Featured: This 356 Is Fully Capable Of Hunting Modern Porsches

This 356 Is Fully Capable Of Hunting Modern Porsches

By Michael Banovsky
May 10, 2016

Photography by Drew Philips / Emory Motorsports

Whenever we speak with Rod Emory, it’s with equal parts admiration and disbelief. “So you’re saying that car spent a lot of its life as a race car?” I asked, flipping back and forth between photos of this 1960 Porsche 356 Roadster. One showed the pristine, concept car-like finished product you see here, the other, a barely-there race car with a roll bar protruding over its aerodynamic headrest.

What began as a skeleton of a car when it arrived in 2002, the car was turned into a vintage race car that competed until 2010, before the transformation into its current form started in 2014. Being a former race car meant this car was deserving of a little more oomph—to the tune of a Fat Performance Porsche 914-based 2.6-liter flat-4 engine. “We take a 2-liter 914 and we bump it up to 265-cc0. Then bigger cam, 911 fan shroud, and 44 IDF carburetors,” Emory says. “Then that gives us an engine that has just over 185 horsepower and about 205 lbs-ft of torque. That’s a lot of power.”

“The car weighs eighteen hundred and fifty pounds…it is so fast. You figure its power to weight ratio starts getting closer to a GT3 or a new twin turbo [911]” he added.

Naturally, the rest of the car is also fully upgraded to handle the power—and its bodywork is subtly different from any other 356 you’ll see—but is all just standard-looking enough to deflect your gaze from noticing the 901 5-speed transmission, CNC brakes, independent rear suspension, sway bars, disc brakes, and custom 16-inch wheels. Given its singular purpose, it’s no surprise the car has little concession for day-to-day practicality.

“This car is built without any functional top. What we did was decided to reconfigure the car, we put a speedster windshield on it. It has an aluminum hood on it with the gas filler coming through the hood,  no bumpers, and then we put the oil cooler grill down at the bottom. Opened up the vents at the bottom next to that grill; put stainless steel mesh in those,” Emory said.

Earlier “beehive” turn signals help keep the car looking streamlined, as does its special, hand-made aluminum tonneau cover and headrest, items made for the car. “In the Petrolicious video that the guys did on me, I think they came into the workshop and I was building this headrest and tonneau cover,” he added, and sure enough, the raw metal makes an appearance at about five minutes in.

As that film—and one of his latest cars—show, it’s all about making Porsches as good as they can be, subtly. “I try to do it as if Porsche would of done it if they had the parts or the technology would of been there at that point. It’s kind of evolving the 356 but keeping everything looking as if Porsche built it originally,” he says.

Thanks to Rod Emory at Emory Motorsports for taking the time to chat about his latest work; you can follow him and the shop on Instagram and Facebook.

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Rockdad
Rockdad
5 years ago

Who the hell made those cool 16″ steel wheels?!

Rockdad
Rockdad
5 years ago

Greg Aronson, former owner of Fat Performance, lives right up the street from me, I was just there a couple of hours ago. Great car, nice engine!

CJ_Madson
CJ_Madson
5 years ago

Nice coverage of a very cool car with masterful build quality and magic Drew photos to match. (I knew who shot it before I checked.) Danke.

Robert
Robert
7 years ago

Nice car. Those are not ‘beehive’ taillights on it. This car has the later ‘teardrop’ taillights, which are appropriate for that year of 356.

flooglemop
flooglemop
8 years ago

Wow, absolutely beautiful.

On another note:
Not trying to be the grammar police but… It’s not “would of”. It’s “would’ve” as in a contraction of “would have”.

JimC
JimC
8 years ago

Many others have already said this – but this is a stunning car! The Porsche silver, the single roll bar/headrest (what would it look like with a second cool bar/headrest? Probably not nearly as radical.) Great wheels and a 914 boxer bored and cammed. Wow. More interior shots would be wonderful, as I can never get enough interior shots.

ALMOST my dream car – Guards red with a dark tan interior…My dream…not yours. But I’ll give you a ride.

Christopher Gay
Christopher Gay
8 years ago

That is a nice car.

Christopher Gay
Christopher Gay
8 years ago

This is truly top-shelf work. What I really appreciate is that the work out of this shop, although completely custom and hand-made, maintains a high level of elegance and classicism while also being sporty.

They do a great job of making these cars look as if they were original. Not an easy task from either a designer’s or fabricator’s standpoint.

Well done!

Michael Gibbons
Michael Gibbons
8 years ago

I had the pleasure of seeing Rod’s work up close in personal a two weeks ago in Bend Or where a very similar 356 “upgrade” stole the show from the 991.2’s being debuted a GT3 and a918– Absolutely incredible craftsmanship that sings Porsche in 4pt harmony-Heritage, evolution, performance, vision–

Bryan Dickerson
Bryan Dickerson
8 years ago

Oh,
And of course the tires would need to be Pirelli CN36s.

Bryan Dickerson
Bryan Dickerson
8 years ago

Good lord that’s so cool.
And the wheels really make it! Every time I see a great set of steelies I like modern aluminum wheels less. I wish someone could produce this wheel for other cars. Obviously the lug pattern and center to this Porsche/VW wheel is very unique but I think the rest of it (profile of the wheel center, shape of the vent holes, etc) would look great on a lot of other cars. 15×6 for my 510 wagon would look fantastic.

Ae Neuman
Ae Neuman
8 years ago

looks great but what it meant by “capable of hunting modern porsches” ?
is it as fast ?
does it handle as well ?

Brent
Brent
6 years ago
Reply to  Ae Neuman

I can tell you it is crazy fast! I have a fiberglass dune buggy, it weighs in at 1400 lbs, no driver. I have the same 2650cc monster built by Fat Performance dynoed at 186hp at 6000 rpm and 200 ftlbs at 4000rpm. The problem I’m having is the car pushes due to the super light front end. But I compensate that with my right foot 😎.
I loved reading this article as the car is so closely matched to my car. It was interesting reading what the author thought about the car and its performance.

Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago

Stunning ! Absolutely stunning . Nuff said ..

Sam N
Sam N
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors are wonder drugs.

Sam N
Sam N
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

Forgot this:

Y’ all ..

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