This is the story of a hot rod Porsche 356 most of you will never lay eyes on in person, let alone drive. It’s a “1 of 1” in the truest possible sense. (Porsche built two 993 GT1s, you hear me?) It costs as much an L.A. house, doesn’t have A-pillars, glass, or a heater, and at 5-foot-11, sitting up straight means my chin clears the windscreen. The car is painted the same color as the Amazon delivery van that haunts your street—in this case, specifically a non-metallic Mercedes-Benz Graphite Gray—and even its name borders on ridiculous. But this geezed-up old bathtub of a time capsule is in fact one of the most charming, lovable, fantastic, joy-inducing cars I’ve driven. A million bucks? Sure, why not? At the risk of sounding a touch like Lucille Bluth (“I mean it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?”), the 1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet crafted by Workshop 5001 is both timely and relevant vis-à-vis the state of the automotive landscape.
Name Game
An implied and possibly make-believe threat from Porsche’s legal department has Southern California-based Porsche hot rodders embroiled in an odd contest to see who can come up with the silliest, fussiest name for a given car. Singer’s creations are infamously known as “Porsche 911 Restored and Reimagined by Singer.” Rolls right off the tongue, no? Here’s how serious Singer takes this threat: The company has for years refused to allow me to drive its cars because I in turn refuse to sign a document giving Singer final sign-off over my story. The reasoning is that I might utter the scary words, “Singer 911,” and Porsche will suddenly, instantly, and completely sue Singer out of existence. Singer claims it’s not worried about me possibly writing, “A Singer is just an over-leathered 964 with a big engine and sticky tires.” At loggerheads we remain.
Likewise, Orange County-headquartered Gunther Werks (which has allowed me to drive several of its cars without signing a damn thing) insists on calling its creations “Porsche 993 Remastered by Gunther Werks.” Not to be outgunned, the proper name of the car you’re reading about today is “1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet Reconstructed by Workshop 5001 Car #3 Open Sports Racer.” No, really. I have to believe Porsche’s legal department has better things to do, but apparently I know nothing. Let’s just call this one Car #3 and get on with it. The complete title might sound cool rolling across the auction block in the year 2049, though. Might.
What It Is
It’s not just that Car #3 is different from the other seven (so far) super special Porsches Workshop 5001 has built. Car #3 is the only 356 the company will ever produce (there’s that 1-of-1 thing). See, Workshop 5001 is a 911 specialist. Owner and master Porsche engine builder Marlon Goldberg always wanted to try his hand at creating a money-no-object 356. When the right client came along, he and his team did exactly that. Interestingly and conversely, noted Porsche 356 hot-rodder Rod Emory has built very few Outlaw 911s, the most famous being his 911K. Go with what you know, you know?
I’ve come to believe every musical instrument has a particular song in it. This notion is probably as close as I’ll ever come to spirituality, and that’s fine, but I really believe it. There’s an intrinsic pattern, a certain note combination the instrument demands be played. The song is baked into the wood’s fiber, the metal’s molecules. It’s there, and it needs to be heard. The same is true with automobiles, though I’ll be first to admit I have no idea what song a Toyota Corolla Hybrid wants to sing. With cars, it’s not really a song, but rather there are certain places, locations, speeds, tracks, and/or roads where each vehicle is its happiest, performs its best, and reveals its truest form. For example, you may not think much of driving a Mustang convertible on a canyon road, but cruise south along the Pacific Ocean from L.A. to San Diego around sundown: Abracadabra, the ragtop Ford transcends itself into a masterpiece. A truly sublime car, however, excels in more than one spot. Take, for instance, the Porsche 991.2 Speedster. Happy stuck in traffic, delightful tearing up a back road.
The Drive
Bringing it back to Workshop 5001’s 1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet, the #3 Open Sports Racer is equally at home cruising next to the ocean as chopping up a tight and twisty ribbon of canyon. I spent a perfect, 80-degree day ripping around Malibu, where Car #3 felt acutely and definitively in its comfort zone.
“The Momo wheel says ‘California’ right on it,” Easterner Goldberg pointed out through a moderate-to-heavy Long Island accent. “We drew inspiration from places like Malibu. If the car was in New York, it would live in the Hamptons.” And it would be happy there, though nowhere near as happy as here in Southern California. Do I dare call it terroir? Whatever the deal, L.A. ‘s siren song is embedded deep in Car #3’s metal.
