DRIVE REPORT: 1961 PORSCHE 356 SPEEDSTER
From the Hemmings Archives February 1997
Porschephiles gasped. The new model 356B, which appeared at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September 1959, brought the first significant styling alterations in Porsche’s ten-year history. Gone was the familiar Porsche face—sort of an inverted bathtub sniffing the ground for its supper. Instead, body engineering chief Erwin Komenda had given the Porsche a new set of substantial-looking bumpers, no longer hugging the bottom edge of the body but lifted up (3.75 inches in front, 4.125 inches out back) to a level where they might do some good. He raised the headlights, too, improving illumination for fast driving, and straightened the front fender line. This literal face-lift left room under the bumper for air intakes to cool the brakes, and for accessory fog lights when fitted. Details such as the horn grilles and turn signals looked more conspicuously “designed,” and less Teutonically functional.
To journalist Karl Ludvigsen, the new 356B looked “surprised,” although to us it looks more alert and modern. And despite the cries of the faithful, Road & Track predicted that, “with its many new features the Porsche type-356/B is assured of a brilliant future.”
Inside, the 356B sported a handsome new three-spoke, deep-dish steering wheel with a column-mounted headlight dimmer. The shorter, stiffer gear lever angled back to more readily meet the driver’s hand, and provided shorter throws via an extensively revised linkage. The front seats offered improved comfort and behind them, where a tiny folding bench seat had been, two individually folding buckets nestled deep into the floorpan, enhancing head room as well as versatility. Black plastic accessory controls looked richer than the white plastic used previously, and coupes now boasted a forced-air rear-window defogger.
Under the skin, the 356B featured new brakes: aluminum drums with 72 radial fins and bonded iron liners, protected from water by a double labyrinth seal between the drum and the backing plate. Motor Trend called them “without doubt the best on any production car today.” Altogether the 356B weighed about 100 pounds more than the 356A it replaced.
The Porsche engine, however—a 1,582-cc, air-cooled, overhead-valve flat four fed by a pair of twin-throat carburetors—remained fundamentally unchanged since 1958. Fashioned mostly from aluminum alloy, it weighed just 231 pounds dry. In its most basic “1600” (or “1600 Normal”) incarnation, with iron cylinder barrels and modest 7.5:1 compression, it returned 70 bhp (SAE gross) at 4,500 rpm and 81 foot pounds of torque at 2,800.
For $500 more, buyers could choose the “1600 Super.” In 1954–57, Supers had been dual-purpose road-racing engines, with fabricated roller-bearing cranks. Since ’58, however, Porsche had built the Super as a high-performance street mill with plain journal bearings. Compared to the “Normal,” the 356B Super boasted aluminum cylinders and pushrods, a more aggressive cam, larger intake valves, 28-mm Zenith carbs (vs. 24 mm in the Normal), and a higher, 8.5:1 compression ratio. With 88 bhp at 5,000 rpm and 86 foot pounds of torque at 3,700, this second-generation Super delivered better performance than its roller-crank ancestor—with less maintenance and improved smoothness and flexibility.
In January 1960, Porsche added the even more potent “Super 90.” Designed for maximum horsepower at the high end, it ran with the same cam and aluminum pushrods as the garden-variety Super but featured bigger intake valves and ports and stiffer valve springs. A unique aluminum intake manifold fed the cylinders from 40-mm Solex 40 PII-4 carbs. High-crowned pistons pushed compression up to 9:1, a lighter flywheel (by five pounds) encouraged higher revs, and upgrades to the main bearings and cooling system assured durability. The Super 90 grossed 102 SAE horses at 5,500 rpm (90 ponies by the more conservative DIN standard) and 89 foot pounds of torque at 4,300. For $210 more than a Super, wrote Road & Track, the S90 “will certainly be very welcome in America, where enthusiasts like to have that extra torque available…. Slow-speed performance and flexibility are perfect.”
Supers as well as Super 90s rode on Koni shocks, and S90s featured Dunlop CB59 radials in the new, metric 165×15 size. To further optimize handling with the potent Super 90 engine, Porsche added an Ausgleichfeder, or transverse compensating spring, to its swing-axle rear suspension. Pivoted freely at its center, the compensating spring did not increase rear roll stiffness; but it did contribute to the total rear spring rate, so that the rear torsion bars could be made softer to reduce rear roll stiffness and promote understeer. Standard on S90s, the compensating spring was eventually listed as a $34.55 option on other 356Bs—and could be retro-fitted to most Porsches made since 1957. Sports Cars Illustrated thought that the spring provided “a slight cornering edge”; Porsche’s own tests on the Nürburgring showed a twenty (20!) second improvement in lap times.
