1956 Porsche 356 1600S Speedster

1956 Porsche 356 Speedster

  • Serial Number

    82128 engine no. 80044

  • Paint Color

    Silver

  • Engine

    1600cc flat-four

  • Interior Color

    Blue Leather Interior

  • Transmission

    Four-speed manual

  • Mileage

    3200 Miles

  • Price

    $

    320,000

The Speedster is an iconic model whose origin dates back to the early 1950s, when Porsche was busy earning a well-deserved reputation as makers of giant-killing sports and racing cars. Porsche was famous for doing more with less; its 1500cc, 1600cc, and later 2000cc cars harried cars with two or three times the displacement and cylinder count on the world’s most prestigious race tracks.

For the relatively small number of roadgoing drivers who could appreciate this characteristic, there was no roadgoing sports car that could touch the Porsche 356’s combination of durability, usable performance, and capability. For most other buyers, especially in the essential US market where bigger was better, the value proposition of a Porsche was harder to understand. British sports cars with similar sized (or even larger) engines could be had for less money, and for the growing American sports car enthusiast market, the Porsche value proposition was not always clear. The US Porsche distributor, Max Hoffman, knew what Porsches could do, but realized that the car would need to be less expensive to make major inroads with American enthusiasts.

Hoffman held enough sway at Porsche that he persuaded them to develop a new, less costly variant of the 356. The resulting car was the Speedster, which removed equipment in order to bring the price down. The cars were more sparsely trimmed and available in open form only, without back seats and with a lower windscreen, bucket seats, rudimentary convertible top, and side curtains instead of the plusher weather equipment of the existing 356 Coupe and Cabriolet variants. The car debuted at $2995, low enough to warrant consideration by some buyers alongside the Triumphs and MGs whose prices also started with a 2, even if they were still appreciably less expensive, both costing less than $2500.

Although the Speedster was intended to be a budget model, its pared down nature gave it an iconic sporty look and the best performance in the model range. The car emerged as highly collectible and spawned no fewer than four subsequent Speedster variants (all 911 based) in the 65 years since the first Porsche Speedster arrived.

Relatively early in Speedster production, the 1500cc engine gave way to the larger 1600cc unit, which was available in normal (60hp) and Super (75hp) trims, which seem like modest figures, although the reality of the car’s 1800 pound weight mean that they feel sprightly and usable even in modern traffic.

This particular Speedster is a 1600cc Super with the early beehive taillights. It was restored in the late 1990s to high standards by Andy Anderson with mechanical work by Dave Merz. The rebuild included a bare metal respray, new interior, top, and rebuilds of the brakes, suspension, engine, and transaxle. The car has covered just 2500 miles since and remains extremely fresh still, with the work having been performed to high standards. 

Mechanically, the car has been consistently maintained during the subsequent decades and received $21,000 of work in 2020, which included removing the engine, transmission, and rear suspension. The engine was disassembled and received new bottom end bearings, machined crank, and the heads were disassembled and serviced as well. The valves were then adjusted and the steering box was resealed, the carburetors tuned, and a new gear reduction starter was also installed.

Included with the car is a Certificate of Authenticity and a copy of the Kardex, although neither shows the original color combination, engine number, or transaxle number. Also included is a tool roll with tools, driver’s manual, and various invoices spanning the last 25 years or so.

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No items found.
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