Could this be the first ever 356 Outlaw, photographed well ahead of the previously thought beginnings of the Porsche Outlaw movement? Perhaps Ferry Porsche was indeed well ahead of his time.

Before all manner of emails come my way correctly answering the question, you’re right, it’s impossible! For starters, the C Coupe was built 17 years AFTER this photograph was taken in 1948.

Shane, the owner of the 356 Outlaw in the picture, sent this over. His buddy, Josh Withers (you can check out his work at JoshWithers.com) dropped Shane’s car into the picture. You should know that the color of Shane’s SWEET ride is the same Silver as the Porsche shown in the photograph. He contacted the factory to get the exact paint codes.

Check out more images of Shane’s car in the post I put up here: One Heck Of A Porsche 356 Outlaw.

Thanks for sending this over Shane!

Porsche 356 Cabriolet – Bullitt

Factor in some of the best car chase scenes of all time and the iconic figure of Steve McQueen and you get a pretty special film. A whole host of legendary motors star in Bullitt, including the Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang, Porsche 356 Speedster and Porsche 356 Cabriolet. While the Ford Mustang, driven my McQueen’s character Frank Bullitt, undoubtedly steals the show, the 356 Cabriolet more than holds its own in the style stakes.

Porsche 356 Speedster – Top Gun

Top Gun is one of the most memorable movies to come out of the 80s and while the majority of the action takes place in the skies, there’s still time for Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, and his love interest to cruise around in an über-cool black 356 Speedster, a model that featured prominently in Doc Hollywood in the early 1990s as well. Cruise also drove a 928 in Risky Business and memorably said in the film: “Porsche – there is no substitute.”

Porsche 911 – Gone in 60 Seconds

There are too many cars to mention in the 2000 remake of the 1974 film. For anyone in need of a quick refresher of what the movie was about, Nicolas Cage’s Memphis character assembles an all-star crew to help steal 50 cars in 72 hours, five of which are Porsche models, a 996, 959, 911, Boxster and Speedster. It was the 911, though, that took the distinction of being the first to be stolen in the film, which grossed well over $200 million in total.

Porsche Kremer 935 – Cannonball Run

Plenty of petrol heads will have a soft spot for Cannonball Run, which featured a cast of Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett and Jackie Chan. J.J. McClure, played by Reynolds, is seen behind the wheel of a Kremer 935, although admittedly it’s easy to overlook this given the sea of cars taking part in the cross-country race, including a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Aston Martin DB5, Ferrari 308 GTS and Lamborghini Countach.

Porsche Boxster – Legally Blonde

Okay, hands up who has watched Legally Blonde and admired the bodywork on show? The bodywork of the Boxster, of course. The main character of Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon, may not be renowned as the sharpest tool in the tool box, but you cannot fault her choice in cars and it gets plenty of airtime in Legally Blonde.

This is a guest post submitted by Emma, equal parts Porsche fan and movie fanatic!

[Images: imcdb.org]

Yesterday I posted about the Porsche Day at the Allure of the Automobile in Portland. While each week has brought some amazing cars to be viewed, there is always one or two extra special cars, usually early models with some serious history backing up their uniqueness. This week was no different with what is thought to be Oregon’s oldest registered driving Porsche 356 on display.

As a side note, I thought the silver Porsche 911 Turbo Look that you can see in the right hand side of this picture was worthy of Show Crown Jewel status, since I spent some seat time in it while it was for sale at Gran Prix Imports (check out the post here: I Think I’m In Love). Nobody seemed to think that I brought enough clout to elevate the car’s status though. Go figure.

Back to the Porsche 356.

The owner was no where to be found, so I didn’t have a chance to get any more details other than a cool little history lesson from a sign he had set up next to the car. Also, as you can imagine, pictures were tough to take given the constant stream of people that surrounded the car. Here are a few cool facts about this car:

• 1953 Porsche 356
• The first in the 356 series with the “bent windshield”
• Stock Color: Azure Blue
• Max Speed: 85 mph (can you imagine ripping down the road at 85 in this thing?!)
• Fuel Consumption: 35 mpg
• Thought to be the oldest registered driving Porsche 356 in the State of Oregon

Here are a few more things about the Porsche 356 series from the owner’s sign on display with the car:

The first fifty Porsche 356 cars were hand built with aluminum bodies hand formed over wooden “bucks” in Gmund, Austria. The style 356 on display (the 1953 car pictured in this post) was produced between 1950 – 1955 and is known as the Pre A. Originally known as a “356″ it was later renamed “Pre-A” to differentiate it from the 356 A that began production in October 0f 1955.

