1957 Porsche 356A For Sale in Scotts Valley, CA, 2146377939 Tweet

Click here to view high resolution photos 1958 Porsche 356A Carrera GT Speedster VIN: 83622 Extremely rare and desirable Four-Cam GS/GT Speedster Original matching-numbers 1500 GT engine Delivered new through U.S. distributor Max Hoffman Fully restored to the highest concours standards Recent mechanical freshening totaling close to $50,000, now fully sorted Includes rare steel Speedster hardtop Includes Kardex, Porsche Certificate of Authenticity, and history documents Created and built from the vision of Americas most prolific importer Max Hoffman, the Porsche 356 Speedster filled a void that the clever automotive industrialist thought was lacking: a lightweight, few frills, open top sports car. With barely over 4,000 of these built over the span of 5 years, the infallible driving characteristics of Porsches early roadster, along with its fantastic styling, drove its massive surge in popularity, rooting Porsches foothold in the United States. Finding iconic owners such as Steve McQueen saw the Speedsters popularity shoot into the stratosphere, and today these low-slung 356s are some of the most sought-after variants built by Porsche. Some of these were even more exotic, with only a handful of Speedsters powered by the complex and powerful engineering marvel, Dr. Ernst Fhrmanns Four-cam engine, a passion project which turned into one of Porsches most recognizable engines. The powerful yet compact design by Fhrmann was a radical design that incorporated a host of advanced engineering applications, all in the name of being a racing powerplant. The aluminum-alloy cased, double overhead camshafts, roller-bearing crankshaft, dry sump lubrication, dual ignition, and a pair of distributors driven off the intake camshafts with dual switches in the cabin to test each individual coil. The Four-Cam first appeared in Porsches mid-engined 550 Spyders of the early 1950s. Developing approximately 110 horsepower in race tune, nearly twice as much power as the manufacturers own pushrod engines of similar size, the engines found themselves utilized heavily in the Carrera Panamericana road races in 1953, 1954, and 1955. The Fhrmann engine proved to be exceptionally competitive, after winning time and time again against larger and more powerful competitors. With this competition-proven performance, Porsche decided to then install a de-tuned version of the racing version, named the Type 547/1 engine (now known as the Carrera), in road-legal Porsche 356 coupes, cabriolets, and Speedsters, dubbing them the GS. This 1957 Porsche 356 Carrera 1500 GS/GT Speedster was completed on the 23rd of July in 1957 according to the authoritative Heinrich/Sprenger volume on Carreras, and was delivered to luxury-importer Max Hoffmans New York dealership in lightened form. Finished in Silver metallic with a black leatherette interior, the front floor was covered with black rubber mats, and the rear floor area was covered in crushed black vinyl. The deep Speedster bucket sets with aluminum frames included Beige (Perle) corduroy inserts. The thin black canvas folding top with its bows were completely removable. The cars factory Kardex reflects one service carried out on October 25th, 1957 at the same dealership. Although the Speedster is listed in the Heinrich/Sprenger tome, its history until the early 1980s is limited until the car was acquired by the late noted Four-Cam authority Weldon Schogham. A bill of sale states that Scrogham sold the car on the 28th of December in 1981 to import service shop owner Reid Vann in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time the car did not retain its original numbers-matching engine, number 90858, but the bill of sale interestingly included a few handwritten notes regarding the prior owners of the correct engine. Vann tracked down the correct engine to another i