The unlikely star of a period photograph, this 356 has an interesting story
A late night, ebay and a glass or two of Merlot can be a dangerous combination, as Francophile, connoisseur of the esoteric, author and historian Reg Winstone discovered…
Fresh from reviewing Karl Ludvigsen’s ‘Origin of the Species’ for The Automobile magazine, Reg Winstone’s interest in Porsche 356s was piqued and, glass in hand, he started to browse the internet. His search eventually led him to the German ebay site where, surprisingly, he spotted a RHD 356B coupé at what seemed a very good price compared to the UK. His sense of caution dulled by the rouge, he submitted a bid.
Come the dawn he discovered that he was the owner – but not yet proud – of a silver S75 coupé. The only catch was that it was located close to the small town of Lebus, due east of Berlin and only the width of the river Oder from the Polish border! Not round the corner, then.
Undaunted, a few days later Reg booked a Lufthansa flight, packed a money belt with cash and set off alone, with not even an emergency spanner with him. The plan was to arrive in time to buy a few tools locally in case of any mechanical hiccups on the drive back but, in a rare for Germany case of industrial disruption, Lufthansa pilots were on strike and the plane arrived five-hours behind schedule. This not only frustrated Reg but also the vendor who had waited at the airport and was in a tetchy mood.
After a further few hours travel by car to Lebus, Reg’s inspection of his acquisition had to be carried out by the light of his iphone while kneeling in several inches of water. Until a few days earlier the car had not been in use for several years, but the mechanic owner had ensured that it was fit for the road (it had a German TÜV) and money changed hands. It was now 1.30am and although tired, but with no hospitality on offer and no welcoming inn signs in what was still the
“CAUTION DULLED BY THE ROUGE, HE SUBMITTED A BID…”
impoverished outer edge of what was the former communist East Germany, Reg climbed aboard for his first-ever taste of Porsche motoring and the 1300km drive back to East Sussex.
It’s worth pointing out at this stage that Reg’s previous motoring interests had not being inclined towards the Germanic, however he was not unaccustomed to the throb of an air-cooled engine. A committed Francophile, he lived in France for many years and has owned a succession of Citrôen 2CVS for his entire motoring life, as well as several flat-twin Panhards – all of course with their engines at the sharp end.
Apart from his love of Citrôens – he currently has a Traction Avant, a 2CV and a DS – Reg has a passion for the idiosyncratic output of aviation pioneer turned automobile manufacturer, Gabriel Voisin, and runs a 1920 Avions Voisin C1 ‘Laboratoire’ race car. And the 356 was not his first rearengined car, either, having had a brief dalliance with a Karmann Ghia and been caught out in a big way by a Renault Alpine A310, which he managed to deposit backwards into a central reservation.
Incidentally, for several years Reg also owned the quite extraordinary 1923 Gerin – a super streamlined French prototype with its engine mounted ahead of the rear axle, created a full decade before Ferdinand Porsche’s Auto Union (it's well worth a visit to Youtube to hear him talking about it).
All too conscious of the 356’s reputation for performing impromptu pirouettes if not handled with care and not having practiced the wischen cornering technique about which he had read so much, Reg set out cautiously, gradually gaining confidence and speed as he motored westwards. Some 21 hours later, and without any untoward dynamic or mechanical
mishaps, Reg was within three miles of home when the oil warning light illuminated. Fearing an engine seizure he stopped, cadged a lift to the nearest garage, bought some oil and topped up.
The warning light still glowed ominously but without a handbook and a lack of familiarity with the instrumentation it was only later that he discovered that it was, in fact, the generator light. All in all not bad for a 50-year-old car that hadn’t been on the road for years. But then of course it is a Porsche.
Remarkably, despite its sojourn in Germany, 89 JVA had never been declared as exported and came complete with its British registration documents, requiring only a new set of number plates to restore its UK identity.
For the next four years Reg smoked around in his Super 75 but it was during this time that it became apparent that the previous owner had been something of a genius with the Isopon (bondo). The ominous bodywork bubbles once so familiar to 356 owners were beginning to surface through the artfully applied layers of body filler. It was also during this time that a remarkable piece of serendipity revealed the brief modelling career of 89 JVA.
Reg’s friendly MOT tester contacted him to ask if he was aware that his car appears in a book by Leeds-based documentary photographer Peter Mitchell? It seems that an unknown photography buff (and it might be fair to assume that he may also have been a Porsche enthusiast, too) browsing Peter Mitchell’s book, intriguingly entitled, ‘A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission’, had out of curiosity looked the number up on the DVLA website and, spotting the name of the MOT station, contacted them via their Facebook page.
Peter Mitchell, living and working in Leeds as a truck driver, became fascinated by the rapidly changing urban landscape, the decaying architecture of shops, factories and houses that were disappearing on a day-to-day basis. As he drove around the city he took to carrying a camera with him to document their descent into oblivion. Locals even began to comment that ‘If Mitchell photographs them, they’re goners’. And they were going so rapidly that more often than not they had disappeared by the next time that he passed by on his delivery rounds.
Peter made diary notes for each of his photos and the entry for this particular shot reads, ‘Kingston Racing Motors.
“89 JVA HAD NEVER BEEN DECLARED AS EXPORTED…”
Sunday. Spring 1975. 4.00pm. Olinda Terrace, Leeds. Is the man with the wrench a mechanic? Why is the bird with the clapped out Porsche looking so naughty? Will James C. Gallagher, whose business it is, always have his back to the camera? And why did Barry after painting the wall have to leave Leeds? The council demolished the lot shortly after this snap.’ (If anyone reading this can answer any of the above questions we would love to know.)
