If you drive a 356 much, you’ve had this encounter. You stop at a
light, and the person in the car next to you says, "That's a neat car!"
More often than not they then ask, "What year is it?" You supply
the number, and the other person may have time to begin telling you
about a Porsche they or someone they knew had many years ago before the
light changes and the conversation ends. It's a gratifying
experience, and not just because we all like to receive praise. It
is also nice to be reminded that we are not alone in our fascination
with these odd little cars—that at least some people outside of our
enthusiast circle actually find them interesting too. Their
interest may not be as obsessive as ours, but it's a fact: a lot
of people out there are curious about 356s, and when they see one they
want to know its model year.
It was on the assumption that many people, and especially the kind of
people who like to go to classic-car shows, would like to know more
about the 356 than can be conveyed in a stop-light conversation, that we
decided in 2005 to use the Club’s collective resources—our cars and our
knowledge—to create a presentation designed to satisfy that curiosity.
The result was the historical car display that we first put up that year
at Crystal Lake, with an array of
cars and signs. In 2011, we
brought the display to the kind of event it was meant for from the
beginning: the Geneva Concours in Geneva, Illinois, where the
police estimated 20,000 spectators to be present.
We were given a parking lot behind the court house to use for the
display, and we posted signs and distributed flyers to let the Concours
crowd know what we were doing and how to find us. That seemed to
do the trick, because we saw a steady stream of visitors for the five
hours the display was open. Who knows, maybe the next someone
pulls up next to your 356 at a light they will say, "That's a T6 B,
right? I could tell by the twin grilles and the drum brakes."
To see the photo galleries from this event, click on either of the
pictures below: