How close are our kits to the real deal???

Are any of them popped directly from a real 356? A man on one of my airplane rides asked about the car on my "desktop" laptop. I told him it was a kit. He asked how they made them so close. It was an interesting question, so I'm asking the pro's!!

I believe that most of, if not all, of the molds were made from the real thing.

Well the real deals had bad brakes, rattlely doors. no sincromesh in the gear boxes,,Tthat made shifting a bit ugly . And were very prone to rust out..

The kit cars are a world apart in tech . Much better in fit and finish .. improved everything to 70ish Vw quality.. and pretty much rust free.


If you want the real deal and in nice condition?? I hope your a millionare... Authentic ? pretty close.

Fun factor Is the same..and a no brainer. if want to drive it? A kit.

If your stocking a museum? the real deal.

Guess I should have made it clear... How close are the actual curves and body lines. I'm pretty aware of the mechanical difference...

The actual body lines and curves are good enough to fool almost everyone.

Yelp!! All are molded from real ones. and pretty acurate

The trunk in a Vs and CMC not as correct.. a Beck pretty close . Thunder Ranch very close a.. But a IM is allmost perfect. ou get what you pay for.

It's a common practice to start with a real 356 to make your final Mold. It was the simplest way to make molds.. Once done,, then your set and you can use them over and over and over.

The wide body flare cars are however not correct. Porsche never did that to a 356. I'd guess a outlaw 356 cab was built and monifed.

Then they made a mold off of it the same way.. If you have ever seen a boat made and glued up you'd have good idea of what it takes to build one.

Their is a art to it. that is for sure.

Thunder ranch is not as close as you may think. The rear end is wider so you can run 205's. if you look down the side of the car from nose to tail you can see it. also, not so sure about the headlight placement. when i have it sitting next to my brothers '59 coupe the buckets are low on my TR.

Paul, I guess we have to get a real Speedster to compare, but a 1959 coupe is a B model, and headlights and bumpers were raised, as well as different and bigger windshield/backlight,hood shape, etc. They changed a lot of things from the A model, the purists were up in arms, but progress is progress, then came the 356C, then we ended up with the constantly evolving 911......

Oooops... The '59's were the last production year of the A model. The revised B model (referred to at the time as "Newies") appeared in 1960

Doesn't one of the vendors (VS? or JPS?) have a slightly mis-shaped front fender due to fact that mold was flashed from a previously damaged car? Seems I recall reading that years ago. The biggest visual give away are the fender wheel openings inner lips.

Yes ! its right in front of the driver door and wheel well. That was the first place i fixed on mine when i got it on a VS

Is there a picture of this " mis shaped" fender??

Right you are, Barry. My VS has that flared out area in front of the right wheel well. It's hardly discernable and you would never notice it if you weren't specifically looking for it. My thought is that it's telling me that the VS mold is taken from a "real" Speedster (Poor body repair and all) and not made some other way to "look" like a Speedster. It's never prevented me from garnering several "Best Of Show" trophies as well as quite a few 1st place ones. Absolutely no one has ever noticed that odd area in front of the right side wheel well. I'd never give a thought to "fixing" it.

While on this subject---to me, the most "Speedster looking" cars are the ones made by VS and JPS. I have heard they both get their bodies from the same maker in Mexico. I don't know if John Steele "fixes" that odd area on his cars---I'll look around at Carlisle this year.

The "D" model is not a Speedster---it's the convertable model of the 356 coupe range and has a different shape---still a magnificent car by any measure. Thinking about it---certainly some others seem identically shaped to a "real" Speedster----but not all. Some just look a little different.

Anyone else noticed this?

Carl's right.

1959 was the last year of the 356 A, then, in 1960, they introduced the "B" series with the relocated horn grills and headlights, different bumpers and a whole lot of interior changes. By that time, Max Hoffman was pretty much dictating what accessories were coming to America so you see a lot fewer variations than on the pre-A and A cars, which were all built with whatever was on the parts shelf that week.

I work with two Porsche nuts. One claimed to have an ultra-rare 1959 Carrera. The were both drooling, and asked if it was real. On my car the waviness of the fiberglass body is the biggest giveaway to me. They both have newer but extremely nice 911s from what they told me.

