Porsche 356
The Porsche 356 is a rear-engine sports car, and the first-ever production Porsche model.
The 356 is a lightweight and nimble-handling, rear-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-door available both in hardtop coupé and open configurations. Engineering innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports success and popularity. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria, where Porsche built approximately 50 cars. In 1950, the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany, and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its September 1964 debut. Of the 76,000 originally produced, approximately half survive. The 356 was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH, and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH. It was Porsche's first production automobile. Earlier cars designed by the Austrian company include Cisitalia Grand Prix race car, the Volkswagen Beetle, and Auto Union Grand Prix cars.
The original price in 1948 for the 356 coupe was . The 356 cabriolet cost.
History
In 1948, the mid-engine, tubular chassis prototype Porsche 356/1 was completed. Although the prototype had a rear-mid engine placement, the production rear-engined 356 is considered by Porsche to be its first car.The 356 was created by Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche, who founded the Austrian company with his sister, Louise. Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle, the 356 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car with unitized pan and body construction. The chassis was a completely new design, as was the 356's body, designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda. At the same time, certain mechanical components, including the engine case and some suspension components, were based on and initially sourced from Volkswagen. Ferry Porsche described the thinking behind the development of the 356 in an interview with the editor of "Panorama", the PCA magazine, in September 1972. "...I had always driven very speedy cars. I had an Alfa Romeo, also a BMW, and others. ….By the end of the war, I had a Volkswagen Cabriolet with a supercharged engine, and that was the basic idea. I saw that if you had enough power in a small car, it is nicer to drive than if you have a big car which is also overpowered. And it is more fun. On this basic idea, we started the first Porsche prototype. To make the car lighter, to have an engine with more horsepower…that was the first two-seater that we built in Carinthia ".
The first 356 was road certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, and was entered in a race in Innsbruck, where it won its class. Porsche re-engineered and refined the car with a focus on performance. Volkswagen and Porsche shared fewer parts as the 1950s progressed. Porsche handcrafted the early 356 automobile bodies at Gmünd in aluminum, but when production moved to Zuffenhausen, Germany, in 1950, models produced there were steel-bodied. The aluminum-bodied cars from that very small company are what are now referred to as "prototypes". Porsche contracted Reutter to build the steel bodies and eventually bought the Reutter company in 1963. The Reutter company retained the seat manufacturing part of the business and changed its name to "Recaro".
Little noticed at its inception, mostly by a small number of auto racing enthusiasts, the first 356s sold primarily in Austria and Germany. It took Porsche two years, starting with the first prototype in 1948, to manufacture the first 50 automobiles. By the early 1950s, the 356 had gained some renown among enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic for its aerodynamics, handling, and excellent build quality. The class win at Le Mans in 1951 was a factor. It was common for owners to race the car as well as drive them on the streets. They introduced the four-cam racing "Carrera" engine, a totally new design and unique to Porsche sports cars, in late 1954. Increasing success with its racing and road cars brought Porsche orders for over 10,000 units in 1964, and, by the time 356 production ended in 1965, approximately 76,000 had been produced.
The 356 was built in four distinct series, the original, followed by the 356 A, 356 B, and finally the 356 C. To distinguish among the major revisions of the model, 356s are generally classified into a few major groups. The 356 coupés and "cabriolets" built through 1955 are readily identifiable by their split or bent windscreens. In late 1955, the 356 A appeared, with a curved windshield. The A was the first road going Porsche to offer the Carrera four-cam engine as an option. In late 1959, the T5 356 B appeared; followed by the redesigned T6 series 356 B in 1962. The final version was the 356 C, little changed from the late T6 B cars but disc brakes replaced the drums.
Prior to the completion of 356 production, Porsche had developed a higher-revving 616/36 version of the 356's four-cylinder pushrod engine for installation in a new 912 model that commenced production in April 1965. Although the 912 used numerous 356 components, Porsche did not intend for the 912 to replace the 356.
