AUTHOR     Johnson

    ENGLISH

ISBN 10 0929758242

ISBN 13 9780929758244

PRICE $28.00

LIST PRICE $34.95

IN STOCK @ BLOCKS BOOKS

FROM MY REVIEW IN THE 356 REGISTRY:

Porsche 356 Defined – a Pictorial Guide, Brett Johnson is a slightly modified update of his original out of print book.  All are, or at least should be familiar with Brett’s 356 Porsche a Restorer’s Guide to Authenticity rev iii, which is organized as is the factory parts manual – by logical car section and its sequential changes.  Porsche 356 Defined is organized by time and model with part changes change.  Think of cutting a database horizontally rather than vertically.  Porsche 356 Defined is upscale of Authenticity in that it is almost all color photographs.  It lightly traces the Gmund, gets serious with the Pre, split and bent window, and covers very extensively the T1 356A through T-6/C.  Brett elected to concentrate on one or a few example cars rather than many different cars, which gives a unity to the book.

Those of you who have the original Porsche 356 Defined do not need to buy the new one.  The major change is removing two repeated paragraphs in the 356A section and a switch from hard to soft cover.  The printing and color were and remain very decent.  However, if you don’t have the first version, this new one should be a standard reference on your shelf.  Personally, I think prior to being allowed to ask a question on 356TALK, one should be required to have and have read several books, specifically including this one.  Porsche 356 Defined is reasonably priced at $34.95

TITLE         Porsche 356 Defined A Pictorial Guide (HARD)

AUTHOR     Johnson

    ENGLISH

ISBN 10 0929758145

ISBN 13 NO ISBN 13

PRICE $45.00

OUT OF PRINT -- AVAILABLE @ BLOCKS BOOKS

FROM MY REVIEWS IN THE 356 REGISTRY:

PORSCHE 356 DEFINED, A Pictorial HisTory, Johnson. Brett has adopted the approach taken by Merideth in the Original Porsche 356, except he did it correctly: for  each successive Porsche model, he takes a single correct car and uses it exclusively as he illustrative example. All the photographs are in color. The book is a superb segue between PORSCHE 356, Driving in Its Finest (Purest) Form and PORSCHE 356, A Guide to Authenticity.

PORSCHE 356 DEFINED, A Pictorial History, Johnson ($29.95) is a new absolute must buy!  While his 356 PORSCHE AUTHENTICITY is organized by part, then by year; Brett's new book is organized by year model (not exactly the same thing, as model year-some years models didn’t change) with changes associated with that modeL Brett starts with the Gmund chapter; featuring two spectacular silver cars, discussing the multiple meanings of 356SL.  For homologation reasons the factory needed 50 cars, so all Gmünds officially became 356SLs.  On the other hand only a limited number of the early coupes were actually converted to 356SL specifications.  Subsequent chapters cover each succeeding model: the original 500 Reutter order, the subsequent models '51 and '52, each still for 500.  Then with the model 356, Porsche decided they had a winner, placed an open-ended order and started productionizing cars.  Brett traces this with the changes of of these generations  and how their evolutionary changes from the previous model, continuing with the production ('53'55) pre-A, the T-1, T-2, T-5, T-6 and C changes-sort of like taking a data base and cutting it by model and then by part rather than part by year. Beyond this different approach, the new book has new information,

the most up to date serial numbers and paint and interior codes, spectacular photographs of CORRECT cars, and is a much classier book than AUTHENTICITY.