Porsche 356: Driving in Its Purest Form [Hardcover]

Dirk-Michael Conradt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1993

This is a superb history of the 356 - from wartime tinkering with VWs to the Type 64 - through all years of 356 production. Excellent early photos, production shots, design studies, competition cars, exploded views, line drawings, specs, production figures, developmental history and much, much more. Hundreds of photos capture all the details through the years.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Beeman Jorgensen Inc. (1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929758099
• ISBN-13: 978-0929758091
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All the minutiae you could ever want, April 10, 2010

By 

Jon Warshawsky "Sinatra Guru" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Porsche 356: Driving in Its Purest Form (Hardcover)

If you're considering buying a Porsche 356 and looking for an enjoyable introductory read, look elsewhere. While the author is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about these cars, the sections that would interest a casual reader are few and far between. If you are deep into restoring a 356, or care deeply about their history, then Porsche 356: Driving In Its Purest Form is highly recommended.

The book starts with a recounting of why the author came to enjoy these cars, losing interest in faster, more modern hardware for the timeless charms of the 356. (Full disclosure: this reviewer agrees and made the same journey.) It then ambles through a chronological discussion of internal Porsche discussions and communications as the cars developed from their handmade, one-off origins in Gmund to the ultimate refinement of the series, the highly competent though aesthetically compromised 356C that yielded quickly to the 911. Finally, we get a couple of interesting sections on test driving an early 356 and a late cabriolet, and appendices bursting with detail from contemporary road tests and factory specs.

On the basis of the research alone, the book is an impressive work. And the contemporary photos are sometimes helpful, as we try to restore the surviving cars in ways consistent with their manufacture. On the downside, many of the details you might have been interested in from a restoration perspective aren't shown, which limits the usefulness of the book on that count.

The author also does an outstanding job of putting us inside the heads of Porsche engineers in the 1950s (mostly) as they weight cost, technical and market considerations in taking the 356 to its full potential. Engine noise, wiper effectiveness, Speedster top flapping -- all challenges taken up by Porsche.

The book's biggest flaw is its organization. Quite simply, I've been through it three times and it is frustratingly hard to find anything. For example, you might want specifications for a 356A of a given year, but to find what you're after requires a lengthy search through the appendices, where data is scattered between contemporary road tests and various factory data reports. If you want to compare those 356A specs to, say, a 356C, good luck. Moreover, the most relevant data for most of us involved in restorations -- trim colors, materials and options, for example -- seem to be missing.

I have Laurence Meredith's excellent Original Porsche 356 on the shelf next to Driving In Its Purest Form, and while the former doesn't go into enough detail, and contains some errors, it is beautifully organized. I wish Conradt would have tracked down the editor that Meredith used, who might have imposed some organization on what really is worthwhile material -- and vast amounts of it.

If you are a 356 enthusiast, this book is worth having for its photographs alone, and possibly for the historical context of the transitions from one model to the next. Those casually interested in the 356 mystique might look elsewhere.