From the battered look of 89 JVA, no-one would argue with ‘clapped out’ as a description of its condition. With its oxidized paint, bashed in nose, missing bumper and drooping spotlights this was a motor at the bottom of its curve of desirability and teetering on the very brink of becoming another of Peter’s ‘goners’. It seems quite remarkable that it didn’t make a trip to the breaker’s yard but it appears that some time after the photograph was taken, having hit rock bottom, it started on a slow but steady upward trajectory.
The 356B, designated T5, replaced the 356A T2 and was first shown to the public at the September 1959 Frankfurt motor show (T3 and T4 were unfulfilled projects.) Many Porsche purists of the time were shocked and dismayed by the ‘Americanisation’ of Erwin Komenda’s sensually curved original.
Bumpers were raised front and rear and sported chunkier overriders, a practical solution to parking-by-feel dings inflicted by bulldozer-grade American bumpers but aesthetically less satisfactory. The extra space now revealed below the front bumper was perforated by two large, horizontally-grilled brake cooling ducts that many owners chose to fill with optional fog lights. The headlamps were also raised, creating a straighter line to the tops of the wings.
At the rear the central lighting unit disappeared, its number plate lights incorporated into the rear bumper, with the
reversing light set into the body below bumper height. Opening front quarter lights appeared and inside there was a new black plastic dished steering wheel and a shorter more substantial gear lever connected to a gearbox with improved synchromesh and mountings. Brakes remained the same internally but the drums were now stronger with 72 heat dissipating fins arranged laterally.
Occasional rear passengers gained more headroom by lowering the seat cushion wells. The fold-down rear seat back was now split so that luggage could be accommodated next to a single passenger. Engine options were unchanged from those of the A series, with a 60hp ‘Normal’ and a 75hp ‘S’ version, but they were joined by an exciting new motor in the form of the Super 90.
After only two years the T5 body was superseded by the ‘square bonnet’ T6, which boasted many more changes and eventually morphed in 1963 into the final iteration of the 356 line, the 356C. The ‘B’ would be the most produced of all 356s with 30,963 of all body types reaching discerning customers. And discerning you most certainly were as the 356 commanded a healthy premium over the domestic product with little or no benefit in performance.
At £2049 in 1960, the 356B cost well over double the price of a Triumph TR3, over £1000 more than an Austin-healey 3000 and £400 more than a Jaguar XK150. Not a surprise then that through the entire run of the 356, from Pre-a to C, less than a thousand RHD cars found British buyers, of which approximately 200 were T5 B coupés.
The AFN Kardex states that chassis 115347 is a 1600 Super 75 built in April 1961, finished in Slate Grey (years before association with Steve Mcqueen made it a cult colour and one of around 30 sold in the UK) with a red interior, and was delivered to John Croall in Edingburgh. John Croall & Sons was a long established Edingburgh firm of coachbuilders and dealers (as well as undertakers) who registered the car ‘S 75’.
The AFN Kardex also records that the engine was replaced under warranty in the first year with unit 88915, which is still in the car. Croall’s retained the ‘S 75’ plate when they sold it to its first private owner, a Yorkshire farmer, who registered it with its current plate in 1962. (The DVLA says that ‘S 75’ is now attached to a grey Volvo, which seems a shame).
During the 13-years that elapsed before it appeared in Peter Mitchell’s photo it clearly led a tough life down on the farm, effectively becoming what we now like to call ‘a barn
“IT HAD CLEARLY LED A TOUGH LIFE DOWN ON THE FARM…”
find’. In the 1980s it was back in the south having been acquired by Jukes Productions, a London-based music promotion company run by Geoff Jukes, whose clients at various times included Kate Bush, Bob Geldof and the band Underworld. One can only speculate on what famous derrieres may have cruised the streets of the capital in the Porsche, now registered as ‘89 JVA’.
Between Leeds and London the B had also changed colour, now finished in red, and one presumes undergone some sort of restoration as it seems unlikely that someone in the music business would have bought an old banger. In the early 2000s Jukes, who had in the meantime founded the Meridian Trust Centre for Buddhist Thought, was in Berlin where once again 89 JVA moved on, sold to the mechaniccum-restorer from Lebus in whose hands it underwent another transformation, this time finished in silver with a blue leather interior. The new owner used it sparingly for a few years before laying it up and finally putting it on ebay in 2012.
Eventually the inadequacy of the German restoration was becoming annoyingly apparent to Reg and in late 2017 he entrusted 89 JVA to Ben Brown and Jànos Varga of Lewes, East Sussex, for a proper back to metal restoration. Ben and Jànos maintain Reg’s Avions Voisin racer and the 356 entered their workshop alongside another 356 they were restoring as well as their ‘normal’ complement of Bugattis and vintage machinery. While the bodywork was being attended to the engine and gearbox were stripped and checked before being reassembled and a new charging system installed – no more flashing generator lights.
The refurbished shell was then transported to Kingswell Coachworks of Battle, East Sussex, to be repainted in the original Slate Grey. Finally Porsche specialist Garry Hall at Classic FX retrimmed the interior to its original Bordeaux Red specification, including the as-delivered corduroy seat inserts. Reg was reunited with the car this summer and after 58-years the life of 356 Super 75 coupé 89 JVA had completed a full circle and now looks and feels as good as the day it was first driven from the showroom.