Page 10 - Sample pages "Forty Six: The Birth of Porsche Motorsport"

CHAPTER 3
THE BUILD AND TESTING
By this point, the car’s weight with these modifications had come down to 635 kilograms/1,400 pounds; this was 135kg/297.6lb lighter than the series production 356 1,100 Reutter steel coupé. In the interest of the 1,086cc engine surviving 24 hours, Fuhrmann and Hild reduced its output from 49 to 46 horsepower.
Gmünd SL historians Phil Carney and Jacques Mertens wrote in their book, The Last Eleven – The First Porsche Factory Race Cars, when Ferry closed down operations in Gmünd, the remaining cars along with the suspension assemblies, engine and transaxles were shipped to Stuttgart. New research clarifies there were 10, not 11, cars. Historian and racer Jürgen Barth takes the story further, explaining (The Porsche Book: The Complete History of Types and Models), “When Porsche moved to Stuttgart in 1950, it took along several Gmünd coupés to be modified for racing purposes.” Barth wrote that, “Porsche gave them new chassis numbers, lightened them further, gave them wheel covers, and hydraulic brakes, and replaced the rear windows with very thin steel plates with louvers for ventilation.”
According to historians Carney and Mertens, the Type 514s, also known as the “aluminum cars” took over serial numbers 356/2 053 through 356/2 063. Porsche assembled these in 1951 with aluminum bodywork formed by Tatra. To clear the bottleneck in final assembly at Gmünd, Louise Piëch contracted with Tatra to manufacture the aluminum 356 body panels.
Paul von Guilleaume’s memorandum to Ferry Porsche regarding von Guilleaume’s April 1951 test-drive at the Le Mans circuit. He recommended a specific rear axle gear ratio and an increase of the engine horsepower to 44. The list also requested the cars be made as light as possible, that the heating systems be removed, and a driver’s seat with more support for the occupant’s hips be added. The author made no mention that the car was destroyed in an accident.
See the translated document in the Appendix, page 309.
66 FORTY SIX The Birth of Porsche Motorsport
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© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B