Meanwhile, Porsche’s four-cam, 115-bhp Carrera engine continued in limited production, mainly for racing in lightweight GT or GTL bodies.
Our driveReport car is a 1961 356B Roadster, probably one of the least familiar Porsche body styles. The Roadster descended directly from the fabled Speedster which Porsche had launched in 1954 as a stripped-down price leader. With its cut-down windshield, no side windows, minimal top, racing-style front seats, and no seat in the rear, the Speedster cost nearly $600 less than a Porsche coupe—and weighed 170 fewer pounds as well. Speedsters also enjoyed their own, slightly closer gear ratios, which sacrificed some top end for snappier acceleration.
The surly handsomeness of the Speedster soon earned it a cult following; unfortunately, it was too small a cult to justify the cost of building the car. Most Porsche buyers found the Speedster a bit too minimal. “The top and curtains are adequate,” wrote Road & Track in April 1958, “but the windshield could well be an inch or two higher, and visibility certainly could be improved at the sides and to the rear.” Interior space was marginal, putting “a six-footer’s head in contact with the cloth top.”
Ferry Porsche had never liked the Speedster anyway, fearing that it “degraded” the Porsche image. So during the winter of 1958 he began work on the Speedster’s replacement. By August, the new car was ready for production. Komenda’s designers kept the Speedster’s neat chrome-framed windshield, but raised it just enough to provide more reasonable visibility and head room. Likewise, they re-contoured the single-layer top, trading rakish looks for interior viability. Altogether the new car stood 3.5 inches taller than the Speedster—although with the top down, you could hardly see the difference.
The new car also retained the Speedster’s closer-ratio gearbox, as well as the unique, arched instrument panel that had characterized Speedster interiors since 1956. But now sizable door pockets compensated for the lack of a glove box, generously padded reclining seats replaced the rigid racing buckets, and glass side windows rolled down into the doors.
Porsche bought the bodies for its fastback coupe and luxurious cabriolet from the coachbuilder Reutter, who built them at a plant on the Augustenstrasse in nearby Stuttgart. Reutter had assembled Beetle prototypes before the war, and afterward had rented factory space in Zuffenhausen to Porsche until the US army motor pool vacated Porsche’s own facilities. Old loyalties ran deep, but by the late fifties Porsche production was bottlenecked by Reutter’s limited capacity. So Porsche arranged to buy bodies for the Speedster replacement from Drauz, in Heilbronn, 30 miles north of Stuttgart. Known primarily for the open-car coachwork it had built before the war, Drauz had survived into the late fifties by supplying truck bodies to Ford. Now the old firm eagerly added new factory space to meet the demand from Porsche. The earliest publicity photos of the new car show the name “Speedster D”—apparently for Drauz—in chrome script on the front fender, although the script was removed and the model designation changed to “Convertible D” before production began.
Road & Track hailed the Convertible D as “welcome news for anyone who has coveted one of these cars from Stuttgart but objected to the appearance or lack of comfort of the Speedster, and yet couldn’t afford the cabriolet or coupe. The Convertible D has roll-up windows, excellent seats, and adequate head room and good visibility with the top up. The Speedster had none of these….” The editors thought the extra height hardly hurt the car’s appearance, while its superior comfort level “makes the buyer feel as though he is really getting his money’s worth.” They rated Drauz’s workmanship “equal to other Porsches and still superior to most cars on the road today…. It seems to us the best buy in a highly desirable line and will probably give more driving pleasure per dollar than almost any car you can buy.”
Also referring to a Drauz Porsche, Motor Trend added that “there aren’t many cars in the world that are turned out free from visual defects, but the Porsche approaches perfection as nearly as can be…. The wonder is that any coachbuilder can work so accurately…. The standards of assembly must be among the highest in the world.”
Of course, the richer appointments of the Convertible D added weight: at 1,900 pounds, the D weighed about 110 pounds more than the old Speedster and only 65 pounds less than a Porsche coupe. And with a West Coast price of $3,695, it hardly cost any less than the coupe, either.
