PORSCHE 356A

Year of manufacture 1957 Recorded mileage 14,250

Asking price £120,000 Vendor Old Racing Car Company, North Walsham, Norfolk; 01692 538007; oldracingcar.com

WHEN IT WAS NEW Price £1958 Max power 115bhp Max torque 91lb ft 0-60mph 16.5 secs Top speed 99mph Mpg 29

In a box in a chest beside the bed, among the rarely used Scalextric, Subbuteo and World Cup Cricket, there’s a 1:43 white Porsche 356 given to me by my dad. It’s not worth anything, not least since either he or I lost the box and stand, but I’ve kept it nonetheless. Looking it up online, nor is it particularly factually correct: the box would tell me it’s from the 1952 Targa Florio when no Porsche 356 entered, let alone given the number 32.

The point is that it reflects just how much I wanted a 356 as a kid. Above even an F40 and 959. I was too young to hear the ‘just a dressed-up Beetle’ barbs: it was a pure little sports car that wasn’t as intimidating as the supercars. Then, it was always a silver coupé or convertible with gleaming brightwork on my shopping list, but now it’s something a little more used and a little less auction catalogue. Which drew me instantly to the Old Racing Car Company in Norfolk and the ex-carrera Panamericana 356A from 1957.

Bumperless, in a lovely Carrera Blue with aged Mexico sticker on the engine cover, it has all the hallmarks of a car that has never been afraid to go the distance rather than hide behind a garage door. In the 1990s and early 2000s it tackled the Mexican road race four times painted black with yellow accents, plus the Maroc Classic and London to Athens World Cup Rally in this blue.

But now, with its sand-strewn rally days over, the car has been gone through and returned to a more period-correct state including its dash, plus the little details re-added along with an appropriate wooden steering wheel. Yet bonnet straps and Hella spotlights remain to set off ‘the look’ that really suits the rasping character, and the brakes are discs rather than drums for better road use. And it would get plenty of that, certainly.

Andy Prill of Prill Porsche Classics fitted a new 1720cc engine in 2003, the car having had a big-bore unit when in competition trim, and rebuilt the later 356B gearbox, but the car has barely been used since. The updates – including a competition flywheel and more – have yielded a very useful 124bhp. Perhaps it’s ready to return to the stage with the next owner (much of the rally miscellany is tastefully in the glovebox), and ORC points out that it’s now Mille Miglia eligible because of the work done to revert it to period – brakes aside.

The seats look a little too new, and it’s left-hand drive, but it’s very reasonably priced, in the grand scheme of all things Porsche.