When the decision was made to replace the 356, the 901 was the road car designed to carry the Porsche name forward. The 912 was developed as the "standard version" of the 911 at the price of a 356 1600 SC, while the complex but faster and heavier six-cylinder 911 was priced more than fifty percent higher. Customers purchased nearly 33,000 912 coupés and Targas powered by the Type 616 engine that had served Porsche so well during the 356 era.
Models
356 "pre-A"
From the earliest, 1,100 cc Gmünd beginnings, the overall shape of the 356 remained more or less set. In 1951, 1,300 and 1,500 cc engines with considerably more power were introduced. In April 1952, the split windscreen was replaced by a slightly V-shaped, single windshield, which fit into the same shape opening. In 1953, the 1300 S or "Super" was introduced, and the 1,100 cc engine was dropped.In late 1954, Max Hoffman, the sole US importer of Porsches, convinced Porsche to build a stripped down roadster version with minimal equipment and a cut-down windscreen.
Towards the end of the original 356's time, Hoffman, wanting a model name rather than just a number, got the factory to use the name "Continental" which was applied mostly to cars sold in the United States. Ford, makers of the soon-to-be-presented Continental Mark II and owners of the naming rights, objected. This name was used only in 1955 and today this version is especially valued. For 1956, the equivalent version was briefly sold as the "European", in order to use up a batch of front fenders with pre-punched holes for a script logo to be installed. Today, all of the earliest Porsches are highly coveted by collectors and enthusiasts worldwide, based on their design, reliability and sporting performance.
The M422 Mighty Mite, a military light utility vehicle built for the United States Marine Corps, originally used the engine from the 1300 S, but the production M422 had to use a different engine due to regulations requiring US-built equipment in US military vehicles.
356 A
In late 1955, with numerous small but significant changes, the 356 A was introduced. Its internal factory designation, "Type 1", gave rise to its nickname "T1" among enthusiasts. In the US, 1,200 early 356s had been badged as the "Continental" and then a further 156 from autumn 1955 to January 1956 as an even rarer T1 "European" variant after which it reverted to its numerical 356 designation. In early 1957, a second revision of the 356 A was produced, known as Type 2. Production of the Speedster peaked at 1,171 cars in 1957 and then started to decline. The four-cam "Carrera" engine, initially available only in the spyder race cars, became an available option starting with the 356 A.Within the last 25 years, replicas of the 356 A have become very popular.
The most typical engine was a 4-cylinder boxer, which was air-cooled, naturally aspirated with dual downdraft Zenith carburetors, had a 2 valve per cylinder OHV valvetrain, and produced at 4,500 rpm and a maximum torque of at 2,800 rpm.
356 B
In late 1959, significant styling and technical refinements gave rise to the 356 B. The mid-1962 356 B model was changed to the T6 body type. Porsche did not draw attention to these changes, initially keeping the same model designation. However, when the T6 got disc brakes, with no other visible alterations, they called it the model C, or the SC when it had the optional, more powerful engine. A unique "Karmann hardtop" or "notchback" 356 B model was produced in 1961 and 1962. The 1961 production run was essentially a cabriolet body with the optional steel cabriolet hardtop welded in place. The 1962 line was a very different design in that the new T6 notchback coupé body did not start life as a cabriolet, but with its own production design. In essence, it had the cabriolet rear end design, the T6 coupé windshield frame and a unique hard top. Both years of these models have taken the name "Karmann notchback".356 C
The last revision of the 356 was the 356 C introduced for the 1964 model year. It featured disc brakes all around, radial Pirelli Cinturato tyres, as well as an option for the most powerful pushrod engine Porsche had ever produced, the "SC". Production of the 356 peaked at 14,151 cars in 1964, the year that its successor, the new Porsche 911, was introduced to the US market. The company continued to sell the 356 C in North America through 1965 as demand for the model remained quite strong in the early days of the heavier and more "civilized" 911.The last ten 356s were assembled for the Dutch Rijkspolitie, the highway patrolling predecessor of the Netherlands police force, in March 1966 as 1965 models. Using Porsches to control traffic and speeders was so successful on Holland's express-ways, that the Dutch national police branch kept using Porsche 911s into the watercooled era that began in 1998.