Porsche has a history of continuous refinement dating back to the first days of automobile production and the Pre-A 356 was no exception. One of the changes to the body style was going from a “split windshield” that had two pieces of glass separated by a metal strip down the center to this model referred to as the “bent windshield”.

Total production of the 356 was 78,000 worldwide between 1948 and 1965.

Thanks to owner Doug Naef for bringing his car out on Saturday!

Nearly every major Porsche model was represented with the exception of the Cayenne and Panamera. I suppose I understand that, but I was hoping to see a couple of tricked out models. Guess those owners aren’t proud of their cars.

Pictures were tough given the crowds and combination of sun and shadows cast from the trees. Here are a few, though, that will give you a taste of Porsche goodness we got to experience today.

The above Porsche 356 Speedster was the first car in the line and set the stage for the 2 blocks worth of Porsches waiting for us.

The above Porsche 356 Outlaw was one of my favorite cars of the day. It was the only Outlaw 356 on display.

My wife loved the wicker luggage on this Porsche 356 C.

All in all, one great great day!

I love pure, unadulterated, completely original Porsche 356 cars. They’re the essence of Porsche and represent such an important part in Porsche history. That said, I have a confession to make that likely will not come as a surprise to anyone who’s read PorschePerfect for any length of time. I’m quickly getting to a point where I love customized or reinterpreted Porsche 356 cars just as much as original examples. Now before all you purists out there send me hate mail and delete my feed from your RSS reader, at least hear me out.

I think the thing I love about 356 Outlaws and modified cars is the blending of old and new. I love the 356, and there’s just something about maintaining all those classic lines and Porsche-essence while also increasing the personalization and enjoying of the car with some modern touches. Just my own personal feelings.

I came across Duke’s Garage a few weeks ago and have been back a few times to look at the classic cars on the site, especially the Porsche 356 and 550 Spyder relicas. Duke’s Garage seems to specialize in replicas, with a particular focus on electrifying the classics. One of their prime projects is the Porsche 356 eSpeedster. I have to say this is one sexy looking car.

Their goal is to achieve what they call the 70-7-70 rule. A range of 70 miles on a single charge, a recharge time of 7 hours, and a top speed of 70 mph. An eSpeedster would be a great commuting and local driver car.

The eSpeedster even puts up some respectable performance numbers:

• 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds
• Quarter mile time of 14.8 seconds at 92 mph
• Top speed of 130 mph

(figures based on the inclusion of a CB Performance built 1915 cc 125 hp engine and stock gearbox ratios)

Overall these are great looking rides and run around $50,000. You can view more pictures and some video at the Duke’s Garage website here: Duke’s Garage eSpeedster.

The car was taken from this (the condition the car was in when Shane purchased it sight unseen):

To this:

Simply UNBELIEVABLE! I don’t know how many people I’ve shown this car to, and every time I pull up the pictures, it’s like I’m seeing them for the first time. They are so captivating.

Here are the original specs on the car from the Certificate of Authenticity:

Year: 1965
Vehicle Identification Number: 222063
Model: 356C / 1600 SC Karmann Coupe
Production Completion Date: February 19th, 1965
Number of 356C Coupes Produced in 1965: Only 1101
Transmission Number / Type: 85879 (741/2C)
Original Paint Color / Code: Ruby Red / 6402
Interior Material Color / Type: Black Leatherette / B
Optional Equipment: Ventilated Chrome Wheels with Phoenix Tires (165/15)
Suggested Retail Price in 1965: $4,685.00

Shane was kind enough to send over more pictures along with the following thoughts on the project, car and process:

What turned you onto the idea of a 356, and in particular an Outlaw style car?

