"Driving in its most beautiful form."
Richard von Frankenberg, 1952
The Porsche 356 is the 1st production vehicle of "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG" from 1948 and was built until 1965. Only then came Porsche's best-known vehicle, the Porsche 911.
Porsche also did not advertise its 356; the importers and dealers had to do this themselves for the first 3 years!
The original Porsche 356 model was built from 1948-1955 in coupé and convertible versions and still had a two-part windscreen and a full-length bench seat for the driver and front passenger. These were built either by the coachbuilder Reutter in the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart (steel bodywork), which Porsche had bought in, or in Gmünd in Austria (aluminium bodywork). Only 17 examples of the 356 America Roadster were built by coachbuilder Gläser until its insolvency.
It was only from 1955 to 1959 that the 356 A version was produced as a coupé, convertible and Speedster/Convertible D. The one-piece, curved windscreen and door glass made of tempered glass (Sekurit) were new here.
I have been practicing vintage car photography for more than 35 years and here I mainly photograph normal everyday vehicles which were still on the road en masse over 30 years ago. But also cars with extraordinary, beautiful design. From time to time I take pictures of cars, .. Read more…