PORSCHE 356 SPEEDSTER

Year of manufacture 1957 Recorded mileage 499

Asking price €395,000 Vendor Eberhard Thiesen Gmbh & Co, Hamburg, Germany; 0049 40 99 99 86 800; eberhard-thiesen.de

WHEN IT WAS NEW Price $2995 Max power 59bhp Max torque 81lb ft 0-60mph 13.9 secs Top speed 99mph Mpg 37

Purists, look away now – partly because I don’t want you to be offended, but mainly because I don’t want you to buy this car and turn it into yet another boiled-sweet 356 Speedster restoration, wiping away the scars of history that, to me at least, make it all the more intriguing just as it is.

A genuine factory Speedster, this 356 was brought into the USA in 1957 by legendary importer Max Hoffman. Like so many of its kind, it soon found its way on to the track and by the early ’60s it was being campaigned by Dick Scarborough. Then a young driver came on to the Sports Car Club of America competition scene by the name of Ed Parlett. Having been to racing school, and subsequently crashed his first car, Ed acquired this 356 in 1969.

Over the following six years he campaigned the little Porsche across the East Coast, as well as at Daytona. In ’75 the car was sold to Pennsylvania-based driver Jack Klinges, but his plans to restore it never came to fruition and the 356 was put into storage in a hangar for the following 33 years. In 2008, it was discovered and brought to Europe, where its new German owner decided to preserve the fantastic patina of this period racer. He also delved into its past, going as far as to produce a documentary about his return to the USA to meet former owner/racer Ed, who presented him with the helmet he wore in period, along with various memorabilia that will be sold with the car.

The engine – a race-tuned 110bhp 1600 unit from a 912, fitted in 1969 to keep the car competitive – was overhauled in mid-2021. With just 885kg to pull, it should make the little Porsche pretty potent, while disc brakes from a 356C will help to slow it down. That engine is very much the shiniest thing in the car, sitting in a bay still painted the original Ivory while the rest of the car features Ed’s lairy black-and-orange livery. It’s all set off by some very appropriately SCCA American Racing five-spokes shod with aged Goodyear Blue Streak tyres. I adore the wear on those tyres, the brake dust on those rims, the faded ‘45’ roundels – the number it wore at Daytona – and the various biffs in the body that tell a story of door-to-door racing.

And it seems I’m not alone. “This Speedster is one of my favourite cars in stock,” says Bastian Hubald from vendor Eberhard Thiesen. “It came from the States in ’08, was made street legal and drives fantastic. It was never stripped after its racing life and had no major accidents. This car has the perfect story.”