Porsche 356 Speedster Review

Max Hoffman, Porsche's sole importer in the United States, told the factory that an open 356 with the frills removed would sell in America if it cost less than $3,000. Porsche built it from autumn 1954: the steel body of the 356 cabriolet with a low, raked windscreen that could be removed for weekend racing, bucket seats and a minimal folding rain top. A heater and a rev counter cost extra. The 1500 Speedster listed at $2,995 and became an instant hit, above all in Southern California. Production peaked at 1,171 cars in 1957, and in late 1958 the Convertible D, with a taller screen and wind-up glass windows, replaced it.

Underneath it is a pre-A 356: a rear-mounted, air-cooled 1.5 liter pushrod flat-four of Volkswagen descent, 70 hp in 1500 Super form, a four-speed gearbox, drum brakes and swing axles at the back, in a car weighing under 2,000 lb. It was never fast. What it offered was lightness, a low seat and very little between the driver and the weather, and amateur racers took to it. James Dean chose one before trading it for a 550 Spyder in 1955, and Steve McQueen's first new car was a black 356 A Speedster, which he raced in SCCA events in California in 1959. Swing-axle 356s ask for care at the limit, and the Speedster is no exception.

Values have followed the legend. Stuttcars' buyer's guide puts Speedsters between $300,000 and more than $700,000 depending on condition and originality, a hundred times the list price and more. Rust is the great enemy: the bodies are ungalvanized steel, and the floor pans, rockers, battery box, front fenders, door bottoms and torsion tube area all corrode, while a proper restoration of a rotten car can cost from $100,000 to more than $250,000. Routine work is simpler, since oil changes, valve adjustments and brakes are easy jobs for an air-cooled specialist, but originality decides the price, and matching numbers confirmed by a Porsche certificate of authenticity and the factory's Kardex records are worth a great deal.

Judged as a car, the Speedster is a stripped 1950s roadster with a modest engine, slot-in side windows instead of wind-up glass and almost no comfort, and its interior, features and engine marks say so. Judged as what it was built to be, a cheap, light open Porsche for Americans who wanted to drive on weekdays and race on weekends, it did exactly the job Hoffman asked for, and it gave Porsche a name it has brought back on the 911 several times since. Porsche Cars North America counts the 1954 to 1957 cars among the most sought-after Porsches by collectors, and the shape is the reason.