Adam Levine's 356A...original? Or recreation?

Checked with my buddy at European Collectibles-the Speedster pictured is real and was painted at their facility.

Cheers,
Anand

"He is also a smart business person, probably because he is Jewish."

Ed, thank you for highlighting that breathtakingly stupid remark.

 

I've forgotten who I'm quoting, but...

"Once the intemperant word is said it can never be unsaid"

So.....to move us along before I switch to Hebrew on all y'all, did any of you know that Adam Levine is a top Yoga expert?  Men's Health magazine ran a great article on him and his advanced Yoga abilities - simply put, he is amazing.  Take this pose:  He very slowly goes from a sit to an arm lift off the floor, rotates his body into a full hand stand and then lowly comes down into this before slowly rotating back through and returning to a sit, all under terrific control.  The dude's got my respect.

 

What Carl said........X20.

Gordon:

 

Levine is actually performing the move necessary for anyone over 5"6" tall to get out of a late 70's Lotus Elan hardtop.

I'm getting more popcorn and another beer, as it's obviously not over...and here I am drinkin' before 8am AGAIN! You guys are a bad influence...

 

PS- I'm starting to think that this is a good way to start the day...

Then of course we could rotate that photo 90 degrees and he's leaning against the wall...that spoken by me, fatso 

Carl being from CT I can not believe you object to my complement of the Jewish people. Since the border between CT and Westchester is blocked I understand where you are coming from. All kidding aside the entertainment industry is dominated by Jews. My Investment Advisor is Jewish, as are all of my Doctors. I would only trust my money and health to smart people. The entertainment industry is run by Jews for Christ's sake (ironic joke here). My comment was hardly anti-Semitic. To quote a line from Spamalot "to be successful on Broadway, be careful how you choose. You will never be successful on Broadway if you do not have any Jews." Check out the # of Jewish Nobel Prize winners and compare that to the earths population of Jews. They are without a doubt smarter than the rest of us. 

 

Oh, one more comment. For those of you that do not know the persona of Adam Levine, you need to stay off the NOS. You may find there are a few more websites than this one out on the WWW. 

"major", your vast knowledge, experience and wealth are most impressive. Thank you for your enlightenment.

       
       


That made me bust into laughter.  The sudden outburst made the cat jump.

T

I just want to know if I won an argument with Gordon after he phoned a friend.  This could be a milestone for me on the SOC :-)

I like replica Speedsters.

Tom:

 

I emailed him, but haven't heard back.  He has a foreign car dealership in my town so I'll try riding my bike over there and ask - I'm more curious than anything...  BTW:  He owns a sweet, original 1955 Speedster (along with a 911) and is the technical historian of the TYP356NE club.

"Exhaust through the bumperettes"

 

I finally got some answers from the local Porsche guys, but it needs a bit of background info so you can tell the models and years apart apart, so I pulled that from a table I worked up a couple of years back for the TYP356NE club:

 

 

T-0 is called “Pre-A”

- Only 200 were built

-  Side body line was straighter than later cars

-  No Front Sway Bar

-  Lots of VW parts included

 

 

T-1 was Built from Pre-A to later 1956 and had Bee Hive tail lights and 2-gauge dash

 

T-2 was Built from later 1956 to 1960 and had tear drop tail lights and 3-gauge dash

 

(356)B was Built from 1960 to 1965 - lots of different changes

 

OK, so here's the summation of the answers I received, which were all pretty much the same:  

 

"In 1956 to respond to questions from Hoffman about protection from bumpers on US cars  the Factory developed US Bumpers which is when the over rider bars (towel bars) began. In the transition from T1 to T2 cars (incl Speedsters)  beginning in Sept 1957 the now taller rear bumper guards incorporated an exhaust hole. The cars sold outside the US came without the over ride bars and taller guards but did have the same exhaust holes on a shorter guard. These were Factory items not accessories.  "

 

Another answer was:  "Dr. Johnson says that with the T-2 body, "the exhaust went through the bumper guard"

 

So it looks like any 356 from late 1956 to 1960 (when the "B" appeared) could have had them installed at the factory.  Undoubtably, few did, especially the Speedsters, since you don't see a whole lot of them around - always cool when you do, though.

Another answer, just in:  

 

"Gordo - The reasons you don't see a lot of these on T-2 Speedsters was two-fold - cost or intended use.

 

1.) They were more expensive while the Speedster model was a "lower cost", entry level car so they were not ordered much.

 

2.)  Most of the Speedsters ordered were for racing and would wreck the thru-the-bumper-guard exhaust system.  They had semi-flexible pipes from the muffler system to the bumper guards and with repeated heavy torque from acceleration in racing they would rupture those pipes so racers either didn't order them or went to different exhaust systems that didn't use the guard holes.

 

I guess I'm wrong, but Natalie is right.  All T2 Speedsters (1957+) had exhaust through the bumper.

http://www.speedsters.com/h-356a-t2-speedster.htm

Tom:  

 

That's a good article - always nice to have more information about these cars (I didn't know that bit about the door striker plates).

 

I have a similar thing I did for the TYP356NE club in New England as a comparison table between T-1 and T-2, with pictures.  Probably far from complete, but it's over 40MB and I can't email it.  I'll try to figure a way to get it on here.  

 

It highlights a lot of cosmetic and suspension differences that might be of interest to others on here, like dash differences, suspension and trim placement.  For example, it's "normal" for the hood handle on a T-1 to be about 1/4" off center (??) while the T-2 was centered, or the rain tray under the engine cover of a T-1 was like ours (at least on my CMC) while the rain tray on a T-2 was domed more to accept the 4-cam engine.  Lots of little details like that.  

 

I've seen more than a few replicas with a mix of T-1 and T-2 appointments (like bee-hives with a 3-gauge dash) but Natalie is the only one I've seen or heard of with the bumper exhaust ports - pretty darn cool no matter what!

Just when you thought this thread was over, one more look at Levine's sweet Speedster.

Roadster with cushy seats.

 

21st Century James Dean.

Wait! He has 2...a Roadster and a Speedster.the original Speedster had over riders.

 This probably his CA car.

Good catch Rich!

 

I think that this one is a '59 convertible D replica...

it has repro aluminum bumper guards instead of the chromed steel OEM's...and the wrong parking light lenses.

 

An original '59 D, worth a zillion dollars, would surely have OEM guards and parking lights!