With the arrival of the 356B, Porsche re-labeled the Convertible D the Roadster—hoping the name change would stir memories of the already legendary Speedster, and boost the model’s appeal in the US. By this time Porsche offered a wide range of body styles from a number of different suppliers. Of the 30 cars assembled at Zuffenhausen each day, roughly 25 were fitted with bodies by Reutter. Beside the standard coupe and cabriolet, these included a handful of “GT” coupes (maybe 40 per year) with aluminum body panels and plastic windows. Zagato built lighter-still GTL coupes—perhaps 20 a year—although these were assembled in Italy by Abarth. Drauz, of course, built Roadster bodies and, in 1961, Karmann joined the party with a “hardtop-coupe” that looked exactly like a Reutter cabriolet with its optional hard top in place. Around the same time d’Ieteren Frères began building Roaster bodies and even assembling complete Roadsters in Brussels
Except for a larger-capacity oil pump —inspired by crankshaft failures in some early S90s—the 356B continued unchanged for 1961. But the 1962 models, introduced in August ’61, brought some significant alterations. Coupe windshields grew taller, and backlights deeper, requiring a reshaping of the entire rear deck. A totally redesigned front end, marked by a more square-cornered trunk lid, at last provided some meaningful trunk space—and an outside fuel-filler, too. And all models now sported Carrera-style dual grilles in back.
Nineteen sixty-two also brought an end to the Roadster, which hadn’t fared as well with the American press as had the old 356A Convertible D. Testing a new 356B Roadster in March 1960, Road & Track complained about leaking windows, inadequate wipers, “several minor flaws in the finish,” and seats that weren’t quite up to standard. The Roadster expired with the 1961 calendar year, the final 100 or 200 (depending on the source you believe) having been built to 1962 specification. We found no total production figures for the Roadster or the Convertible D, but Porsche couldn’t have assembled more than 1,000 per year—and probably built significantly fewer than that.
That, of course, was not the end of the 356 story. One final generation, the 356C, arrived in July 1963, with four-wheel-disc brakes, more mainstream-style heater controls, and further retuning of the suspension for even more front-biased roll stiffness. Porsche bought the Reutter plant, assuring a supply of bodies. For a while, the 356C was built alongside the revolutionary new 911. Then the four-cylinder 912 appeared in April 1965, and 356 production ceased in September.
As for Drauz, the old coachbuilder quickly filled the capacity vacated by the Roadster with more truck bodies for Ford. NSU bought the factory a few years later, and eventually the same plant turned out 924 and 944 bodies for Porsche.
Drive Report
Roadster (Drauz body number 88508) is equipped with the mid-range Super engine but no other options. Current owner Gene Epstein bought it in 1994, from another collector who had recently completed a four-year restoration.
To the Germans, a “roadster” has only a single-layer top, as opposed to the lined and insulated top of a “cabriolet.” Nonetheless, the craftsmen at Drauz clearly concerned themselves with the appearance of the top from inside the car. Corduroy cloth covers the forward top bows, while even the less visible bows to the rear are painted with a satin-textured finish. Head room is more than adequate, and the wrap-around rear window all but eliminates the blind spots that trouble most convertibles. (Although, because of the Porsche’s sloping tail, seeing where the car ends is impossible even with the top down.) Yet one person can fold the whole affair quite easily, and stow it nearly out of sight in the luggage space behind the seats.
The entire Porsche cockpit, in fact, is wondrously spacious, with ample room for legs and elbows. However, the unusual architecture of this rear-engine car forces the driver to sit well under the dash, with the steering wheel relatively close. It’s not uncomfortable, but it does make getting in and out a little difficult. (It helps to slide the seat all the way back, and then readjust it once you’ve slipped inside.) The leather-covered seats are soft and not quite as wide as I am, but with good lumbar support and a ratchet-type rake adjuster, I managed to find a tolerably comfortable position.
The admirably simple instrument cluster puts the tach front and center, with the speedometer to the right, and fuel and oil temperature gauges to the left—all bright, handsome, and eminently easy to read. The even more handsome steering wheel obscures the top of the tach only slightly. And everywhere I look, the Porsche curves: the dash, the windshield, the hood, the fenders, the footwells. And this voluptuous abundance of curves, combined with the low, low seats, could make me feel like I’m driving an upholstered bathtub—except that the interior is so brightly and thoughtfully appointed, with pockets, pockets everywhere to stow your stuff.
