Fully restored 1955 Porsche 356 Pre-A Speedster

One of only ten 356 Pre-A Speedsters supplied new to France in 1955, this comprehensively restored Porsche is set to amaze classic car enthusiasts at many historic motoring events in mainland Europe following resurrection in the southwest of England…

FROM ZERO TO HERO

fully restored 1955 356 Pre-A Speedster

Words Dan Furr 

Photography Rich Pearce

Bernard Moix is a huge Porsche fan. Little wonder, considering he was raised on a staple diet of air-cooled classics. “My stepfather bought a 1963 Slate Grey 356 SC when it was just six months old,” he explains, going on to reveal the very same four-cylinder coupe has remained in the family ever since. “He handed it down to me in 2007. Between us, we restored the car, both cosmetically and mechanically, retaining as much original factory equipment as possible.” As you’ll discover across the following pages, this dedication to originality develops into a theme as our conversation continues. “Every timeI open the door, the smell reminds me of my childhood. It’s a pretty cool feeling.”

HAVING A STEADY STREAM OF SPEEDSTERS PASSING THROUGH THE WORKSHOP PROVED ESPECIALLY HELPFUL

In 2011, one of Bernard’s friends led him to an astonishing barn find. Taking the form of a three-owner 356 Pre-A coupe loaded with uber-rare factory options, the early tin-top had been in storage for exactly thirty years. A sympathetic restoration followed. “We restored the mechanicals, but left everything else untouched. I’m pleased to say this 356 looks just like it did when I dragged it out of the barn it was residing in all those years ago, though now, of course, the car is fully operational and used regularly.”

This would be reason enough to keep smiling, but the coupe — supplied new to a Porsche customer in Germany in 1955 before being sold to a Swiss buyer in 1957 and passing to its third owner in 1960 — had an extraordinary secret up its sleeve.

“A few months ago, I came across a photograph of the first-ever Porsche club event in the city of Merano, South Tyrrol, in northern Italy,” Bernard continues. He enjoys researching the history of his cars, to the point his Pre-A coupe carries its original bill of sale, import papers from 1957, both sets of keys, many period pictures and even the original owner’s driving gloves. The best, however, was yet to come. “The photograph depicts a trio of early 356s, including an example displaying the same unusual factory options as mine. After a huge amount of research, Frank Jung, Head of the Porsche Historic Archive in Zuffenhausen, was able to confirm the car as my Pre-A coupe! Additionally, he was able to tell me the name of the original owner and put me in touch with his daughter, who has been extremely helpful in assisting me with documenting the car’s early history.” The biggest grin, however, came from the fact the photograph shows none other than Ferry Porsche leaning on the car’s driver’s door.

THIRTEEN YEARS WORKING ON PRE-A 356s PROVIDED HIM WITH A HUGE AMOUNT OF ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE

A 1966 911 S supplied new in California is next on Bernard’s hit list of restorations (“I honestly didn’t ever expect I’d be lucky enough to own these cars”) following acquisition during the height of the pandemic, when the flat-six-powered Porsche’s Australian owner was unable to leave his home country to collect his possessions from where they were being stored in Switzerland.

Deciding to sell off his belongings remotely, he agreed to let Bernard add the car to his small but impressive collection of revitalised rides. His most impressive find, however, is the 1955 356 Pre-A Speedster you see on the pages before you.

“A friend was restoring a 356 Speedster and asked me if I could help him research the car’s history. During the course of conversation, I suggested he should let me know if he comes across another example in need of recommissioning or restoration work. I didn’t expect such an immediate response — to my surprise, he told me about a surviving Speedster he’d come across in Marseilles the week before our chat.” The first batch of 356 Pre-A Speedsters manufactured in 1955 were almost all destined for the US sales market, but four units made their way to Switzerland and ten landed in France. The car Bernard was being told about was one of the ten, originally distributed through luxury vehicle sales company, Sonauto, Porsche’s official importer in Paris. Sonauto was established by Auguste ‘Toto’ Veuillet, who, along with his fellow countryman, Edmond Mouche, set the foundations for Porsche’s success at Le Mans by taking a class win with the no.46 356 SL Coupe at the daylong enduro in 1951, the manufacturer’s first outing at Sarthe.

