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Old 09-04-2009, 02:57 PM   #8 (permalink)
some_other_dave
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There is a red Speedster (simple lightweight convertible version of the 356) that has wheel skirts front and aft like that. It is vintage raced locally; I have seen it at the track a number of times in that configuration. The skirts make it look even a little more like an old-fashioned bathtub flipped upside-down...

The car pictured above is one of the "Gmund coupes", which had bodies hand-hammered out of aluminum. There were fairly few built at a converted sawmill in Gmund, Austria in the late 40s. Then the company moved to Stuttgart and made the cars out of steel. When Porsche decided to try a Le Mans entry for 1951, they took one of the older un-sold aluminum coupes and tried to make it more aerodynamic. The several-mile-long main straight in that race placed a premium on drag reduction, especially if you had a little tiny 1100cc motor.

-soD
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