TITLE Il             Grande Libro Della Porsche 356

AUTHOR          Conradt

                         ITALIAN

ISBN 10            8879110624

ISBN 13             9788879110624

PRICE               $60.00

OUT OF PRINT -- 

NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE @ BLOCKS BOOKS

TITLE           Porsche 356 Driving in its Purest Form

AUTHOR     Conradt

ISBN 10       0929758099

ISBN 13        9780929758091

PRICE          $49.95

OUT OF PRINT -- 

AVAILABLE  @ BLOCKS BOOKS

The single best 356 history!


FROM MY REVIEWS IN THE 356 REGISTRY:

By the time you read this, Dirk-Michael Conradt's 356 PORSCHE: FAHREN IN SEINER SHÖNSTEN FORM will be available in the Peter Albrecht translation as PORSCHE 356: DRIVING IN ITS PUREST FORM. For almost three years I have been convinced the Conradt's book would be the ultimate 356 history. Unfortunately my self-taught German was barely up to puzzling out the captions, charts and short bullets of werksarkiv memoranda. Now, alle est clare.  Truthfully, it is no longer a problem discerning when opening rear quarter windows appeared on a 356 coupe -- ask Richard Miller. It is no problem knowing which top is correct to an early Speedster -- ask Don Fowler. Nor is it a problem knowing whether a Convertible D should have a rear seat back -- ask Brett Johnson. Not so incidentally, these are part of the crew Brett Johnson put together to final proof Peter Albrecht's translation. I was honored honored to also assist in the proof reading. Peter has extremely good credentials; he is a fluent German speaker, he owns and is fascinated by 356 Porsches, and he is the technical editor of SPORTSCAR INTERNATIONAL magazine.

While the what and when of 356 Porsches have been well worked out in Brett's 356 AUTHENTICITY, the one thing we could only speculate about was why did Porsche do it that way?  Dirk-Michael Conradt

achieved unlimited access to the archives by gaining the factory's trust. He did it the old fashioned way: he was editor of the premier German collector car magazine, Motor Klassic, in which never has a negative

word been said about Porsche. But then how could anyone? 

It is internal factory memoranda which make this book so spectacular.  As might be expected, the factory

minutes dwelt on the problems Porsche -- that is Ferry Porsche -- recognized:  

    27 July, 1951-Herr Porsche asks for an investigation of inertia forces upon throttle closing at 6000 rpm. High priority should be given to perfect closing of the heater flap inside the heater box.  5 September 1951-Repeatedly occurring defects, which are to be eliminated in the 1951 model program. Bottoming of the front suspension. Bottoming of the rear suspension. Clutch guide sleeve seizes. Improved clutch lining. Clutch graphite rings defective. Loud transmission. Transmission jumps out of 4th gear. Poor VW steering.  Pushrods pop out. Bent valves. Leaking master cylinder.

    13 May, 1952-Communication to Reutter: ... One recurring problem is that the opening in the engine compartment is not large enough for the engine. We request that you check your template against our

drawing 0356.00.0402.

Many of the proposals were never carried out. Luckily, attempts to curry favor with America, including thermometer, speedometer, column shift, quad headlights, were never placed in production. But you can see them in PORSCHE 356: DRIVING IN ITS PUREST FORM. Period photographs are mainly werks fotos, most taken by Porsche's favorite photographer Julius Weitmann. They are marvelous, including the idiosyncratic advertising photographs which were quaint back than and now verge on high kitsch.  

An area so mysterious that I wasn't even aware it existed is the coachwork of the Gmünd cabriolets. Conradt credits H. P. Wyssmann, who donated chassis 003 to the Swiss Traffic museum, as having worked out the fate of the Beutler cabs. Unfortunately all six are now accounted for. Even more unfortunately the other 5 have been destroyed. Conradt considers it a mystery that chassis 003 is assigned to a Viennese builder-probably erroneously. I consider the real mystery to be, that Tatra bodied 16 of the original 52 Gmünd cars and I was unaware of it until now! And worse, Keibl and apparently Kastenhofer, also of Vienna, bodied an unknown number of Gmünd cabriolets. Keibl also bodied the Denzel, VW derived, sports car in the '50s. Even coupes were bodied in Austria-including the much photographed

