Skip to main content

It’s always a treat to find a new resource that has more legendary facts on our favorite cars. Over the weekend the guy who owned/restored Dean Jeffries 356 Carrera posted some pictures of last year’s Amelia Island Concours and he had a picture of this:  

03181FAB-9C22-417D-A4BA-93D49BC77709

I think most of us are aware of the contribution importer Max Hoffman made to our hobby, but this was a car I was unaware of, a pre-A roadster with an aluminum body made by Glasser.

In researching it, I came across this great site. :

https://supercarnostalgia.com/...356-america-roadster



Enjoy.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • 03181FAB-9C22-417D-A4BA-93D49BC77709
Last edited by dlearl476
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

You right off see it's not a regular Speedster.

The thing was aimed right at the heart of MG, which was dominating sports/club racing in the 1250cc class. The TD weighed "Just a hamburger over" 2000 pounds and cost about a dollar a pound; its XPAG 4-cylinder made 54 HP—maybe 57 if you sprung for the "MARK II" variant—stout stuff in its day.

The new Porsche, by contract, rolled onto the track at about 1400 pounds wet, with 60 HP on tap. So thoroughly did it outclass the British car that by the end of '52 the SCCA was grouping the MGs in their own division. Hence...

Now the small-bore race was mainly between Porsche and the Maserati brothers,* whose OSCA MT4 would heretofore clean up pretty much anywhere it ran. In '53 the OSCA got a 1500cc engine with 120-ish HP, easily overmatching the Porsche's 70 or so. But OSCAs cost more than $6,000, so only guys like Briggs Cunningham (above, in tweed) could partake. (He bought one and put Stirling Moss in its driver's seat).

Porsche couldn't build the aluminum roadster to a price point, which is part of why they discontinued it. The Speedster, then, was something of a miracle: a little heavier than the earlier version but plenty peppy and—while still not cheap at half the OSCA's sticker price—affordable to a wide range of sporty-car enthusiasts.

It made sports car racing fun, still left the MGs and most of the specials in the dust.

But that still left the question of those damnable Maserati boys....

And that's where the 550 RS came in. . . .

==

*And Ken Miles, of course, whose MG-based "Flying Shingle" special did well enough to cause John Von Neumann to recruit him to Team Porsche.

Last edited by edsnova
Post Content
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×