I was out running errands today. One of my stops was at German Auto Werks in Placerville for some VW parts. When I pulled into the parking lot what did I see? A 1954 Speedster sitting out front. I took a picture, see if you can figure out which is which...(here’s a hint; one of them has a dent!)
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Non real
The one in the middle has a dent by the head light driver's side, has to be steel. Of course the bug and the thing are real also.
Your car is the one with the patina paint job.
We have a winner!
The 'real' speedster is definitely a driver not a trailer queen! It looks good but is a little rough but very cool and gets driven!
Costly dent for sure!
Th dented one's bumper: Is that stock Porsche? Like the steel fits under the bumper cover?
I live in Placerville(hangtown to locals) I doubt thats a real Speedy, not enough $$ up here, unless its a pot farmer:}
I was with Ray- I called both fakes, as the damaged Speedster (to me) looked like broken fiberglass...
I see broken fiberglass too but if I could see it in person I'd know.
The license plate on one says, "DIY356A". Doesn't that kinda make it obvious?
No rust yet??? It sure looks like it has a CMC/early IM cast hibachi rear engine grill. Plus the mirror is a later style Durant mirror not used until 1965-ish. I think Chris is pulling a fast one on us! A picture of the inside of the shiny red one would show a VW pan, I bet. Looks like a custom tow bar receiver on it too.
The give-away on Chris's not being real is that the horn grills aren't cut out (or painted black). I do love the patina look on Chris's.
Todd M posted:The license plate on one says, "DIY356A". Doesn't that kinda make it obvious?
barncobob posted:I live in Placerville(hangtown to locals) I doubt thats a real Speedy, not enough $$ up here, unless its a pot farmer:}
ALB posted:I was with Ray- I called both fakes, as the damaged Speedster (to me) looked like broken fiberglass...
John Nickerson '57 Beck posted:I see broken fiberglass too but if I could see it in person I'd know.
The person posting this thread is Chris and his replica is the DIY356 car with the "patina". He parked next to the real car and knows it's real because he saw the dent in the front end. The guy that owns the real one could be poor as heII. If he's owned the car for long enough he probably didn't pay much for it. And for some people the amount of money they might get for it doesn't equal the non-monetary value they get from owning/driving it. If the internet were around in the 1980's I would be driving a real Speedster. Back then I imagined these sold for mid-five figures when in reality they were darn near being given away because of the rust issues.
I do not think either is real. No rust at the damaged area, black VW style windshield wipers, no "Porsche" emblem on nose and odd front bumper.
Any other photos of the damaged car? It's not like you were there and looked the car over. LOL Apparently no one believes that the other car is real because they can't see rust, bumper is odd, etc. We know your car is replica because it is well documented on our site.
Here's a real one via $219.5k at Beverly Hills (albeit incorrect mirror) and a little too much patina (rust)!
Those folks at Beverly Hills have gotta be on crack.
That front bumper on the real 356 was not a stock item. It looks like a "Track Bumper" from the good old days, meaning that a tow-bar attaches to it to tow the car to the track, then the bar is released and you race all day then hook up the tow bar and tow it home. And yes, I believe the damaged car is an original.
The red one also looks like it has the ten slot Porsche wheels
I can assure you the bright red one is real, I could see the metal showing through the broken lacquer paint on the front fender and around the door, (although???, they may have done a fantastic patina paint job! Any body know how to paint fiberglass to look like non rusty steel?)
Drew, the shop owner said the customer had owned it for a very long time and back in the 70's or 80's they swapped out the speedster seats for coupe seats and threw away the speedster seats because they were uncomfortable! The other big shame is that someone had slightly flared the back fenders back in the day, I couldn't take any pictures of that because it made me throw up a little in my mouth!
(But I did offer to trade straight across!)
