1950 Porsche 356 SL Coupe

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.

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