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A little while back I featured a 2012 Porsche 911 Turbo with a paint-to-sample exterior in Meissen Blue. It’s a color I was unfamiliar with and had never seen but which has early roots in Porsche’s history with the 356. It’s a color that really grows on you, and which we might think as beginning a line that would run through Gulf Blue and Glacier Blue as some of the lighter blues in the Porsche catalog. They’re really great colors and I think they work especially well on vintage Porsches. The car we see here takes us back to that original use of the color: a Meissen Blue 1957 Porsche 356A Coupe, located California, with a few modifications that have garnered it the ‘outlaw’ moniker. As outlaws go it’s a more subdued version of the species and retains much of the vintage charm of the 356 itself.
Not much needs to be said when we feature a 300SL, whether it be Gullwing or Roadster. Both extremely stunning in their own right, these are cars that don’t require any explaining or justifying now that examples are regularly selling for over $1,000,000. But today’s car actually comes in just slightly under the seven-figure mark. This W198 isn’t a barn find or a basket case either. So let’s check out this beautiful 1957 roadster for sale in California and find out why it’s so “cheap”.
Following World War II and the near complete destruction of the Mercedes-Benz production capacity, the company nursed itself back to life with the pre-War 170 model. Production of that model would pave the rebuilding of the Sindelfingen plant that would launch the company’s resurgence to the top of the market. The new ‘Ponton’ model would be introduced to the public in the fall of 1953 and would remain the bulk of production for the remainder of the decade. It would be available in an amazing sixteen different model configurations, ranging from 4-cylinder sedans to 6-cylinder cabriolets. The Ponton represented a technical leap forward from the company who had invented the automobile, with independent suspension and an available automatic clutch dubbed “Hydrak” being the big headlines. Mercedes-Benz also steadily improved the performance over the model run, and when it came to the 2.2 inline-6 in the 220S, dual Solex downdraft carburetors helped to develop over 100 horsepower. But it was style, not performance, that helped to set the Ponton models apart and especially in Coupe and Cabriolet form, they were special cars indeed:
Let’s turn back the clock a bit to one of Porsche’s earliest attempts to meld track duty with everyday usability, matters that over time became hallmarks of the brand. The Speedster was developed during a time when two-seat open-top machines began to proliferate and became common occurrences on trackdays. These were cars that, in their own unique way, provided owners the ability to take their car to the track on Saturday and then to work on Monday. Creature comforts were limited, as with most track cars, but it was their mechanical simplicity – and relatively low cost – that made them worthwhile considerations for dual-purpose duty. As such, Porsche tried to emulate that model and the 356 Speedster featured side curtains rather than windows, a removable windscreen, a very basic manually-folding soft-top, and bucket seats fitted to an austere interior. While initially very popular interest in the Speedster waned and it was replaced by the Convertible D (later 356 Roadster) after only four years of production. With such low numbers extant the Speedster has become an icon of the brand and highly-prized among collectors. The example we see here comes from the earlier T1 design, a Ruby Red 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster, located in California.
Following on to the 1998 Mercedes-Benz SL500 we featured yesterday to kick off convertible week, here’s that car’s grandfather: the 300SL Roadster. Painted in a similar hue of black, this example for sale in Los Angeles has lived there most of its life, originally being sold in Europe. This is an early build 300SL roadster on its fourth owner, having undergone a repaint in 1981 along with a few other items being refreshed.