coupe delivered to Taher Pasha of Egypt. Apparently more than half the Gmünd cars, therefore have Viennese bodies. Actually it makes a lot of sense, given the transportation and border crossing problems of the period, for Austrian carrozzeria to supply the body for an Austrian built chassis -- it's just I knew nothing

of this. According to Conradt, Keibl cabriolet bodied chassis 025 is in the museum in Zuffenhausen, complete with original build certificate, documenting what Porsche supplied (chassis, fenders, front lid, unfinished dashboard, door inner structure, exterior rear panels, unattached bumpers, air inlet grille, nitrocellulose lacquer) and what Keibl supplied. If so, I have never seen it on display there. Even those funny body numbers are now explained. Are any of the Austrian bodied cars in the U.S.?

Perhaps my only quibble with the book is the translation of the title. I seem to remember from '60s advertisements FAHREN IN SEINER SHÖNSTEN FORM translated as DRIVING IN ITS FINEST FORM. The inclusion of Porsche factory photo, documents and communications gives an insider's

view of 356 planning, marketing and production -- this book is required reading.

356 PORSCHE; Driving in its Finest Form, Conradt ($64.95) compares favorably with Ludvigsen's PORSCHE: EXCELLENCE WAS EXPECTED as the single book you must have if you are interested in 356 Porsches and can read. It benefits from 15 years of additional research, including a team of 356 REGISTRY experts who proof-read the English translation.  (I maintain that the title is best translated as Driving in its "Finest Form rather than "Purest".)

TITLE                   Porsche 356 Fahren in Seiner Schonsten Form

AUTHOR             Conradt

                            GERMAN

ISBN 10               361301291X

ISBN 13               97861301291X

PRICE                 $75.00    

OUT OF PRINT -- 

ONE LEFT  IN GERMAN @ BLOCKS BOOKS

PORSCHE 356 - Fahren in Siener Schönsten Form. The usual things that you take for given in a top quality German book are here. That means that the printing is sharp; the color separations are true and there are many of them. Dirk-Michael Conradt is the Chief Editor of MOTOR KLASSIC, glossy German monthly devoted to old and interesting cars.  Clearly "Chefredkteur" Conradt has been given free run through the Porsche archives.  Not only are the usual photos present but so are many never before published. Really super factory technical drawings are provided. I was absolutely enchanted to see not only the drawing for the 356 prototype, as built, but also three

predecessors which didn't make it. The tailof a 550 Spyder is clearly recognizable in the second drawing.

Not only is the well known Swiss Traffic Museum cabriolet (chassis 356/2-003) pictured but so is one of the later (chassis 356/2-025) "production" aluminum cabriolets.  A listing of all of the aluminum chassis cars 356-00 1, 356/2-001 through -052 are presented. Serial numbers 356/2-022, -024, -040, and -046 are not accounted for and my German is too weak to understand why.

Would you be interested to know that Porsche- Motortyp 367 with a horizontal fan was considered

and discarded prior to adopting the otherwise identical Type 369 with the standard VW fan shroud.

This book is absolutely filled with new information!  Basically since Ludvigsen's PORSCHE EXCELLENCE WAS EXPECTED  every new book has only added tidbits of peripheral information. Most actually required combing to pick out any new bit of trivia.  SCHONSTEN FORM promises to

open whole new gold mines of information.  Programs are listed year by year.  Contrasting with the 356 developments are many interesting 356 derivatives which were either dead ends or never even saw the light of day.  A 356A sunroof with knock-off wire wheels will be sure to interest German 356 Registry member Gabby von Noltling, for I think this was her mother's car. And aren't you happy Porsche did not pursue the March 1957 study with quad headlamps?

My favorite 356 derivative, the Carrera Abarth is well covered. including color photographs of Erwin Strahle's "V-I" undergoing mountain cooling tests with a T-6 Roadster.  Almost heart breaking is the news that the CD (coefficient of drag) of the Carrera Abarth = 0.414! The caption accompanying the wind tunnel photograph reads . . "aerodynamisch als Flop astonishing rear

lift.

The book closes with a few chapters on restoration and more than 40 pages of specification including options prices.  I translate the title as "Driving in its Finest Form."