Porsche 356 History

The 356 was the first automobile to bear the Porsche name. Ferry Porsche, working with a skeleton crew of engineers in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria, built the open prototype (356/1) and had it road-registered on 8 June 1948. The car used a modified Volkswagen Beetle platform — front-engine layout reversed to mid-engine, then revised again to rear-engine — with a lightweight tubular spaceframe and an open two-seat body.

Series production moved to Stuttgart in 1950. Four main series followed — the pre-A cars (1948–1955), the 356A (1955–1959), the 356B (1959–1963), and the 356C (1963–1965) — growing progressively more refined, more powerful, and more commercially successful. Body styles expanded to include elegant coupes, cabriolets, and the iconic low-windshield 356 Speedster (1954–1958), which became a California-beach-crowd sensation.

By the time the 356 was retired in 1965, Porsche had built roughly 76,000 examples and established the marque as a genuine sports-car manufacturer with an impressive racing pedigree. The 911, introduced in September 1964, ran briefly alongside it before taking over completely.