The Speedster’s history is sketchy, but Bernard has reason to believe the previous owner bought the Porsche as a doer-upper twenty years ago with every intention to undertake an enthusiastic home-build restoration. Time passed, however, and the work didn’t get done. Worse, the open-top 356 was left out in the open at the mercy of the elements. “It’s an area of France suffering especially cold winters,” Bernard sighs. Needless to say, the ravages of time and the wrath of Mother Nature had taken their toll on the diminutive Porsche — a quick glance is all Bernard needed to realise complete restoration was required.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

To his credit, perhaps recognising the hugely increased value of the car since he bought it two decades ago, the Speedster’s owner — also custodian of a 906 and an old Bugatti — decided it was high time he carried out the restoration he’d promised his 356 many years previous. Unfortunately, early into stripdown, he passed away. His son welcomed Bernard’s interest in taking on the project, leading the two to strike a deal, though there was far more work involved in bringing the car to its current state than either of them had anticipated. Enter Steve Kerti, founder of independent Porsche restoration specialist, Classic Fabrications, located in Honiton, southwest England.

Steve is no stranger to the pages of Classic Porsche, having transformed Delwyn Mallett’s accident-damaged 1952 356 Pre-A coupe into a Le Mans-inspired smasher in advance of its star turn on the cover of our December 2020 issue. After twenty years of sheet metal fabrication and automotive panel manufacturing for Northamptonbased Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialist, Healey Brothers, Steve moved the Kerti clan to Devon, where his transferable skills proved impossible for a local, wellestablished classic Porsche restoration firm to resist.

Five years later, Steve struck out on his own, pitching his offer of comprehensive, high-quality restoration services to owners of early air-cooled Porsches. Suffice to say, Bernard’s new project was in safe hands after he carried the sorry-looking Speedster on a trailer from his home in Switzerland to the arranged handover point in Calais, where Steve was eagerly waiting to meet him.

“When the car landed in our workshop, we carefully dismantled it, taking notes on the condition of each component as it was removed. We also listed missing parts, such as the Sonauto tail badge, gear shifter and the oil temperature gauge. The capillary tube to the dipstick was also absent.” Bernard too had noted items lost during the previous owner’s attempt to dismantle the car — pedals, some of the instruments and the wiper system were missing in action, but he vowed to secure original replacement parts, leaving the rest of the project in Steve’s capable hands. “I wasn’t interested in taking the car from specialist to specialist for different aspects of the build,” Bernard stresses. “I wanted Steve to oversee every aspect of the project, including all body and mechanical work, paint, final fit and finish.” Indeed, the only aspect of the restoration not carried out at Classic Fabrications was the interior trim, instead completed by Jean-Phillipe Duval, a master automotive saddler based in the city of Épernay, known the world over for its many champagne houses.

There was much work to be done before the car could head to the land of mind-altering fizzy pop. Steve picks up the story. “To begin with, the derelict Speedster was placed on a dolly frame. Subsequently, its doors, bonnet, engine lid and outer skins were carefully removed. The panels and shell were then media blasted with glass bead, before being epoxy primed for protection. At this point, I could see exactly what my team was going to be working with.”

Impact damage had revealed itself. “It was nothing catastrophic, just a long-forgotten shunt at the front of the car. Consequently, the battery box compartment was cut free and inner section welds around the front torsion tubes released, allowing us to pull out-of-alignment sections of the body back into their correct position.” For most restorers, the metalwork would be the most challenging part of the process. Not so for Steve. Having spent close to four decades literally bending all kinds of metal to his will, restorative work like this comes as second nature, though he admits having spent thirteen years working on Pre-A 356s provided him with a huge amount of advance knowledge which proved useful when working on Bernard’s Speedster.