I always thought my first Porsche would be a 911, not sure why that was, but in my mind that was the car for me. So when I decided that I wanted to try and meet this goal of mine that I set earlier in my life I started looking at that model. I always knew that I did not want a modern car, my thought was anyone can go to a car lot and buy a car right off the lot if you have enough money, that did not appeal to me. What I did not want is to buy a new Porsche and then someone else would pull up next to me at a stop light with the same car, kind of silly but a concept I did not care for. So I started looking into the early 1970 911 cars and what I found was the granddaddy of all things Porsche, the original model that started it all, the 356. I think it was the history that surrounded these cars that made me quickly realize that this was the model for me. James Dean, Janis Joplin, even though it was a fake the Speedster in Top Gun, all these realizations came to my head about the history and pedigree of these cars and it was a no-brainer at that point.

As for why an Outlaw, I started looking at hundreds and hundreds of images of 356 cars and I just gravitated towards the Outlaws. Not that the stock cars are not nice, but if I was going to go through the trouble of building a car from scratch, why not make it my own. With a stock car everything is already laid out for you, the decisions have been made, with an Outlaw the sky is the limit and that is what I wanted. I kept saving images of cars and details that I liked about the early Porsche model and these images inevitably were of Outlaw cars. So very early on with my conversations I was telling Bill we are going to do an Outlaw. He was very supportive and said that if we were going to do an Outlaw there is a right way to do one and a wrong way to do one and that he would show me the way. I should also state that I never plan on selling this car unless for some reason I cannot feed my family, but the car will be with me for the rest of my life and I am not worried about resale value and with that concept I am set free not to worry about things other people would worry about. For instance, if we were not going to have bumpers, we were going to weld the bumper holes shut, something many Outlaws would not dream of doing because some day they may need to put the bumpers back on the car in order to get more money from their investment. I had no such concerns. Another instance is that we removed the very bulky and rather afterthought ashtray that come on the 1965 models, it looked like an afterthought to me and I am not a smoker and being an Oncology Nurse, what do I need an ash tray for? Hold change? I did not think so, so Bill chopped it off the dash and the appearance of the dash is must more sporty and “less is more” kind of thing. Just a couple of examples of our mentality when it came to the car, do it the way we want, don’t worry about the cost and don’t worry about getting our money out of the car, this is not an investment, it is a dream come true.

How did you arrive at the engine spec?

Well since we knew we were going through the entire car and that would include a full rebuild of the motor, why not go big? Again budget was not much of an issue and when I stared reading books on how to make a 356 go fast, it became evident that we had many choices and options. What I did not want to have happen is to use a motor not native to the car. It may be for some guys but putting a 911 motor into a 356 really defeats the purpose and takes away from the pedigree of the car. If was too worried about speed, I would have got a 911 Turbo, that is not what I was looking for, I wanted vintage motor sporting and I wanted to make sure we stayed with a stock case and stock heads. What I love about my car now that I think about it is that it is a “sleeper”, if you look under the deck lid you will pretty much see stock car except for the Webers. What you do not see is the performance parts and modifications that are the heart of the motor. My Uncle Tom Huber who has worked on hotrod cars for 40 years just shakes his head at cost of these modifications and parts, we could have purchased two big block crate V8 motors for the same investment, but then again they would not have Porsche stamped on them. We knew the stock SC motor put out about 95HP and we knew we could improve on that. Our goal was 150HP using the original case and heads, a daunting task indeed but for a car that weighs less that 2000 pounds, a significant performance improvement over stock. It should be noted that from my research, less than 400 cars came with an SC motor in 1965, that was for worldwide distribution.

Do you have the full engine spec available?

Scat racing crankshaft – stock stroke
Carrillo connecting rods
1883cc Nickies cylinders with JE lightweight pistons
LN Engineering performer camshaft
LN Engineering – CNC designed heads
Aluminum oil cooler
Chromoly pushrods
Petronix ignitor
Weber 40IDF carbs
Competition Engineering machine work
Precision Matters full flow oil filter
Stebro Stainless quad slant tip exhaust.

Who chose the paint scheme, and why?

