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While an excellent Porsche, of any era, tends to marry a combination of blistering performance with a high degree of refinement, it is many of the no-frills examples that command the greatest attention. One of the earliest of those was the 356 Speedster. As Porsche’s first production vehicle the 356 was around for nearly twenty years before being replaced by the 911 and the Speedster remains one of the most iconic variants produced. Only available for a short 4 years the Speedster served the American market as a lower-cost spartan alternative to the standard 356, while also providing weekend racers a model they could use at the track. Belying its short production run, the Speedster was quite successful in its early years and Porsche has revived the iconic moniker a few times for the 911, but it’s always tough to top the original. The example we see here is a Black on Black 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster, located in Houston, with 95,898 miles on it.
There are a lot of famous cars that I dream about owning but just aren’t realistic. I’d love a Lancia Stratos, for example. And a Porsche 917K. But since my bank account doesn’t currently contain quite enough commas in the balance statement to make that occur, they’re going to remain dreams. Of course, for reasonable amounts you can buy quite convincing replicas of these cars; Hawk makes a very good Stratos copy, and RCR makes one killer-looking 917K knockoff. While purists decry these fakes as degradation of the brand, when well executed I find these replicas really intriguing. They offer an opportunity for not only mere mortals to own them, but more importantly they offer people who would never get to see them driven a chance to experience the shape in the wild. Another such car that gets traded for the same amount as the GDP of some small African nations is the Mercedes-Benz 300SL “Gullwing”. Considered by many to be the first “supercar”, the 300SL’s performance and design was otherworldly in the 1950s and though it’s not the most expensive Mercedes-Benz model they remain firmly out of the grasp of any but the most well-heeled enthusiasts. Like many Ferrari models, Mercedes-Benz has carefully sought out and squashed any attempts at building replicas, and few that remain floating around look close to the original. But today I have both a stunning original example and a reasonably accurate replica that you could actually buy and drive. Is the replica worth spending money on, though?
While many of us deride the American car market for what it deems verboten to us, we have to remember that years ago, it was this very same market that helped shape some of the model lineups of post-war German automotive manufacturers. Such was the case with this car, the Porsche Speedster. Egged on by importer Max Hoffman, Porsche decided that a more basic, lower cost model would appeal to this market. The Speedster was quite successful by Porsche sales standards. Curiously, this more basic model has become one of the most prized models of the entire 356 range. This 1957 example for sale in California has been fully restored was formerly owned by actor Michael Parks.
Taking over from the pre-war 170, the Ponton was Mercedes-Benz’s all-new design, which would help the company emerge from the ashes of war and help mold it into the recognized luxury vehicle manufacturer it is today. This platform spawned a number of variants, one of which was a rather reserved, elegant four-place cabriolet like the example we see here for sale in Arizona. With a modest 105 horsepower inline-6 hooked up to a 4-speed manual, it’s just enough for the relaxed cruising a classic Benz like this inspires.
The 1957 Mercedes-Benz 190SL we featured last month is back up for auction. Long forgotten amidst other, more popular SL models, this roadster has finally started to see an uptick in values, with good ones reaching into solid six figure territory. Will this one meet its reserve this time around?
The below post originally appeared on our site February 20, 2014:
-Nate