Despite all this civility, however, the Porsche remains in some ways, well, a hot-rod Beetle. Getting heat in the car, for example, requires unscrewing a great spigot-like valve on the floor and then manually directing various outlets to your toes or to the windshield. Nothing inside the car is labeled, making a few minutes with the manual mandatory before driving. And there’s still a lever under the dash to drop the fuel pickup down to the “reserve” level—or to turn it off altogether, and why would you want to do that?
Never mind. That familiar VW putt-a-putt-a at idle turns into a pleasant purr once under way. The engine does need to turn at least 2,000 rpm before you can let back the clutch, but above that speed it’s fairly flexible, given its “Super” status. You could shift short of 3,000 rpm every time, and still not block traffic. Zing it up to 4,000, and the Porsche’s acceleration starts to catch your interest—although it’s still no match for a modern sports car. (By 1960, Roadsters had the same gear ratios as other Porsches, so they enjoyed little advantage in acceleration.) Remarkably, however, the engine doesn’t sound any louder as you push it harder—just more insistent, the same syncopated music played at a faster pace. Of course, the sound comes from ’way out back, while up front there’s just the occasional squeak or rumble from the hard-working suspension.
Contemporary road-testers liked the Porsche shifter; I found the throws long (and the clutch stiff). Admittedly, it works better when you gently guide, rather than push, it into the next gear. The synchro action on downshifts is superb, rendering heel-and-toe work superfluous.
The steering feels pleasantly light and precise—if slightly numb on-center—and emphatically responsive but never twitchy. The Porsche understeers if you let the engine fall off of the torque curve in the middle of a corner, but if you downshift going in and go around with your foot down, the Roadster remains delightfully neutral. The dreaded oversteer was never a problem, even in enthusiastic—albeit prudent—cornering. Body roll—and, indeed, all other body motions—are tightly controlled, although cross winds do knock the front end around somewhat. The finned drum brakes feel as strong and positive as any modern car’s, and even without power assistance don’t require that much effort.
Given how tightly the Porsche handles, I would have expected a stiffer ride. The suspension does hit the big bumps hard, and it bounces a bit over the smaller ones, yet while the ride is always in touch with the road, it’s never harsh or unpleasant. The body feels solid—exceptionally so for a convertible. The wind gets pretty loud around 60 mph, yet despite the short windshield the cockpit remains comfortably free from buffeting.
Overall, the 356 blends comfortable accommodations with pleasing performance, in a delightfully simple machine that always seems happy with itself—whether hurrying through the twisties or simply puttering about on a sunny day. What more could you ask of a sports car?
Porsche vs. Corvette: The Rivalry Begins
We’re not sure if anyone ever thought to compare a Porsche to a Corvette before Motor Trend did in April 1959—but the rivalry has raged on ever since. The MT comparison is particularly interesting to us because the Porsche tested was a Convertible D, albeit equipped with the 1600 “Normal” engine. Against this most mild-mannered of Porsches, the editors stacked a four-speed Corvette packing the 250-horse hydraulic-lifter fuelie. They ran each car through their standard acceleration tests, and gave each a chance to turn the fastest lap at Riverside Raceway. The results of this objective test should surprise no one:
Chevrolet Corvette Porsche 1600
0–60 mph (sec) 7.8 15.2
30–50 4.2 5.9
45–60 3.2 6.1
50–80 6.8 19.6
Standing 1/4 mile 15.7 @ 90 mph 19.9 @ 67.5 mph
Fastest lap (min:sec) 2:32 @ 78.5 mph 2:47 @ 71.0 mph
Avg. fuel cons. (mpg) 14.6 29.7
Price as tested $4,859 $3,745
Subjectively, however, the Porsche scored somewhat better. The German car used every bit of power it had—whereas the Corvette had more power than it could use. “Make no mistake,” wrote MT associate editor Wayne Thoms, “This Corvette will handle. It corners flat and can be jockeyed through a hot turn with surprising ease. [But] match the two cars on a tight mountain road where the Corvette’s torque and acceleration can’t be utilized and you’ll probably get there quicker in the Porsche. It just hangs on better in the turns. If this mountain road should be downhill, the Porsche’s brakes will outlast the Corvette’s.”
MT found the two cars well matched for comfort and practicality. Interestingly, the shelf behind the Porsche’s seats held as much luggage as the Corvette’s trunk. But in one category, at least, the Corvette literally blew the Porsche away: heating and defrosting.
How Speedy WAS tHE sPEEDSTER?
