Leffingwell Randy - The Complete Book of Porsche 911

The coupes rode on a 2,100mm (82.7-inch) wheelbase and were 3,870mm (153.4 inches) long overall. They weighed about 765 kilograms, 1,683 pounds, and were capable of nearly 140 kilometers per hour, 88 miles per hour.

Porsche supported automobile shows throughout Europe and the United Kingdom with sales people and vehicles. An Austrian with substantial ambitions, Maximilian Hoffman brought Porsche cars (as well as Mercedes-Benz, Jaguars, and Volkswagens) to the United States. His vigorous personality, effective salesmanship, and obsession with detail and perfection led to success with Porsches in America. He raced the cars and encouraged others to do the same, including an equally adventurous fellow Austrian, John von Neumann, who personally drove the cars to the West Coast for his own customers. As the American market grew, Hoffman and von Neumann convinced Stuttgart management to develop new versions for their sporting and racing customers. A trim America Roadster appeared in late 1951 and 1952, followed by the rakish Speedster in 1954. Engine chief Franz Reimspeiss developed power plants of 1.1-, 1.3-, and 1.5-liter displacements for Porsches growing product line. At the top of the performance spectrum, the new four-cam Carrera, designed by newcomer Ernst Fuhrmann, offered a 1.5-liter dual overhead camshaft flat four that produced 115 horsepower.

Ferdinand Porsche had died in January 1952, and his first generation of designers commingled with Ferrys younger generation of engineers. One of these newcomers was Ferrys son Ferdinand Alexander, known to family and friends as F. A. or Butzi. F. A. was among the first students at the Hochschule fr Gestaltung, the upper school for art in nearby Ulm. This institution nurtured progressive designers, emphasizing the aesthetic of everyday objects and spaces and incorporating mathematics in the design process. The faculty taught creative minds such as F. A. to reduce ornament to a fundamental and pure form of geometry. With Germany in ruins after the war, the school pushed students to start from new, to feel little obligation to refer to or take from the past. In his brief time at Ulm, F. A. learned to question whether old techniques applied to new products, to develop independent thoughts and ideas, and to express them confidently. He left the school in 1957, just as his father confronted the need to develop Porsches first all-new product, a successor to the 356.

A year earlier, in 1956, the company had introduced its 356A series, with increased engine displacements of 1.3, 1.5, and 1.6 liters from Franz Reimspeisss engineers. Neighboring Reutter body works assembled these more potent coupes, cabriolets, and speedsters.

1951 356 1100 Coupe
The 44-horsepower 1,286cc (78.4-cubic-inch) Typ 506 engines first appeared in 1951. Manufactured in Stuttgart and assembled by Reutter, the cars had finned drum brakes with two front leading-shoes.