I am very happy to say that the paint concept and the white race stripe was completely my idea, and Bill did share with me that he was not too fond of the white stripe on paper, but now that he has been around the car for so many months, I think the scheme has really won him over. One of the most interesting aspects of this build to me is the selection of paint colors. I knew that I wanted a silver Porsche, but I was very naive to think there were only a couple of silver colors available, there are a million shades of silver and with my research I thought to myself, if we are going to do silver, lets do “the” silver of the first Porsche ever, the infamous K45-286. So I sent some emails and made a phone call to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. I got the name of a curator by the name of Jens Torner in Germany. He was very helpful and provided the paint codes we needed to try and match the very first infamous car.

Tell me about the interior – Speedster seats were an early choice, but what else?

After looking and researching the early cars it made sense to go with the Speedster seats, this was going to be a race inspired Outlaw so they were a must. I also love the fact that James Dean spent his entire first paycheck as an actor on his first Porsche. I think his story was tragic but was also inspiring. We also went with the WWII B2 Bomber seat belts another feature many of the early race cars utilized. The wood Derrington steering wheel was also a must have just because it so much more interesting than a stock ’65 steering wheel. No sun visors were needed, heck we will be wearing our sun glasses when we drive this bad boy, so save on the weight is the way I looked at it, again “less is more”. We also got a Emory Motorsports German Adler “bird of prey” shift knob, another no brainier. The Emory family has a longstanding history of making top of the line Outlaw cars and Rod has also been supportive through my restoration. In fact, he has promised me a Emory Outlaw Badge for the grilles on the back of my car. This is a very coveted piece of metal and it is an honor, you cannot buy them, his family must present one to your car. He has already promised that I have earned mine and the next time the jeweler makes a batch, one is coming for my car. These are all handmade, again a true honor. We also got ourselves a set of aluminum race pedals, why, for no other reason than they look mean.

Tell me about the exterior?

I loved what these early 356 and the Spyder cars meant to James Dean so I wanted again to tip my hat to him and the 550 Spyder that he died in so tragically. So I went with a Spyder driver’s side rearview GT mirror and a Spyder license light housing. In order to have a true outlaw, the bumpers had to go, and with no bumpers we had no way to illuminate the rear plate. So I found the Spyder housing and we utilized that, it goes very well with the rest of the lines of the car. Since this was going to be race inspired, we decided to get a race tow hook up front and I think it turned out very well, from Rennline products. All of the vintage racing pictures of 356 cars were usually taken on dirt and gravel roads and to celebrate that heritage we went with the front headlight grilles. Another personal touch to the car was paying homage to Dean Jeffries and finding a set of German Iron Cross torsion bar covers. You see, in 1956 Mr. Jefferies built what most people refer to as the first Porsche 356 Outlaw. In fact a gentleman by the name of Jack Walters is presently restoring the old Dean Jeffries Outlaw right now and it is going to be magnificent. I also was able to research that Mr. Jeffries was the painter that put the 130 on the side of James Dean’s car weeks before the crash and he also did the paint scheme for James Dean, which is very cool. Dean Jeffries fabricated his own pair and I found a set of reproduction covers and they look fantastic. I have the stock ones also but I do not see myself swapping them out. The history behind the German Iron Cross goes back over 500 years and it really was a positive symbol until WWII and Hitler decided to have his way with such historical positive insignias. So what we are doing is displaying the Iron Cross with pride and erasing a little bit of the damage Hitler did to this history of this image. The car was Made in Germany, my descendants are German, so it is on my car as part of my heritage as well.

How long did the project take?

We overnighted a money order for the car on the 4th of July, 2009. We finished the build for all intensive purposes on January 18th when Bill took the car on the road for the first time, so to answer the question about 18 months.

Did the car live up to my expectations?

The entire experience and the final product have completely exceeded any expectation I had for the car and the attention the car received at the track at Harris Hill Road was also confirming our thoughts that this is a pretty special car.

Would I do anything different?

No, I think we made all the right decisions to make it everything it could be. Bill has allowed me to make this car mine in every way and I am thankful for that.

What are your plans for the car now?

The only plan I have for the car is to drive it. This is not a trailer car or a show car. It was put together by Bill to be driven and enjoyed. I understand my role as the caretaker of this wonderful car for years to come and I hope someday my kids look back at the car and the process, and even scratches and maybe dents and say “Dad did that”. I have documented every aspect of the build also for the next caretaker to enjoy. I truly believe this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am treating it like that.

