1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe

The Lightning on the Race Tracks

CarshowClassic.com tells the story. 

Porsche 356 is often regarded as a mildly successful car line for the company. However, with the many updates it received, “mildly successful” may not be the right term. 1950 Porsche 356 SL Couple proves that the 356 has more to it than being the first commercial car by Porsche. 

Of all the European car manufacturers existing today, Porsche perhaps has one of-the most interesting histories. The story has to how Porsche came to be is quite fascinating, and-its association with other car companies and its connection with other car lines (such as-Volkswagen) prove that Porsche is indeed one of the pillars of the industry, or at least the-industry as we know it now. 

A proof of this amazing history is the Porsche 356, the first commercial car made-by Porsche. The distinction “commercial car” (or, the first car the company made that-was actually sold under their name) is important because Porsche has a number of 356s before the-actual Porsche 356. There’s the Porsche 356 No.1, the prototype of the Porsche 356. Porsche-even has an earlier car prototype, on display at the Porsche Museum. There’s the legendary 356-that Ferdinand Porsche himself rode during a demo. 

Besides these, Porsche 356 received a lot of updates, before and after the arrival-of what was Porsche’s ultimate game changer, the Porsche 911. For instance, there were two-Porsche 356 updates for the America update (the first a dud, the second one unsuccessful). Of-course, the 356 was also updated for the sake of the race track. One of those 356 cars that made it-to the race track was the 1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe.

Obviously, this Porsche 356 SL is a coupe, made only a few years after the very-first 356 was released. The SL on its name means super light—something that it needs to be,-especially since it was meant to be a race car. Later on, many 356s would get weight reduction.-Perhaps, the original 356 was higher than it should be (the much lighter Porsche 356 America was a-hit; the first 356, with hardly any changes, in the American market wasn’t very successful).-Today, this car is extremely rare; in fact, the one in the Porsche Museum may be the only one-you’ll see due to its rarity. Only 51 units of the 1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe was made, a far-cry from all the other 256 updates. 

There were minimal changes done to the design of this 1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe.-For instance, the car’s tank capacity was improved—with an increase of 78 liters. Its-average speed was around 140 km/h. This was enough to make it achieve record breaking performances-at the 1950 Le Mans 24 Hour race. It also won several tracks during the first half of the-decade—particularly the Belgrade Grand Prix, the Liege-Rome-Liege rally, the Zell am See ice race and the Alpine Rally.  

Needless to say, beyond its great performance, the true contribution of the 1950-Porsche 356 SL Coupe is lineage; because it was a great race car unit, it helped Porsche do better-during its succeeding tries after their entry to the commercial industry. As one of their first race-cars, the 1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe was indeed quite a lightning on the race track, Porsche’s-first of many.