Few brands doe sports cars as well as Porsche and while it’s hard to pinpoint its single most important production vehicle, one could make an argument that the 356/2 is it. Were it not for it, Porsche may have never become the brand that it currently is.
The first Porsche built came in the form of the 356/1 which had no fixed roof and a mid-mounted flat-four engine. Soon after, Porsche received the necessary funds it needed to bring a sports car into production thanks to a Swiss entrepreneur by the name of Rupprecht von Senger.
That model was the 356/2 and just 52 examples were ever manufactured. This car is number 32 and is available through DK Engineering in the UK with a claimed value of $3.5 million.
DK Engineering
Unlike so many other vehicles of this age, the history of this 356/2 has been comprehensively detailed throughout the decades. It was built on June 12, 1950, and delivered to a customer in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 1952, it was purchased by Gert Kaiser who raced at the Midnattssolsrallyt or Rally to the Midnight Sun in the Arctic Circle.
Read: The Porsche Vision 357 Is A Retrotastic Homage To The Original 356
The car passed through the hands of several other Swedish residents during the 1950s and 1960s before being deregistered in Sweden in 1974 and sold in Norway. It was later sold to a collector in California before being acquired by collector Jim Barrington in 1994. The 356/2 was then sold to Cal Turner III and displayed at numerous events before it was purchased by someone in the UK in 2007 and then picked up by DK Engineering last year. It is now ready for a new home having recently benefited from a full service.
A variety of different engines powered the 52 units that were built, including two different 1.1-liter flat-fours and a larger 1.5-liter engine. Given this car’s age, it looks to be in excellent condition and will no doubt be a welcome addition to even the most comprehensive and expensive collection.