The Business Of Nostalgia – Part 2

Drive Time

Last week we looked at Brabus Classic doing their Germanic number on restoring old Mercedes cars.  This week, we turn our gaze upon a guy (who looks suspiciously like a Teutonic version of Don Draper from Mad Men), and his company called Early 911S, which specializes in restoring Porches of the air-cooled Boxer-engine era to their ummm earlier magnificence.  Help yourself to an hour or so of watching the pros go about their business.

As I said last week, I can’t fit into any sports car, let alone the dinkies of that era, but I have to say that one of those cherry 356 numbers would look extremely good in my post-Powerball garage…

Yeah, they do the 356 (which I think is beautiful) as well as the 911 (which isn’t).

And then, of course, there’s RUF.

5 comments

  1. 356’s are more accommodating than British sports cars of the era. I think you would be surprised that you could fit in one. I certainly wouldn’t recommend attempting to fold yourself into an MG or a lotus from the same era. Remember 356’s were marketed as GT cars that held a family of 4 Post War Europeans, ( in theory anyway ) and they are actually surprisingly roomy.
    The other issue is that the value of those early cars is highly dependent on provenance, documentation and exactly which Model you are talking about. These were low production cars. think 100’s not 1,000’s per year of each of various models, with an unknown number of suvivors. Also the endless variety of models, versions and options available for Porsches is not a new thing, is was just as rampant then as well. To the untrained eye 2 356’s may look identical, but one might be worth 10 to 25 times more than the other because of those differences.

    ….. and they weren’t exactly fast either ( with a few exceptions ), even in the period, but then the competition wasn’t either when compared to similar period American cars.

    ….and yes, in your Powerball garage an early 356 deserves a location. I’d recommend a Carrera 2 and a Speedster.

    1. > I certainly wouldn’t recommend attempting to fold yourself into an MG or a lotus from the same era.

      I have tried and it didn’t work. I am 6’4″ with clown-sized feet.

      1. Yes Chapman designed cars around the Drivers he knew. Clark and Stewart were both around 5′ 8″ and 120 Lbs. Graham Hill didn’t count and had to squeeze into the cars that were too small for him.

  2. I also disagree with the explanation as to why the engines are called “Boxer “. The pistons do not move in the manner described. Each set of 2 pistons share the same journal on the crankshaft and since they are 180 degrees apart, when one is at top dead center the other is at bottom dead center. Combined with the crank offset in a 911, the result is a balanced even firing sequence for the six cylinders. The 356’s were all 4 cylinder cars with the same flat opposed cylinder layouts.

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