One of our customer’s has charged us with the responsibility of completing some preservation work on his special 904.

The metal work on the 1955 Continental coupe is almost finished. As the pictures show, this 356 suffered from collision damage on both fenders and on the cowl. Hans used the original front clip and made new fenders and cowl.

More restoration updates coming soon on this early Continental Coupe.

Road Scholars hosted a restoration tech seminar for the local PCA Club on December 3, 2011.

The goal of the seminar was to explain the specifics of excuting concours restoration work. We used various  restoration projects in the shop to show each critical stage of the restoration process.

It’s our sincere goal to perform the highest caliber of restoration work on significant automobiles and it was a pleasure to host the PCA club for this tech seminar.

Not surprisingly, there were many minute differences among all the examples that we inspected. With the exceptions being the last batch of cars that were assembled by Tatra. It was certainly worth all the hard work to drink champagne in the winners circle on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach.

See complete list of winners here: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Winners Announced.

If above video won’t load, click here to see Road Scholars co-owner, Cam Ingram, interviewed by Jay Leno about this Gmund Coupe.

Our sincere gratitude and appreciation goes out to Hans Peter Porsche and Rolf Sprenger for this incredible opportunity.

See the Gmund Coupe featured on Jay Leno’s photo gallery:

• photo 1
• photo 2
  

About Hans Peter Porsche’s 1949 356/2 Gmund Coupe #45

This rare 1949 356/2 aluminum bodied Porsche Gmund Coupe was one of the first production cars made in Gmu?nd, Austria. It has the distinction of being the 45th Porsche built with chassis number 356/2-045.

The Gmu?nd cars as they are known, truly represent the success story of Porsche. These arcane, yet skillfully built cars from Gmu?nd, represent Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s first clear statement of purpose for building personal sports cars.”

There was a total production of 52 units built in Gmund, with an additional 11 bodies created later for competition cars.

Chassis 356/2-045  completed and shipped to Scania Vabis in Sweden on July 18, 1950. Porsche would sell a combined 15 Gmu?nds to the truck manufacture Scania Vabis, which was also VW’s importer in Sweden. Chassis 356/2-045 would be apart of the last series of Gmund’s that were assembled at Tatra (Coachbuilder in Vienna) and finished at Porsche Salzburg.

We spent over 2000 hours researching different archives around the world and inspecting seven different Gmund’s in person. It was a very interesting fact finding mission, with many differences found between each model. Indicitive of the limited resources during  the time of production and post war Germany. It become evident during our inspections that the cotton binding that seperated the body from the chassis did not do much to protect the cars from electrolysis over the years.

Distinctive Features

Erwin Komenda displayed his mastery of automotive design with the shaping of the 356/2 coupe. Like most great car designs, it stayed true to its design and did not grow in proportions when built.

The first Porsche’s were hammered out over wooden bucks by craftsmen (Frederick Weber) in the little saw mill in Gmund.

The coupe’s most distinctive feature is its flowing fender lines and partially enclosed rear wheels. Its classic fastback roof line showed traces of the Type 60K10 that was designed for the 1939 Berlin-Rome Race. It has mechanical brakes and is powered by an 1100 cc, 40 horsepower air-cooled engine, with two Solex carburetors.

Original Components

This 1949 Gmund has the following original components:

• chassis #45
• motor #43
• body #35

During the dismantling phase of the restoration, we found the original red paint underneath the hood hinges and behind the door striker plates. We later confirmed in Porsche records that 356/2-045 was indeed painted red from the factory.

The Carmel Concours on the Avenue 2011 was staged Tuesday, August 16th on the downtown streets of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

This was our first time attending this Concours and it was over the top in every way.

It was extremely well organized and featured first class judges. We brought three customer cars for the Concours and all three scored victories. More pictures coming soon!

1. 1952 356 Cabriolet: 1st Place

2. 1958 356A Speedster: 2nd Place and special award recognition for most likely to generate a magazine article.

3. 1960 356B S90: 2nd Place in the Coupe Class.

A field of approximately 175 automobiles were featured at the fifth edition of the Carmel-By-The-Sea Concours on the Avenue, vying for 14 major awards and Best of Show. This year’s event presented multi-marques from 1940 to 1973, in addition to Porsche and Ferrari from the beginning through 1989.

Best of Show at the Carmel Concours on the Avenue 2011 was awarded to the 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible of Robert Lee. Wearing chassis number 0461GT, this one-off body was the 1956 New York Auto Show car.

The 2011 Dana Point Concours was wet affair, but we prevailed against the challenging weather conditions to take first place in full concours and also won the coveted peoples choice award with a 1952 356 Cabriolet (Fashion Grey/Blue). It was also the debut show for the 1960 Porsche 356B Super 90, which happens to be the very first super 90 to be produced.

We were a little shocked to wake up Sunday morning to a rain storm in sunny southern California in late July. The hotel valet assured us that it was very rare, but his comforting words were lost on us.

We had spent countless hours on these two cars, and had shipped them across county in a transporter to compete in the 356 epicenter. The last five years of concours experience has taught us not to panic when faced with diversity. Although, it was tough to remain calm when we ran out of towels by the third onslaught of rain.

It was particularly rewarding since we decided to bring our customer cars to the Dana Point show instead of Porsche Parade. Kevin and I wanted the cars to be judged by knowledgeable people and compete with our restoration peers.

The 356 Club really deserves credit for hosting an incredible Concours event that we are extremely proud to have been part of.

The Ault Park Concours is a fantastic event that takes place in Cincinnati Ohio every year. Road Scholars concours prepped two cars for the event, a 959 and Carrera Abarth GTL.

The 959 won 1st in class and the Carrera Abarth GTL earned the Howard Rapp trophy (Best Porsche).

The competition was impressive and diverse. This is a really fun event and beautiful venue for any concours guy.

http://www.ohioconcours.com/index.asp

It’s always great to see cars of this caliber being used and enjoyed.

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