1960 Porsche 356B Cabriolet

Description

The 356 can fairly be described as the car that put Porsche on the map, the unconventional rear-mounted flat-four engine starting a tradition that continues to the present day. The earliest 356s were somewhat underpowered and very primitive in terms of equipment but, by the late 1950s, had matured into an altogether more sophisticated sports car, with plenty of creature comforts. From the earliest days, Porsche offered an open-topped version of the 356 and such was the torsional rigidity of the body shell that no additional bracing was deemed necessary and only minimal scuttle shake could be detected. The Cabriolet featured a beautifully-made and almost totally weatherproof hood, a stark contrast to the rudimentary soft tops supplied on most other open-topped sports cars of the day, while a snug-fitting hardtop was also available. In September 1959, the most radical development of the 356 was announced at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with an entirely restyled body – designated the T5 – featuring different bumpers and revised front wings with the headlamps mounted higher up. In 1961, Porsche announced a Roadster variant to fill the gap between the spartan Speedster and the more luxurious Cabriolet. The latter was, like the Coupe, subcontracted to Reutter in Stuttgart by this time and Porsche even added a hardtop coupe to the model line-up in 1960, built by Karmann, with the hardtop welded to the Cabriolet bodyshell. The new 356B was available with three different pushrod engines, the 1600 and 1600 Super continuing unchanged but the addition of the new Super 90 added twin-choke carburettors, larger inlet valves and a reworked cylinder head to increase power output. The brakes were improved, with better friction linings and the drums now had 72 light alloy rubs to keep them cool.