The Porsche 356 was Porsche’s first production car, which established Porsche’s reputation as a sports car manufacturer. Of similar design to the original Volkswagen Beetle, the first examples used the engine and some suspension components from the Beetle, but over the course of production the 356 was upgraded substantially, moving away from its more pedestrian roots. It also came with a range of bodies and engine configurations throughout its production from 1948 to 1965, when it was replaced with the Porsche 911. In 1960, the Porsche 356B Roadster supplanted the earlier stripped down Speedster and the one year only Convertible D, adding roll up windows and an improved convertible top, which, unlike the cabriolet, is a single layer and folds completely away when not in use, while like the speedster, keeping the weight lower, giving them some of the best performance. Production of the Porsche 356 Bodies was largely carried out by a range of different coachbuilding companies, with individual companies often being given the task of assembling specific variants of the car. In the case of the Roadsters, production began with Drauz, which also built the Convertible D, but after 1960, the rest of body production was carried out by Anciens Etablissement d'Ieteren Frères S.A. in Belgium, who produced 746 examples with both the T5 and T6 production combined, over the next two years. My Porsche 356B Super 90 Roadster is a T5 variant, with the single engine grille. The Super 90 was the second most powerful engine configuration fitted to the Porsche 356B, after the race-bred and very rare 4 cam Carrera engines, and was a fairly rare specification for the 356B, let alone the already limited production roadsters. I purchased the car out of New York, based on photos and history and had it shipped to me. On arrival, it appeared to live up to as it was sold, as a largely original low mileage example, though it had numerous minor paint defects and, as is very common for these cars, a little bit of rust under the battery that I wanted to address. In stripping the car for a repaint, however, we discovered that it had suffered from a bad collision on the front driver’s side at some point in its past, with a poorly reshaped fender braised in place with extensive bodywork and far too much filler. This damage was repaired with genuine Porsche replacement panels to return the car to its original condition and then a full exterior repaint was carried out. The rest of the car was in largely preserved, original condition, so aside from the peeling chrome on the windshield pillars, which were replated, I left all the rest of the interior, trim and chrome as it was originally. I’ve since driven this car quite a bit including taking it on a three day rally tour covering several hundred miles, where it proved to be an excellent touring car, comfortable on highways as well as back roads, yet it is also very well mannered for driving in the city.