Final thoughts?

I am just very grateful to be able to pull this restoration off. As a young boy if you would have told me that this would come to fruition I probably would not have believed you. There have been so many people in the 356 community that have assisted me and contributed to my car and I am very thankful to everyone that took the time to help me. I am mostly grateful to Bill and Mick at Hamilton Classics not only for a wonderful car but for the friendship we have created over this past 18 months. I am not just a customer to him and he is not just a guy with a wrench to me. He is a mentor to everything 356 and I am very lucky to have stumbled upon Hamilton Classics early on in this process. At the end of the day, it is just tin, leather and rubber, but what special tin, leather and rubber it actually is. To think this car had no chance at the road, 25 years in a garage in terrible condition but now it is back on the road and not only that, it was out on the track for a glorious day on January 22nd. I will never forget this process and I hope the car has many many more years on the road until it’s next caretaker comes along and decides that it is special enough also to save once again.

Such a great process. Thanks for sharing with us Shane!

Thanks again James for letting us follow along on this project!

From James…

I’m sorry for the delay in getting out a report on the car. The project is actually on hold for now but I can fill you guys in with one last update till it comes out of hibernation. When we left off the sheet metal work was finished.

Next we did some filler work under the hood to fill some welds and small dents.

The same goes for the engine bay. notice we leave the factory stamping ripples.

Now we lead the weld seams on the rockers and door jambs like the factory.

After body work the panels are primed inside and out

The body is also primed. this is the first round next we will block it out and reprime before paint.

We also fill the engine tins to make the engine bay as nice as the rest of the car.

If you missed any of the previous installments, you can view them here: Porsche Restoration.

If you suffer from a lack of time, ADD, or just don’t want to watch 40 minutes of video, these will be just the ticket for you. Even if you watched the original ones, you’ll like seeing these clips. Just amazing how these cars were originally assembled.

Here are a couple they highlighted along with a few details about each:

1952 356 Cabriolet

This car is the official winner of the contest. To me, this is the absolute picture perfect Porsche 356 and is exactly what I think of when I picture one. The model, color, heck even the setting for the picture. This car is owned by Dr. Robert Wilson of Oklahoma City, OK. He found it in a salvage yard and completely restored it. A poster child for the 356 model.

1950 356 Cabriolet

Although this is older than the winning Porsche, it’s not the oldest Porsche actually retailed in the U.S. This is one heck of a gorgeous car though. It’s owned by Richard Brumme of Annapolis, MD and is one of the first production 356s built in Stuttgart.

Porsche didn’t stop there though. They encouraged owners across 12 model ranges to submit their cars for consideration in earning the “oldest” designation for their particular model. Here are the winners of each model:

1965 911: Barry August of Clarksville, Md.
1965 912: Steve Torkelsen of Wilton, Conn.
1970 914: Ralph Stoesser of Marco Island, Fla.
1977 924: Jay Hoover of New Haven, Ind.
1977 928: Jim Doerr of Richmond, Va.
1983 944: John Denning of Covington, Wash.
1992 968: Jeffrey Coe of Trumball, Conn.
1997 Boxster: David Adrian of Worcester, Mass.
2004 Cayenne: Adam Reichard of Magnolia, Texas
2005 Carrera GT: Robert Ingram of Durham, N.C.
2006 Cayman: Eugenie Thomas of Martinez, Calif.

Each of the winners will receive an exclusive badge issued by the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, along with images of each being featured in the “Sixty Years of Porsche in America” exhibit that opened mid last month. The 1950 356 picture above will be on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show this month.

You can see more cars and read some of the submissions at Porsche60Years.com. I was a little disappointed in the lack of images on the site. I wanted to see more submissions, but it’s worth the visit if you have some time to kill.

[Source & Images: Press.Porsche.com]

From James…

Here the new fender didn’t quite reach so a new end was made. Also the edge is rolled over for a good door gap.

After the substructure is primed the nose is now welded in place.

The doors are now re fitted to check the gaps.

The rear can now be welded on.

The headlight buckets get welded into place.

And that is it for major sheet metal work.

The car is now waiting for some other work to get done around the shop but I will be back on it soon.

If you missed any of the previous installments, you can view them here: Porsche Restoration.