In January 1956, Road & Track pitted a Porsche Speedster against a Porsche Coupe, both equipped with the 1500 “Normal” engine, rated 66 bhp. In fact, the two cars were as mechanically identical as possible, given the Speedster’s mandatory shorter ratios on the top two gears. The magazine clocked the following acceleration times (in seconds):
Coupe Speedster
0–30 5.2 4.5
0–40 7.7 7.1
0–50 11.6 9.3
0–60 15.0 13.9
0–70 20.2 18.5
0–80 26.4 26.1
Standing 1/4-mile 19.8 19.2
Max speed (mph) 98.1 95.4
Not surprisingly, the lighter, lower-geared Speedster outran the Coupe up to about 90 mph, where the closed car’s superior aerodynamics and taller gearing started to do it some good. In coast-down tests, R&T measured 86 pounds of drag on the Coupe at 60 mph, vs. 95 pounds on the Speedster with the top up and side curtains in place—and a whopping 102 pounds with the top folded. But considering the price difference—$2,995 for the Speedster, vs. $3,590 for the Coupe—the windowless Porsche certainly did offer more performance per dollar.
The Porsche’s Place in the Universe
The first Porsches arrived on these shores in 1950, offering 40 bhp from 1,086-cc for $4,400—in other words, a little more power than a VW for only a little more money than a Cadillac. Year by year, however, Porsche performance improved, while the nominal price came down. Factor in inflation, and the real price came down more than the actual numbers suggest. By 1960, a Porsche still cost more than most other sports cars in the 1,500–2,000-cc range—but then it performed better, too. Consider the following figures, all from 1960–61:
MGA Sunbeam Fiat 1500 Volvo Porsche Mercedes
1600 MkII Alpine II Spider P-1800 S90 Rdstr 190SL
Price
$2,449 $2,595 3,812 3,940 4,195 5,129
Wheelbase (in.)
94.0 86.0 92.1 96.5 82.7 94.5
Weight (lb.)
2,044 2,150 2,200 2,500 1,935 2,550
C.I.D.
99.0 97.1 91.7 108.5 96.5 115.7
BHP
90 86 90 100 102 120
BHP/c.i.d.
0.91 0.88 0.98 0.92 1.06 1.04
LB/bhp
22.7 25.0 24.4 25.0 18.9 21.2
0-60 (seconds)
13.0 14.0 10.6 12.4 12.5 13.5
1/4 mile
18.6 @ 78 19.3 @ 69 18.5 @ 77 18.0 @ 72 17.7 @ 74 18.9 @ 72
Maximum speed
105 100 105 105 117 106
(MG figures are from Car and Driver; all others from Road & Track. The Fiat, Porsche, and Mercedes tests are from 1960; Sunbeam, Volvo and MG from 1961. Quarter-mile time for Volvo and top speed for Sunbeam and MG were estimated by the testers.)
More than mere numbers, however, it was quality construction and superb roadholding that made a Porsche worth its price. “For fast motoring and long distance touring with a minimum of fatigue and a maximum of pleasure, the Porsche Super 90 roadster is very hard to equal,” wrote Road & Track in March 1960. “It provides just that kind of motoring which most sports car lovers like best and probably does it with very moderate demands on maintenance and tuning. We parted from our test car with regret.”
R&T’s praise continued in October 1961: “The current Porsche sports car, even in its lowliest ‘1600-Normal’ form, gives a performance balance (acceleration, speed and economy) which is virtually unmatched by any other vehicle.”
“It eats up twisty mountain roads with no brake fade,” added Motor Trend’s Wayne Thoms, “and goes around turns at speeds that leave other cars floundering for more roadway…. Rough terrain is soaked up in the Porsche torsion bars in a way that is uncanny for a car with only an 82.7-inch wheelbase.”
And back in January 1956, when the baseline Porsche still produced only 66 bhp, R&T had admitted that “price-wise, the Porsche looks like a very small package for a large amount of money, particularly the Coupe. However, Porsche A.G. is a company who have never quite been able to catch up with demand. And each car is as near to being ‘hand-built’ as is commercially feasible in this day of mass-production by the millions. This meticulous workmanship and attention to detail go a long way towards justifying the cost, which, with the added consideration of good class performance, makes us wonder, ultimately, how they can do the job so well for so little.”
sPECIFICATIONS
The post Drive Report: 1961 Porsche 356 Speedster appeared first on The Online Automotive Marketplace.
2024-10-08T23:13:37Z