It all harks back to what we alluded to earlier: Bernard desires originality. It’s a request Steve has heard time and again: repair, rather than replace. The challenge, however, is to retain the ‘integrity’ of the car, which can be very difficult when dealing with extensive corrosion and added accident damage. Classic Fabrications regularly publishes YouTube videos showcasing its work, and a look at the footage focusing on Bernard’s Speedster restoration (hop online and point your browser at bit.ly/speedstervid) highlights only affected sections of the inner panels being reproduced, as opposed to the more straightforward option of replacing entire panels. “This is what I call a restoration,” Steve reasons. “Replacing everything amounts to a rebuild,” he adds, urging us to recognise the difference. “I guess there’s a fine line between the two,” he goes on, “but a job like this, where originality is key, requires me to make special tooling to ensure pressings are identical to those applied by Porsche in period.” Half the car’s left front inner wing and rear inner heel panel are just two examples of this wizardry at work.

The doors and engine lid were repaired, keeping the inner frames intact with the matching body numbers. Sadly, as hinted at in the ‘as he found it’ photograph showing the car holed up in Marseilles, the frunk couldn’t be saved, but rather than use a new replacement part, a genuine 1955 Pre-A bonnet was sourced and restored. The front outer panels, meanwhile, had to be replaced, albeit due to previous poor repairs. Steve was meticulous during fabrication, ensuring all Pre-A shapes and dimensions were observed. “They changed in 1956,” he tells us. “The alterations are barely noticeable, but this level of attention to detail is of huge importance on a restoration such as this.” Most of the panels were handmade at Classic Fabrications — those bought in were modified to match the originals. Moreover, the original lead-loading technique adopted during the car’s assembly in 1955 was carefully observed.

We ask Steve where the presented condition of Bernard’s Speedster ranks among the state of other early 356s Classic Fabrications puts back on the road after years of neglect. “We’ve welcomed many worse 356s to Honiton,” he laughs. “Thankfully, Bernard’s car was ninety percent complete, meaning I could copy parts, observing their original character and texture. Parts off the shelf are never correct, which is one of the reasons we make everything in-house, observing the detail of original factory technical drawings. That said, through careful restoration and refurbishment, I’m pleased to confirm seventy percent of the metalwork in Bernard’s restored Speedster is original to the car.” While revitalisation of the bodywork was taking place, the Porsche’s mechanical components were inspected. “Considering the state of the bodywork and the many years this Speedster was left motionless in a yard, we were surprised to see the parts were in good condition,” Steve recalls. “Even the alloy brake drums were free of wear. We were beginning to suspect the car had covered very few miles. This was confirmed when we dismantled the transaxle. It looked as good as new!” Obviously, all bearings and seals were replaced regardless of how impressed the team was with its discovery.

The front king pin stub-axle arrangement had suffered damage in the aforementioned accident, necessitating a second-hand replacement part from Germany.

Nevertheless, ninety percent of the Speedster’s original chassis equipment was able to be refurbished and reused. The same is true of the 1.5-litre flat-four, which was almost complete, save for its dynamo, distributor and starter motor. The engine turned over and was in good cosmetic condition, leading Bernard and Steve to agree it must have been removed and dry-stored by the previous owner before he began dismantling the car.

TESTING TIMES

The four-cylinder boxer was completely stripped at Classic Fabrications and all serviceable parts replaced. “It was very good inside, with minimal wear,” Steve points out. “Tinware and the heat exchangers needed work, but were powdercoated after a thorough going over. Similarly, the carburettors were refurbished and re-jetted.” After reassembly, the engine was tuned on the Classic Fabrications test bed and run for twenty hours to ensure it was safe to be released back into the wild.

