us as parts donors for cars we’ve saved so it’s nice to see one in one piece ready to be rebuilt.
Bobhess … Fact check … the 356 and VW use the same ignition points!
P.S. I left out that this car can certainly use a donor car to handle all the rust under it. We saved a Speedster that had no metal from near the top of the front trunk to half way up the firewall in the rear. None of this stuff comes easy.
A Porsche 356 is to a VW as a Cadillac Cimarron is to a Chevy Cavalier…..
Apparently, somebody thought this was an Amphicar.
This is a sincere question from an inquisitive (naive?) guy: Who is likely to spend over 20k for a car in this condition? Can a guy really expect to not come out of this up-side-down? I’m always intrigued as to who would take on a project like this and why. Is it just a hobby purchase and the costs aren’t important?
“Why not just buy a kit car?” Why not just buy a new Japanese Jelly Bean Car? Much easier, and the chance of contracting tetanus is much lower. If you don’t know “why not” I can’t explain it to you.
I must be confused. I thought I was reading “Barn Finds”.
I’d say the hobby purchase fits the bill on this one. Different story if it was a Speedster or a Roadster where you could puts tons of money into it and get tons of money out of it.
Nein danke.
Now that the 356 is a 6 figure car we see them coming out from the dead. This is a challenge for even the best restoration shop. If you noticed its in a shop now. I think a white flag was waved!
Lots of restoration shops buy cars they have no intention of restoring. Owners approach them with cars for sale, especially if the shop specializes in a particular make or model. Since most shops are geared towards restoring customer cars, not spec work, they need to sell cars. The logical first choice would be preexisting customers, if there are no takers, it goes to the broader market. The best cars they find never hit the market, those will sell via word of mouth, but to assume every car they are selling is scrap is naive.
Steve R
Yes, the car is in our shop, but we buy and sell, we don’t restore. Except our own projects.
Adam
Unobtanium Inc
Pulled from a ravine near Ravena New York.
It was actually in Virginia, we got this as part of a 3 car deal.
First car was a Convertible D, sold to Europe
Second car was another A Coupe, sold to Rod Emory
Third was this one, which could be yours!
Adam Wright
Unobtanium-Inc
It was actually found in Virginia, part of a 3 car deal.
1st car, Convertible D, sold to Europe
2nd car, another A Coupe, sold to Rod Emory
3rd car, could be yours!
Adam
Unobtanium Inc
Brakeservo… Yahvold! Adam… Great you saved it.
Item location:
Ravena, New York
Adam you do a great job! Keep up the good work. I know the look of your shop by the tool boxes that always make their way into the background. DD
“Ultimate sports car?” This malformed hunchbacked ugly rusted out POS?
I’ve had farts with more structural integrity than this car.
Notice the 356B/C steering wheel and shift lever?
SOLD for $22,700.
Ended:
Jul 29, 2021
Winning bid:
US $22,700.00
[ 26 bids ]