Flat-out wild – Porsche 356A

Bonneville - it's the destination that has launched a thousand and one dreams. ‘The Salt' is a mighty powerful catalyst. Expanding over hundreds of square miles, it's where the fastest person who ever travelled on earth did it, and thousands of petrolheads are drawn to it every year. Yet it still remains a desolate, isolated place that takes no prisoners. We've marvelled in its magnificence and listened to the echoes of speed, and if you've never ‘got' this side of motorsport you'd better check your pulse, because you might be dead. Thankfully, Mike and Matthew Schumacher are very much alive, if this story is anything to go by.

Matt: "I was looking for a project 356A and found this one via the web in about 2001. The car had been in storage about eight years when I bought it and wasn't running."

Prices back then were more affordable and the previous owner had done some bodywork and then stowed the A away. "When we got the car home we took it apart in preparation for a repaint and other work."

Mother Schumacher had said her sons could have a Porsche, as long as it wasn't red; Matt and Mike made a few discoveries along the way. "We had somewhat of a ‘Frankenstein' car as it was made up of a B Super engine, ‘B' doors and decklid and it came with a extra 741 transmission," says Matt.
With a pile of mismatched Porsche parts, the brothers worked through the rebuild. About two years later a friend suggested they attend some Porsche Club DE events, as Matt remembers - "Since there was no way to get the car back to original specs, we decided to go ‘outlaw' and build a track-focused 356A."

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the September 2010 issue of VolksWorld

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