This Porsche 356 is rather unique and here below is its brief story of its life and owner.
PRESS RELEASE: Everyone asks Cameron Healey the same questions. Is his car real? What is the strange story behind the conversion into a Spyder? The slender giant answers them in a calm, gentle voice. He is familiar with it, knows this doubt. In himself. Because when he bought a small red 356 made of aluminium and without a roof in 2009, he had actually just fallen in love with this very car. It had belonged to Chuck Forge since 1957. And insiders knew that it was a very early 356. But how early and with what kind of history – that only became apparent when Chuck, together with Porsche outlaw Rod Emory, took it for restoration in North Hollywood / Los Angeles. We have to go back a long way to understand what they found under the dark red luminescent paint.
Winter 1949, Gmünd/Carinthia. An entire company is making the move back to Stuttgart. Ferry Porsche’s search for a car he was unable to find anywhere else resulted in the 356 “No. 1” Roadster. This was followed by 52 Gmünd coupés and convertibles made of aluminium. Porsche decides to move to Stuttgart to start series production. The vehicles are to be made of steel there. But there were still the early Gmünd vehicles made of aluminium – although lighter, they were more difficult to process. The last unfinished vehicle bodies were left behind. They were completed by wage workers at Tatra in 1950 and later delivered to Zuffenhausen. These bodies included the 356/2-063.
The Paris Motor Show in October 1950 was to breathe new life into the aluminium coupé. It quickly gained importance, because Auguste Veuillet and Charles Faroux – one an entrepreneur (Sonauto) and racing driver, the other a co-founder and from 1923 to 1956 race director of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – gave Ferdinand Porsche a good excuse to enter the 1951 race. This was a major undertaking for the still young company!
