Porsche 356 'Continental' | 1. Background
DOUBLE IDENTITY
Max Hoffman, american main importer for the firm, advises Porsche to forget the numeric 356 nomenclature and adopt a more attractive one for his market. The 'Continental' is born. Writes: David Leciñana | Photo credits: Darin Schnabel ©2014 Courtesy of RM Auctions (otherwise stated).
It's 1954. Porsche is a young handicraft car company which in its barely seven years of life has scarcely built 6800 copies. Its existence in the american market is even more recent. And Hoffman is not convinced about sales. It's in this moment when he suggests the 'Continental' denomination for all 356's bound for the american shores, including both coupe and cabriolet versions.
The successful New York importer, who was behind the newly-launched Mercedes 300 SL road car, had a very contemporary vision of marketing and didn't hesitate to translate it to his european partners. The America of the day was already aware of a product's name power: virtually all cars have their own. In Europe, however, most vehicles were designated by numbers. Hoffman's suggestion made sense.
Max Hoffman had already proposed Ferry Porsche the creation of a new specific model: the well-known Speedster, a lighter and cheaper 356 to compete against MGs and Triumps in the amateur races. The idea was doing well and he accepted this new proposal. Thus, three models were listed in the 1955 USA catalog: the Continental, the Speedster and the Spyder (the latter matched with the type 550, a famous Porsche race car in which James Dean lost his life).
Motorgrafico #002
1. Background | Porsche 356 'Continental'
The name also evoked the prestige of the cars from the Old Continent, something that was worth the difference in price with its most direct rivals. Porsche cars have always been exclusive vehicles from the beginning and the Continental had $3070 price tag at its lauch. For such a small sports car (155,5 in) with nearly no trunk this was a high number: a Triumph TR-2 cost $2499 and the 177in-long Corvette with 155 horsepower under the hood was yours for $2774.
Nonetheless, while its young brother, the Speedster, was broking sales records (probably not due to its name but rather to its price) the new nomenclature wasn't producing the desired effects in the coupe and convertible 'Continentals'.
The final reason for dropping the denomination was a letter that Porsche received, sent by Ford. Not likely knowing the copyright status of the word, the germans had used a designation under Ford's control, through its filial company Lincoln and its 'Continental' model. Their intentions at the time to relauch the car as the 'Continental Mk2' after stopping production in 1949 interfered with Porsche's sports car, which has to be renamed 'European`. Anyway, the new designation was only used during few months, turning finally back to the original '356' name.
Continental's life was cut short suddenly due to copyright problems with Lincoln.
Motorgrafico #002
