It was October 2000, my wife was close to give birth to our son and our daughter was 3 years old. One particular Wednesday, I broke the news to my pregnant wife, I was planning on going to Germany the next day and would return to Brazil on Monday morning. She must have thought I was crazy! Especially since Freddy Jr. was about to arrive in 2 or 3 weeks!
At first, she thought it was another business trip, but on the weekend? When she asked I had to tell her but the truth. Honey, I am going to Geseke, Germany, to see about a Porsche 356. Geseke is a small city about 300kms from any international airport. Why Geseke? Well, I saw a nice coupe they had at a shop there, and I could not resist going.
So, my wife accepted (I don't mean she understood, only accepted), and I left home the next day to see the little Porsche. After 11 hours of flying, and not being able to sleep due to my anxiety, I arrived in Germany, rented a car, but had to stop alongside the highway to sleep for a few hours to avoid causing a car accident.
When I arrived in Geseke, the owner told me that the red Coupe I went there to see has been sold, but there was a nice refrigerator-white Coupe in the same condition. He gave me the keys and told me to take it for a spin, just to see if I was interested. I had a lot of fun driving that car (my first time driving a real 356). It got quite a bit of attention, it had plenty of torque, but the rest was so-so. Overall, it was a nice driver, but a new interior would make it a lot nicer.
When I arrived back to the shop, I started to look at the other cars. There was a silver BT5 GT in very good condition with a 692/3A engine that was very nice. Then, there was an interesting white AT2 GS with black hardtop. I started to look at both cars. As a newbie, there wasn’t anything I could really tell about them, except that they were rare, exquisite and very beautiful!
I thought about the BT5 GT. It was apparently unrestored with original aluminum hubcaps and roll cage, but there is that cramped feeling about the coupes. Then I went to the front of the shop to see this special AT2 GS.
I remember telling him what a special car he had — a real piece of art. He gave me the key and told me to try it out. I thought this guy must be nuts to let me drive such a car. After all, I was a total stranger who just flew in from another distant country!
He then prepared the car for me to test drive. What a piece of art that car was! The noise, the overall feeling…everything was so much different from the C coupe I just drove. (I like the C coupes a lot, but that specific C was not what I wanted) I immediately fell in love with the car and moments later, I found myself negotiating a price with him! I went there to buy a toy and ended up with something totally different.
After agreeing to my proposal, I then had to make arrangements to send him money after signing a brief contract. Remember, I was a newbie and did not know enough about those cars. I was an easy person to be fooled. I tried to check the engine number but couldn’t even find it. He told me the engine number was located bellow the sheet metal. I was afraid something could go wrong since I did not do my homework before signing the contract; but with my wife waiting for me at home, she would never forgive me if our son were born before I arrived.
In the contract, he mentioned the car was a 1959 Carrera Cabriolet GS with both tops and matching numbers. We agreed he would have the soft top restored with the best German materials and that I would come back to visit him again before the shipment.
Three months later, Freddy III was born and we flew back to Germany to see that the car was ready for shipment. Patricia, my wife, agreed that the car was very nice.
One month later, the car arrived in Brazil at Santos Port. I went there to open the container and everything looked fine. I helped them unload the container and was willing to drive it from the port to my house — 100kms away. Unfortunately, the local law does not allow you to drive a vehicle before having all your documentation completed. The car was still equipped with English license plates from the previous owner.
I was very happy with the car finally in my garage beside my 6.000miles 993 Carrera 4 Cabriolet! On the following day I decided to take the car for a ride on the wild roads of Sao Paulo. The tires were very old Dunlop SP57 165VR15 tires and the odometer was showing only 6.000kms. I looked down and noticed I was driving the car above 160km/hr (100mph)...WOW!!! The car was really fast! My mechanic joined me on the drive with his 1973 Carrera RS and was amazed how fast my car was! The following day I took my 3-year-old daughter for a ride with me and she enjoyed every meter! In the afternoon I took my wife for a drive and while driving the car some 20kms from my house, I felt the engine get very weak. I tried not to panic and kept on driving toward home as easy as I could, trying not to force the engine. When I arrived at my garage, I noticed a large amount of liquid under the car. I became quite panicked thinking, “What could I have done to my car?” I had to wait another 3 days before getting it looked at due to the long weekend in the country. By Wednesday morning I had the car towed to an official Porsche dealer who had a lot of expertise and passion for all air-cooled Porsches.
Upon my arrival, the manager opened the engine lid and told me that the gasoline line from the left carburetor was loose. The fuel pump was sending gasoline all over the engine, washing it with fuel, not to mention a huge risk of fire!!!
OK...that was enough for me. I decided that after driving this car above 160km/hr (100mph) on old tires and the potential risk of fire, that was a clear enough message for me to restore the car to perfection. I am the kind of person that likes to drive fast and this car is too special to be driven hard without knowing what could be wrong inside.
So, I told them to disassemble every little piece of this car, starting with the engine. Upon closer inspection, we realized that the car was not all matching numbers. The engine was unnumbered and above all, not even a plain bearing engine that I had expected to find in a 1959 GS. Instead, it was 1500cc, 692 crankcase with a roller bearing crank. I was about to sue the seller, but after talking to my lawyer, he told me to forget it since the car was already disassembled and all local taxes had been paid, etc.
