The Origin – The 356
No celebration of the 50th birthday of Porsche’s 911 can ignore the 356, the beginning of the rear-engined, air-cooled story. Wayne Graves, of Autothority in Christchurch, very kindly allowed me to try his wife Jo’s 1956 356A coupe, known as no. 7 in the New Zealand Porsche world, as it is the 7th Porsche to arrive in the country.
Rather embarrassingly, it now has the dubious distinction of being the first car I have driven for a Classic Driver story to have received a speed-camera ticket in the process. Annoyingly, the photo will show me pointing to the cunningly disguised van at the bottom of Dyers Pass and saying to photographer Alex “Look – he’s hard to spot – I wonder if cameras pick up bicycles,” as yet another seemingly bullet-proof lycra-clad missile shot past me at a million miles per hour.
Purchased new in South Africa by Christchurch speedway rider Trevor Redmond, part of the huge Kiwi influx trying their hand on the UK speedway circuit at the time, his silver coupe arrived in Christchurch on 14 December 1959 and of course is therefore a very desirable factory RHD example. With the value of the 356 going skyward recently it is great to know that Jo’s car is no pampered show queen and she and Wayne make sure the Porsche gets regular and enthusiastic outings.
The car has had an interesting life and came close to not surviving... it was rediscovered around 2000 in a dismantled state, suspended from the roof of a hanger at Ardmore destined to be the buck for moulds to make fibreglass replicas
The car has had an interesting life and came close to possibly not surviving. Known in Porsche club circles until the end of the 1970s, by which time it had changed colour to bright yellow, it was rediscovered around 2000 in a dismantled state, suspended from the roof of a hanger at Ardmore where it was destined to be the buck for moulds to make fibreglass replicas. Luckily it was rescued from its precarious perch and was fully restored back to its original condition and silver colour.
While I have driven many types of Porsche, this was the first time I had my backside in a 356 and I was looking forward to it. This is one of those cars seemingly bigger on the inside than out, and despite being designed with speed rather than comfort in mind, was easy to slip into and with Alex, Tony and associated camera gear installed inside, there was plenty of space. Turn the key in the simple silver-painted dash and the 1600cc four bursts into life with a sound which, when inside the car, resembles the humble VW from which the model took its roots. Luckily, the sound is much more interesting from the outside. Alex, whom I left standing on a fog-shrouded mountainside, was happy to report the emergence of the 356 from the fog for some moving shots was preceded by what he described as the sound of a swarm of angry bees.
While the humble VW Beetle (or Käfer as my German friends recently reminded me) has many fans, including my father who went rallying, sprinting and hill-climbing in one, long before my arrival, my experience was they are uncomfortable, slow, noisy and have horrible pedals. I am very happy to report that the 356 is none of these! The pedal placement is perfect for heel-andtoe downshifts and the gearshift itself is simply outstanding! Better, in fact, than many 911 versions.
This really is no re-hashed 1930s people’s car. Yet any fool (even this one) can feel immediately at home in it. What I hadn’t thought of until it was pointed out by Alex, was that I could get into it and simply drive away without having to feel my way around the clutch, throttle response, brakes or any of the myriad of things which can take some easing-into with performance or older cars. We had not gone more than 500m down the road before I announced “I like this... I like it a lot. I could easily live with one of these.” Dreams are free!
Time now, having tried the father, to exercise the son...