I wasn’t prepared for the ride quality, though. I knew the 356 would be quick, since Goldberg built the engine and I’ve driven three other Workshop 5001 number cars. (A build is only a Workshop 5001 “number car” when it goes through a complete, engine-and-everything-else-out restoration/transformation.) I therefore had an educated hunch it would be fun and lively, sound great, and do all those things a seven-figure car had better damn well do. All that said, I never could have guessed it would be so comfortable, so compliant, so relaxed. A Honda Accord dreams of riding as nicely. “I’ve always felt that a 356 could handle more power,” Goldberg said, ignoring the fact that the only 356 he’s ever built puts down nearly twice as much as stock. “So I made it a point to keep the original suspension geometry.” Little else remains.
Porsche built the 1963 356 Bs toward the end of the model’s life; the 1.6-liter pushrod flat-four pumped out 88 hp and 86 lb-ft of torque, transmitting it via a four-speed manual gearbox. Car #3’s powertrain is an air-cooled 2.6-liter flat-four Polo engine producing 164 hp and 141 lb-ft of torque mated to a 901 five-speed manual. In 2022, 164 hp doesn’t sound like anything, but you best believe the engine utterly rips. As Car #3 has no glass at all, or even A-pillars, odds are good it weighs less than the stock version. But numbers are not a thing to worry about here. Car #3 is experiential, a test, a hypothesis, a theory of a car that’s now been proven.
As happy as cruising PCH made me, it was time to meet Goldberg up in the hills. I happened to arrive in a 2022 Porsche 911 GTS, a fully modern sports car that has the performance chops to flirt with being a supercar. Goldberg hopped in the GTS and followed me as I drove Car #3 up a tight, winding Malibu canyon road. “Yes, sir,” I thought to myself. “This is what driving is all about.” Nothing is perfect, especially a car, but I was going to war with the army I wanted. The engine, grip, handling, brakes, soundtrack, weather, scenery—everything was ideal. And then I heard tires squealing. Not Car #3’s tires, mind you. No, the brand spanking new high-performance 911’s Pirellis were yowling in pain trying to keep up with a dull gray bathtub sporting less power than a Honda CR-V. The meats on the 356 weren’t making a sound. The car wasn’t struggling at all.
What’s It All Mean?
I’ve spent a great deal of time over the years telling people not to modify their cars. I’m a hypocrite, of course, as my own car has been modded. But I still advise people not to do it, because I’ve seen just how much time large groups of highly educated engineers with centuries of collective professional car-building experience put into setting up a given machine. Yet you have the chutzpah to think that by cutting a spring and/or bolting in a strut brace, you’ll achieve better than them? Boychik, fat chance! Well, what Workshop 5001 accomplished here is therefore borderline miraculous. I’ve driven my fair share of Porsche 356s, the very best one being the sublime 1953 America Roadster. This here 356 beats it. As stripped down as a car that didn’t even ship with turn signals is, Workshop 5001’s Car #3 feels even more elemental. I’ve rarely enjoyed a drive more.
What’s the point of thinking about—let alone writing—a review of a seven-figure one-off car that will remain hidden away by its private owner? We have to look at the old “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it” conundrum. Meaning, if an extremely talented, former Ferrari/Singer technician builds the best Porsche 356 in history and no one knows it exists, does it matter? One part of the story I’ve omitted until now: I’ve known about Car #3 for two years. The client who commissioned the build requested Workshop 5001 do no press coverage of it whatsoever. No pictures, no nothing. What changed? I don’t know. Maybe the person wants to sell it? But when I got the call to say I’d be permitted to drive and review this astonishing little hot rod, I lunged at the chance. And I’m coming back rich in the next life as a result, because spending a half day with this wonderful gem of a car is great—and not having access to it whenever the mood strikes is an automotive capital offense.
Photography by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet Reconstructed by Workshop 5001 Car #3 Open Sports Racer Specifications | |
BASE PRICE | $1,000,000 (MT est) |
VEHICLE LAYOUT | Rear-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door roadster |
ENGINE | 1.6L/164-hp/141-lb-ft SOHC flat-4 |
TRANSMISSION | 5-speed manual |
CURB WEIGHT | 1,400 lb (est) |
WHEELBASE | 82.7 in |
LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT | 152.4 x 65.4 x 42 in |
0-60 MPH | 5.0 sec (MT est) |
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON | NA |
ON SALE IN U.S. | Sold ! |