356 Carrera – a £500k discovery?
Gooding and Company has announced the discovery of a 1957 Porsche 356A Carrera GS coupé, off the road since it failed a State inspection in 1973. The car was sold new to a US Air Force pilot who was perhaps dogged by the same headaches over reliability and expensive maintenance that affected many Carrera owners – he eventually sold it to a Porsche mechanic in Georgia when it broke down on its way to Florida. Gooding’s Tyler Gagnon takes up the tale.
‘The mechanic, Manfred Loewen, sold the car to the current owner in 1969, but the engine ended up having a bearing failure, so it was replaced with a Porsche 912 engine. The original motor comes with the car, however. In 1973, it failed a State inspection due to the brakes and has been sitting ever since.’
The Carrera 1500 used not only gear-driven double overhead camshafts but also a roller-bearing crank, and sorting that out may well have cost more than the ageing Porsche was worth in the late Sixties.
Nowadays, all variants of the 356 Carrera are highly valued and few more so than a 1500. The car’s original interior remains intact, which contributes to Gooding’s pre-sale estimate of $600k-$700k (£425k to £495k). It crosses the block at Amelia Island on March 9, where another dilapidated 356 1500 – a 1953 Super Coupé – will be offered, along with a long-nose Ferrari 275GTB with a thick layer of dust on its alloy body.