subject: Milestones in Porsche History, Volume 4 [print this page] Milestones in Porsche History, Volume 4 Milestones in Porsche History, Volume 4
With money from previous projects banked, additional help from friends and family, a talented son, along with a great amount of will, Porsche decided to begin production of their own proprietary automobile. It had always been the Porsche philosophy that racing paved the way to build more and better production cars. The outcome of this work was the Porsche 356.
As Porsches first production model, the 356 broke a lot of ground. Obviously based on previous Porsche engineering exercises, the 356/1 concept, the type 360K, and the type 64, the production 356 carried forth the same basic design, the parts sharing with Volkswagens, aluminum construction, and aerodynamic styling. Porsche's underlying idea was the evolution of a design; evolution rather than revolution. As the 356 moved from year to year, it's design grew and became more capable, little by little.
Production of the 356 began shortly after the appearance of the 356/1 concept in 1948. The first 356 models were built in the Gmnd, Austria werks by hand from aluminum. Over the following two years, Porsche built fifty 356 cars, and by 1950, production was moved to the new Zuffenhausen factory in Germany. After moving to Zuffenhausen, the construction of the bodies was changed to steel.
In the early 1950s, cabriolets comprised nearly fifty percent of production. All 356 built from 1948 to 1954 are easily identified by their split style windshield. In 1955, the 356A was introduced, and is commonly known by its factory designation Type 1 or T1. In early 1957, the 356A T2 was introduced, and in late 1959 production began on the updated and technologically refined 356B. Finally, in 1963, Porsche revealed the final iteration of the model with the 356 and with it, the most evolved of the breed, the 356SC. The 356C and SC were the first Porsche model to have disc brakes and at all four corners.
In all, Porsche sold 76,313 356 cars from 1948 through 1966. The Porsche 356, has enjoyed a lot of success in racing whether close to stock or highly modified. The car won podium places at the 24 hours of Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, the Carrera Panamericana, the 1000 Kilometers of Buenos Aires, as well as hundreds of amateur races throughout the world. More importantly, the 356 established Porsche as not only a builder of winnig race cars but a manufacturer of production sportscars of the highest caliber. In essence, it became the template for most of the cars that followed and core upon which the Porsche legend was built upon.
In the next installment, we will discuss variations on a common theme with an overview of Max Hoffman's Speedster, and the racy 550 Spyder.
