THE PORSCHE TYPE 1
IT’S GERMAN FOR ‘THE GREYHOUND’ AND WAS AN EARLY NICKNAME GIVEN TO A LITTLE GERMAN SPORTS CAR, MORE FOR ITS FACTORY STANDARD GREY COLOUR THAN ITS SPEED
A CAR THAT CHANGED IT ALL FOR PORSCHE
The story of this pretty little sports car begins in a dreary old sawmill at Gmünd in Carinthia, Austria. Ferdinand Porsche had been ordered to leave Germany in 1944 to avoid allied bombing. Ferdinand had often tested some of his previous designs over the Katschberg Pass, one of the steepest roads in Europe, and knew the mayor of the nearby town of Gmünd. The mayor, keen for any economic investment in the small town, was happy to help find a place for the
famous German family. After the war ended, Ferdinand was held by the French as part of the repatriation process, so his son, Ferry, carried on the family business in the sawmill. In Austria, with staff or around 200, Gmünd would become the birthplace of the Porsche automobile marque.
Shortly after the Second World War, the Porsche family wanted a project that
Post-war Porsche project
Shortly after the Second World War, the Porsche family wanted a project that would renew the company’s design consultancy relationship with Volkswagen. The car they produced was said to be the 356th project for Porsche since they were established in 1931. The original Porsche car, now known as No. 1, was, more or less, a hot rod Beetle, a reliable but sporty mid-engined vehicle shaped like an inverted bathtub. It was road certified in 1948. Ferdinand Porsche had always wanted to build a sports car, and basing one on the design used for the lowly Beetle was a good way to get it done on a modest budget.
The No. 1 car challenged the way the world perceived this genre. The first production Porsche 356s moved the engine behind the rear axle, and this aluminium bodied cabriolet and coupe would continue to use mainly Volkswagen Beetle mechanicals. Initially, nobody noticed it, as it was hand-built in such small numbers. Just 52 aluminiumbodied cars were built in the Austrian town over a two-year period. Fortunately, during September of that year, Porsche signed a contract with Wolfsburg to share their dealer network. Volkswagen and Porsche cars would be sold side-by-side across Europe, and eventually the USA.
The cars could not be produced in Austria for political reasons, so in 1949, many of the workforce moved to Stuttgart, Germany, and took up temporary residence in the old Porsche family home. Future cars would be built in a 600-square-metre hall rented from Karosseriewerk Reutter & Co, a German coachbuilding company. There they would remain for the next 15 years.
would renew the company’s design consultancy relationship with Volkswagen
Early success
Two of the light-alloy cars were exhibited at the 1949 Geneva Motor Show and interest was such that Porsche decided to build 500 steel-bodied cars. Throughout the following winter, Erwin Komenda worked on the silhouette of the original Austrian car, and the car we now recognize as the 356 was born. In 1950, the steel-bodied coupes and cabriolets started to roll out of the Stuttgart factory. The 34kw (46hp) 1.1-litre engine car won its class at the 1951
Le Mans 24-hour race, beginning decades of Porsche motorsport victories. Performance improvements to VW’S humble flat-four engine included fitting twin carburettors in place of the Beetle’s single carb, a higher compression ratio, and lightweight aluminium cylinders with hard-wearing chrome-plated bores to replace the cast-iron cylinders of the air-cooled engine.
The US magazine Auto Sport Review described one of the early 1950s cars this way: “Here is a luxury car with a jewel-like body by Reutter coachbuilders, beautifully fitted cloth and leather trim, carefully engineered forced-air heating system, Telefunken radio, reclining seat for the passenger.” However, the article also said, “When you start the engine, for one horrible moment you have the feeling you are trapped in a drastically shrunken Greyhound bus; the rear engine is so fourcylindered and so air-cooled-sounding, with a thin, emphatic beat.” That aside, the 356 was still a popular car in the USA, with sales peaking at 10,000 units for the 1964 year.
Since his teenage years, Matthew had wanted to own a 356 but they did not come on the market very often and, when they did, were generally too expensive
The Type 1
From 1950 to late 1955, production would continue until it was replaced by the 356A, known in-house by the Porsche engineers as the Type 1. These cars were different from the cars that preceded it, as apart from the steering box, the Type 1 had no Volkswagen Beetle componentry. Which brings us to the star of this feature.
Finding one
For Matthew Dudley, now living in the Wairarapa, the 356 was the ultimate Porsche, and the Type 1 the first pure Porsche. He bought his first Porsche, a 1985 3.2-litre Garnet Red Carrera, when he was 22. From then on, and despite living in three different countries, he would seldom be without a Porsche. Since his teenage years, he had wanted to own a 356, but they did not come on the market very often and, when they did, they were generally too expensive. After relocating to Brisbane in 2010, he decided that he finally had the means to seriously consider buying one. He could only afford to buy a project car, with the best deal being a derelict that somebody had started to restore and then given up on. Of the cars he looked at, some had been done up, but not to the perfection and detail that Matthew’s disposition required. Eventually, he met Don Donaldson in Queensland who owned a couple of 356s, one he was restoring and one that was running.
After seeing the running car, although Matthew was interested, it did not press the right buttons, so he decided to give it a miss. However, Don had been impressed with Matthew’s enthusiasm for the marque. So much so that later, when he realized that he would not be able to complete the restoration on his other car, he offered it to Matthew for a very reasonable price. Matthew agreed,
knowing that it was a rare 1.3-litre Type 1, with the unique beehive tail lights, rather than the more common 1.5-litre cars with the gold lettering.
It’s the details that count
In June 2012, Don’s 1957 356A became a project for Matthew and his daughter Morgan, who, despite being only four years old, had fallen in love with the car. The two spent many happy hours stripping the car down. Her small hands could get into places that Matthew’s could not. During the stripdown, every part was labelled, bagged, and boxed carefully. It was while he was doing this that Matthew’s suspicions were confirmed that this was a matching number vehicle. At the time of purchasing, he knew that some parts were matching, but in the striping he noticed both engine and gearbox also had matching numbers. After confirming it with Porsche Australia, he realized that he had a real gem: an original car with all the parts it had left the factory with, right down to the panels and seats. Beneath the black-painted leather upholstery was the original red leather with factory-correct numbers. The car had originally been painted silver, not aquamarine blue. Even the wheels had matching numbers, which told Matthew they had been manufactured in May 1957. Matthew’s car was one of only 787 cars that had been manufactured in the Porsche factory during 1957. In 1964, it found its way to America where it would live until it was exported, still in left-hand drive guise, to Australia during 2010. It was last registered in the US in 1972, after which it remained garaged in a collection for many years. At some stage, it was ‘tidied up’ and painted blue and the leather upholstery was painted black.
Some more detail
During the Type 1’s production life from 1955 to 1957, Porsche built 5791 Porsche 356As. The Type 2 356A that would follow, albeit without the 1300 engine, would have a production run of 7225. Production would finish in 1965 with the 356C, or Type 5, car. Throughout its production lifespan, including its three variants, Porsche built 76,313 356 cars. It is estimated that as many as half of those produced still survive today, which says something about the legendary Porsche build quality, as well as the marque’s cache. The Porsche that followed the 356 would be called the 911. Where one legend ended, another would begin.