I work with two Porsche nuts. One claimed to have an ultra-rare 1959 Carrera. The were both drooling, and asked if it was real. On my car the waviness of the fiberglass body is the biggest giveaway to me. They both have newer but extremely nice 911s from what they told me.

Barry said the fender issue is on the drivers side, but Jack said it's on the passenger side, which is where I see it and where I have read others also see it. I'm not sure what Barry is seeing.

Convertible "D" had the SAME body as the speedster, only the higher
windshield, roll-up windows and generally, coupe seats and misc.
minor interior appointments.

Of course, when I am wrong, I admit it. The 356B was introduced at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1959 as a 1960 model. So Paul, is your brother's coupe a '59(356A T2) or a '60(356B T5), B or A?

Jerry--I never knew this and doubt that it is so. Could the difference of just a taller windshield make such a large (to me) difference in the appearance?

The Speedster body looks longer and lower to me.

Maybe I'm wrong but to me there is a large difference in appearance.
I'm not saying either is better---just that to me they look different
and it's not just the taller windshield.

Jerry's right, Jack. The taller windshield and top make a world of difference in how it looks. Back in the day the Speedster lovers were incensed by the changes.

http://convertibledregistry.com/history.html

Jack, I asked Henry what the difference was a few years ago between the speedster body and the conv d body and I remember him saying they are identical except for the windshield. I have a real car guy in my family and he swears they were different, but I guess they are the same...I love all of them....just wish I had One to drive today....,it's 85 in Boston.......

Lane--thinking about this--the taller windshield does move the top higher and gives the whole car a different sillouette than the Speedster. Maybe so.

And when the top is up, the square shape of the side windows changes the look as well.

It's the same body. How many manufacturers of these 'replicas' are going to have two distinct molds?

The higher windshield, plus the higher convertible top (both up and down) of the Roadster gives a different look to the same body.

Then there is the Cabriolet, which again has a different windshield, as it is body colour.

At Hans Hoffman's insistance the Convertible D was developed for the American export market in that single year of 1959. The public loved the all weather comfortable Cabriolet...but it was luxurious and expensive... The "D" was affordable and it kept that seductive turtle back shape...which the Cabriolet didn't have.

Jack,

Check out my Conv-D with no windshield and no top. Its the same as a Speedster.

Marty--those pictures really makes it clear---your car could be either a Speedster or Convertable "D' depending on which windshield and top. One set of specs I found show that the "D" was actually a little longer than the Speedster; 157.5" vs. 155.1"
Same width at 65.77"

Wheelnase was 82.68" for the Speedster and 83.48 for "D".

These figures are for a '57 Speedster and a '58 "D".

Interesting and the opposite of what I first thought!

That settles it, I knew Marty could go "both ways"

Better be careful next time you go cruisin' with him, then.

Jack, I think you will find that the difference in the overall length from the stats you were looking at may just be as little as the bumpers, most Speedsters had plain bumpers and the Convertible D came with bumper guards. As far as the bodies being identical, yes they are, as you know Henry builds both and uses the same mould for each. I have an Intermeccanica "D" that I grafted a rear quarter into that was made from a Speedster mould. Not sure why the wheelbase would be listed as different lengths as when Porsche introduced the "D" it was a bit of an upgrade as a transition to the 356b from the 60s, based on Porsche's history and how long they run any specific body style its unlikely that they re-tooled for such a short run.

my two cents..

Simon--good to know. Thanks.

Hi in the course of building my own coupe replica I bought a speedster body and borrowed a real 356 body to make the mould from the dash and roof. The speedster I believe was copied from an APAL which in turn was copied from IM (?)
I have found the outer skin to be very accurate (you can see my joint lines and they match up the biggest discrepab\ncy is the following The original body that was used to make the speedster was a pr a and as such differs from the a (the lip of the rear fender is about 25mm lower and the sills dont match an a or pre a and is something in between. the headlights have been raised slightly about 50mm in order to meet the same regs as a B model but not as extreme as the B The tail end of the speedster is flatter and the whole rear of the car is slightly wider presumably to clear later wide axle transmissions but this was done cleverly and isnt noticable For some graphic ideas of what I am talking about see my build thread over at the SAVW Forum
Regards
Armand
http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17418

I converted MY Vs speedster into a D Its still a speedster cab.
My car is a convertable D with the rollup windows Like the 1957 prototypes they only made a handful before the 1958 Roadster replaced it..