As per the actual Certificate of Authenticity, I got the following information:
* Bucket seats
* Hardtop
* Tonneau cover
* 1 Spyder mirror
* Side trim moldings
* Aluminum front deck lid
* Plastic suitcase for rear lid
* Corduroy-Linen bag
* GT bumpers
* GT brakes
Through the Registry Talk List, I managed to discover some history about my car, and learned that one previous owner, Jim Degnan, owned this car from 1976 up to 1997. I got lots of information from him about the car.
Through the Internet, I met a great friend from Europe; someone who is very knowledgeable with these cars who became a very close friend of mine. On my first visit to him, he helped me find the original kardex file for my car. He was also the first person to tell me that my car was one of the very few Carrera Cabriolets with so many GT accessories.
At this time, I realized that I should bring the car to its original kardex specifications. I started to collect rare GT parts and decided to use only original items and avoid reproduction parts. When possible, NOS parts would be used.
That confirmed the original kardex file that stated the following factory installed accessories:
* Plastikkoffer für fond (Suitcase for the rear area)
* GT-Stosstangem (GT bumpers trim)
* Alu-Deckel (Front aluminum deck lid)
* Zierleisten (Aluminum side trim)
* Verbreiterte Bremsen (60mm GT drums)
* 1 persenning (tonneau)
* 1 Spyder-Spiegel (Spyder mirror)
* 1 Cordleinentasche (corduroy-linen bag)
* 1 Schalensitz (Speedster seat)
One of the toughest parts to find was a set of 5 alloy-steel wheels. A rare option that was so fragile, that most of them were destroyed a long time ago. After a long search, someone from the 356 Talk List offered to sell me a set of 5 wheels. The wheels were at his garage and I couldn’t find anybody to visit him for me so I could get a report on their condition. I decided to trust him anyway and I wired him the money. It normally takes about 3 days to get the wire confirmation. When I was expecting to receive the confirmation, he stopped answering my emails. I thought I was in deep trouble, but then after about 3 or 4 days, I got a new email from him saying that the money was there and the wheels were ready for shipment. The reason for the unanswered emails — the Thanksgiving Holiday.
I now have the correct 4 ½ x 15 alloy-steel wheels, Sebring exhaust, Speedster seats, GT 60mm ventilated drums, Spyder mirror, (perfectly matched) German square weave wool carpet, correct cotton trim for the carpet, NOS Marchal fog lights with yellow bulbs, new rubber everywhere, and 5 new Koni shock absorbers (not to mention the car painted on the correct shade of white – Ivory 5704 – an eggshell color full of yellow). Everything was going well, but I still needed to figure out how I was going to get the 4-cam engine rebuilt.
I decided to ship the engine to one of the most experienced guys in Europe. I got a big wooden box, packed it and put it on an airplane and a few days later, I flew to Europe to meet up with the engine arriving at Armin Baumann's house in the north of Italy.
Armin is a well known expert on 4-cam engines in Europe. It turns out he moved from Switzerland to Italy after getting more speeding tickets than his drivers license could afford to remain valid. At his garage in Italy, he also has a nice classic 911, plus a very nice 356A T2 Carrera GS/GT that he uses regularly.
When I arrived at his house, (believe it or not, you actually need a GPS to find the place), the engine hadn’t yet arrived. His very nice wife told me the carrier called that morning saying the engine should be there by lunch time. Sure enough, right after lunch, the delivery van arrived at his house. I helped them to unload the van and after unpacking the engine, he started to disassemble it. In about 20 minutes, the engine was torn into little pieces. He was very disappointed with the condition of the engine, until the moment he started to open the crankcase. He then said, “Freddy, you have an RS60 engine in your car!!!”
I got very excited and as soon as I came back home, I emailed the previous owner of my car, Jim Degnan (who lives in California), to tell him about the discovery. He confirmed that he heard something like this before. Someone told him that the previous owner, Lenny Harris, replaced the substitute pushrod engine with a 4-cam, but he did not know it was an RS60 engine. Armin suggested to me that we should convert the crankcase from a roller-bearing to plain-bearing for better reliability.
The car was almost ready. The kardex file was with me and I received a nice new Certificate of Authenticity from PCA. The engine was installed back in the car and I was ready to enjoy it. My mechanic delivered the car to me on the 24th of December 2002. I thought about driving that car over the entire summer vacations in São Paulo (the city gets empty then). After about 500kms of driving, I noticed the car was smoking a lot. I contacted Armin and he told me that 4-cam engines are expected to smoke a little more than the pushrod engines. He said I should wait another 2000kms to see if it really was a problem. I proceeded as suggested and at the end of the 2000kms, the car was very good for killing mosquitoes at the front with the windshield at high speed and at the rear with all that blue smoke from the exhaust!!!
Armin was ready to come to Brazil to help me with the engine when my mechanic, an experienced guy with many racing Porsches completed, plus a nice 904/6 and a 908, told me he was ready to repair my engine. Sure enough, he did it! I have to confess I could not sleep till I saw the engine running well and for good. The engine is now in perfect working order and running strong.
The only additional accessories to the original kardex file list included in the car are:
A GT 80 liters gas tank that help me go and come back to the mountains with one full tank of avgas gasoline.
And now i need the actual history of this german car in u.s.a.