A Porsche 356 Is Our Kind Of Classic - My Car

This is a Porsche 356 - one of the most important cars in the German marque’s history.

The 356 was first introduced in 1948. Porsche’s first production car, it set the stage for what the company would become - rear-engine, air-cooled, and utterly beautiful cars.

It was also lightweight, allowing for a much more nimble driving experience. This proved a winning combination, as the 356 won the S 1.1 class at the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans (though there were only three cars in the class - another 356 which didn’t start due to an accident in practice, and a DB Sport which finished four laps behind).

Still, it wasn’t just in France that the car did well - it took wins all over Europe.

The 356 won the 1957 and 1959 Liege-Rome-Liege rally - a race where competitors saw who could drive from the start point in Liege, Belgium, across to Rome, Italy, and back to Liege in the shortest time. The 1959 iteration was a journey of over 5,000km and won by Frenchman Robert Buchet and German Paul Ernst Strahle who took 86 hours to complete the journey.

More success followed in Italy in 1960 and ‘61, as the 356 took class wins in the Targa Florio.

Even before these wins though, the 356 was undeniably cool. American actor James Dean owned a 1955 356 Super Speedster before buying the infamous Porsche 550 Spyder in which he lost his life, while the King of Cool, Steve McQueen, owned a 1958 Speedster 1600 Super and singer-songwriter Janis Joplin custom-painted her “History of the Universe” 1964 356 C Cabriolet.

This one belongs to James Marris, who brought it to Classic Car Sunday in Harrogate.

It’s a 1964 model, which means it’s one of the last ones to roll off the line - the car having ceased production in 1965. It also has a 1.6L flat-four engine pushing around 75hp - not the massive numbers associated with Porsches today, but the car’s 935kg curb weight means it doesn’t need a lot to heave it around.

It was serendipity that brought James and the 356 together. James was travelling to Le Mans, and decided to nip into Prill Porsche Classics en route, to enquire if there were any 356 for sale. As luck would have it, there was - and it hadn’t even gone on the market yet.

It was coming out of a ten-year restoration and, when owner Andy Prill removed the blanket from the car, it was as good as sold. And we can see why, as there are several things you notice about the car when you see it. 

The first is that it’s in pristine condition. Every panel, wheel, handle - everything is fresh. Such is the condition of this over 60-year-old car that you could almost mistake it for a modern-day replica, with the Prill sticker in the rear window offering a hint of its authenticity.

Looking closer, and head-on, you notice just how inset the wheels are from the body. The car’s curves hang wide over the tyres, offering extra clearance for the rims and giving the car an almost spaceship-type look to it- the body seeming to float over the ground, with the great glass front and rear windows offering a clear look straight through.

It’s not just the exterior that grabs your attention though - the interior continues that classy Porsche vintage that simply doesn’t exist any more.

You immediately see the brown wooden steering wheel contrasting against the all-silver interior, with the two-tone wooden gear knob adding another tactile feel to an already understandably analogue car, given that it was built in the 1960s and first designed in the 1940s.

The analogue aspect continues on the dashboard where there are just four dials, with one of those being the clock. The remaining dials are the speedo, a rev counter (which goes all the way up to 6,000rpm) and one showing both oil temp and fuel level.

We could technically call it five dials if we include the period-correct Hanhart stopwatch - a commonly used timepiece by Porsche and 356 drivers in rally at the time - though as that sits on the passenger’s side (again for the rally aspect, the co-driver needing to operate it) we’ll call it four.

It’s an unfettered approach to driving which lets you focus on the act itself. On the handling of the car, of the lack of weight. The 356 was the precursor to the 911, and you can really see where Porsche got that inspiration from.

As for James, he says it’s not a car that he can see letting go. Having already driven it to Goodwood Revival and Le Mans Classic, it earned its right to a spot in the garage. And you can hardly blame him - we’d argue that any classic car fan worth their salt would have a space for one should they have the opportunity, and James just so happened to find his. May a freshly-restored 356 find us all, too.