When the tribute becomes an 'Outlaw'
‘Outlaw’ builds began to emerge from Southern California’s Porsche 356 community several decades ago, when individuals such as Gary Emory altered their personal cars with subtle, but interesting alterations. These 356 hot rods horrified the Porsche purists, but their owners didn’t care; they built what they liked, and over time the philosophy gained new adherents. There was a parallel course that others chose to follow; that of creating ‘Tributes’ to important cars that either no longer existed or were unavailable to buy.
Porsche’s 1964 and 1965 SC GTs evolved from the earlier lightweight Super 90 GT coupes and the 356 B Carrera GT coupes. The SC versions were built at the factory with full GT options and pushrod engines. Just six were built, all sold in the U.S. Their scarcity prompted this vehicles previous owner to build his own version, using the pair of real GT alloy doors that he owned. Starting with a solid 1964 356 SC bare metal shell, the custom work included welding in a late-356 sunroof clip and fabricating a heavily louvered rear exhaust apron echoing that of a Carrera four-cam. The engine cover was also louvered and the body cleaned up. The completed body was then painted a wonderful and rarely seen shade of green called Auratium, a 356 colour from 1957–1959. The interior is fully trimmed in fawn leather with tan cord inserts and features a pair of widened Speedster-style bucket seats.
It’s power comes from a 912-based air-cooled flat-four, completely rebuilt and modified by Peter McCurdy. A pair of Solex carbs feeds the intake side and an GT extractor and muffler handles the exhaust. Finally it’s been lowered and sits on 15” Minilite wheels.
RM Sotheby's will be offering this 1964 Porsche 356 SC GT 'Outlaw' at their upcoming Arizona Auction on the 17th January. For more information on this and other vehicles at the sale, click on the link below. Photos: Patrick Ernzen ©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's.