This 356 was originally finished in a lick of Ivory (Reutter paint code 504). Steve ordered a special mix of Glasurit paint to match the factory hue. “One of the door hinge plate covers was in excellent condition and was covered in what looked like original colour. We polished it and found the match with our new paint to be spot-on.” All metalwork was covered inside and out with a twopart epoxy primer. The coated Porsche was then left for a number of weeks to fully cure. After this time, seam sealing of all joints and welds took place, followed by the application of first-stage paint primer. At this point, a prefit of the engine, transmission, suspension and other key components took place, and the car was dropped on its wheels to check for any movement and for final gapping of panels (primarily the doors). Finally, the underside and textured inner areas were finished in satin black — thereby replicating factory specification — and the exterior paint process was carried out, including handapplied wet and flat-polishing to achieve the superior finish you see here.

Having a steady stream of Speedsters passing through the Classic Fabrications workshop proved especially helpful when Steve had to fabricate Bernard’s car’s lower windscreen channel after none could be found for sale. Copying the part worn by another Speedster under the same roof, Steve manufactured a replacement part from brass, carefully shaping, filing, lightly polishing and chrome-plating it to perfection. At the other end of the car, the rear registration plate carrier was badly damaged (“it looked as though it had fallen off and been run over!”). At Bernard’s request, Steve repaired it, though with a wry smile, he won’t reveal how many hours it took, instead distracting us with talk of the other brightwork saved, including the iconic 356 frunk handle. The original cabin switchgear and steering wheel were also refurbished. The Classic Fabrications team ensured original colours were maintained throughout the process.

Likewise, the date-stamped Sudrad sixteen-inch wheels (now wrapped in new Avon crossply tyres), speedo, rev counter and the original fuel tank were restored and reinstated, though for obvious reasons, new lights and a new wiring loom were fitted.

Two hundred miles of road testing followed, with Bernard taking delivery of his sensational Speedster in August 2020. This is a man unafraid to use his cars, a fact demonstrated by the near 3,500 kilometres he’s added to the scoreboard since that time. He’ll be adding to this tally in the coming weeks — following the car’s return to Classic Fabrications for a service and fine-tuning not long before this issue of Classic Porsche landed on newsstands, man and machine are set to tackle the 2022 Mille Miglia.

This will be the fortieth edition of the re-enactment of the historic race carving its way through Italy and will take place mid-June. The original Mille Miglia was hosted twenty-four times between 1927 and 1957, with Porsches and other German sports cars joining speed machines from various Italian manufacturers (chiefly Ferrari and Alfa Romeo) in attracting a massive five million spectators.

The event — once a round of the World Sportscar Championship — was discontinued on the grounds of safety in the wake of two tragic accidents resulting in multiple fatalities. Thankfully, today’s Mille Miglia is an altogether slower-paced grand touring event, taking the form of a Brescia-Rome-Brescia r’egularity’ for vintage and classic cars manufactured no later than 1957.

Bernard is also planning to exhibit his immaculate Porsche at the 2022 Le Mans Classic, where a news team from a French television network wants to point cameras at the car. Two weeks later, a large gathering of Speedsters is set to descend upon the wine-producing region of Burgundy, where Bernard’s drop-top will be the star attraction.

“I’m in touch with the owner of one of the other ten 356 Pre-A Speedsters supplied new to France in 1955,” he says, politely ignoring the sight and sound of our jaws hitting the floor. “We thought it would be great to position my pristine Porsche alongside his car, which is currently barn fresh, completely unrestored.” We happen to know the perfect Porsche restoration specialist to tackle the task of bringing this rare 356 back to its best. Devon knows how Steve makes them so good!

Above Steve and the Classic Fabrications team would like to pay tribute to the work of their colleague and engineer, Patrick Roberts, who passed away earlier this year.

Above Look out for the car at this year’s Le Mans Classic, as well as its anticipated star turn on French television.

Above Wherever possible, original parts and metalwork were salvaged, with the focus being repair and restore, rather than replace 

Below Ferry Porsche leaning on the door of Bernard’s unusually specified Pre-A coupe, identity of the car confirmed by the Porsche Museum. 

Above Cabin trimming was the only part of the job not taken care of by Steve’s team 

Below This photo was taken the day Bernard’s Speedster was collected from the open yard it had been left in for more than two decades.

Above This rare Speedster was an amazing find and benefits from first-class restoration at the hands of Classic Fabrications.