At times I am almost disappointed when I come across what is an otherwise very nice vintage Porsche that is not in one of the vintage colors. We come across many of these colors so rarely that I guess it feels like a missed opportunity. There are no such problems here as this 1964 Porsche 356C Coupe, located in Colorado, comes in the always alluring shade of Irish Green. Irish Green was made available during the mid-’60s and -’70s and while you still can get it as a special order color it has for the most part disappeared. This seems to be the case with many shades of Green, presumably as automakers move towards metallic paints for these sorts of colors. But these non-metallic greens have a great brightness to them, which is made all the better on the 356 by its stretching into the interior to cover the gauge and radio surrounds. It really creates a nice contrast with the color of the carpets and seats, even if tan tends to work somewhat better than the black interior we see here. Still it’s a wonderful vintage color on a wonderful vintage Porsche.
The Yellow over Black 1964 Porsche 356C we featured back in July is back up for another reserve auction. Given some of the particulars detailed below I would not expect this one to go for top dollar so we’ll have to see if the reserve has been brought into more reasonable territory.
The below post originally appeared on our site July 29, 2014:
In last week’s post about the Porsche 356 I wrote about the way these cars have always struck me for their beauty and graceful, simple, designs. At this point in their history the 356 is less about performance and more about history and elegance. There are some, though, for whom the beauty of the car is not enough. Enter the Outlaw. At its root, the Outlaw philosophy is a tried and true method: take a vintage car, make minor exterior modifications to suit one’s taste and combine those with more modern modifications to the drivetrain. Add in some interior modifications to suit the car’s personality and you have an Outlaw. These were souped-up variants of a classic car. The degree of modification can vary significantly, both for the exterior and drivetrain, with some Outlaw models producing more than 200 hp to go along with modern suspension and braking. The example here is much more subtle featuring minor exterior changes, a bored 1.7 liter engine along with the requisite suspension and interior modifications. The base car here was a 1964 356C so it provides a nice comparison with the original model we featured last week.
There is something about the 356 that has me hooked. I’m not sure I can even put my finger on it, but almost without fail I come across examples that make me stare and spend enormous amounts of time taking in the details. The 356 isn’t aggressive. It isn’t even, in some ways, particularly striking, though we should preface that with a comparison with modern examples. In its day I imagine it possessed quite a striking presence. These are history pieces, full of detail and curves, that offer us a glimpse at the precursors to Porsche’s modern successes. The 356C was the last model produced so it is about as advanced as a 356 can get and most resembles the 911 that replaced it. Relative to a 911 though, these remain fairly simple and lightweight cars. The example here is a restored 1964 Porsche 356C Coupe, located in Las Vegas, with a reported 38,756 miles on it.
Race homologation is a beautiful thing. Sure, it may be a pain for automotive manufacturers, especially the low volume ones. However, it’s brought enthusiasts a number of tempting cars with race pedigree they can use on the street everyday. I’m not sure how often one would use a vintage Porsche 904GTS on the street, but it’s entirely possible. This car was developed for the FIA-GT class and would be the first Porsche to utilize a ladder chassis and fiberglass bodywork. Only 106 were ever produced, this example for sale in Germany was owned by a gentlemen in Sweden for 44 years, having been entered into competition for a few events early in its life.
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