Steel Body Beauty
For some time now I have been seeing pictures of this steel bodied, 1960 Porsche 356B, finally having laid my eyes on it at the previous Compello festival of cars show. It was magnificent, everything about this car summed up to me, why I enjoy what I do. To some it may not be perfect, it may not be the knight in shining armour, the Mona Lisa, but to me its just spectacular in every way. Owned by Scott from Outlaw garage, Scott has had this wonderful creation for some time now. Originally starting as someone else’s unfinished project, Scott has taken over the project and made it his own. Having both waken up well before the sunrise on what seemed to be the coldest morning to choose, this is the outcome of frozen hands, heads and cars.
Outlaw Garage started as a place to store the cars Scott and Wayne had purchased over the years. The Garage is run by Scott and his partner, Wayne. Storage fees adding up in Melbourne, it was much cheaper just to buy a garage in Perth, WA.”Wayne is the talented artist and car restorer and basically I’m the annoying one, driving cars and breaking down.” Scott and Wayne have a small collection of air-cooled cars in the garage in all states of repair, restoration as well as some tuned running air-cooled cars, one of which is this Outlaw 356. Outlaw garage have generated merchandise over the years, focused on air-cooled cars and Scott’s Bulldog Sonny. Sonny is the logo, inspiration and spiritual supervisor of the business and the focus of many of the designs. Scott and Wayne spend most of the time working on their own cars but occasionally take in a car to work on. Scott has also got a YouTube channel going to promote and explore lesser known, more exotic and classic pieces of Melbourne. Some real fantastic hidden gems here!
The story behind this car is rather unique. Scott, having owned many other air cooled cars, was no stranger to the air cooled Porsche 356B. Everything is perfectly detailed with thought, creation and flare behind it. Take the exterior as point. Anyone can slap a coat of paint on the car, wrap it on what ever materials they may choose, not many people if any would choose to run a naked steel body. ” I tried a couple of complete cars but they weren’t really what I was looking for and felt I could do better. ” Scott made a few inquiries, had conversations with a few local people and was pointed in the direction of someone by the name of Greg, who happened to have a 1960 356B T5 awaiting an owner. The previous owner started the project and lost interest, the car in various stages of repair, half way through a conversion to RHD from LHD . The interior was incomplete, bits and pieces all over the place, no engine, gearbox was a shell, brakes, wiring, it all needed a restoration. Scott took up the challenge, creating his masterpiece. All the chrome from the bumpers on the front and rear, the door handles, the front hood emblem with leading handle, the rear cover over the engine bay has all been finished in gloss black to help the steel body pop. The fender mirror, not fitted to the 356, but looking so at home mounted on the right hand fender. Teardrop style tail lights with blacked out trims, headlight covers with the bar trims over the lense, its all methodically and tastefully modified that creates a steel body beauty.
The 356 was the birth line to what we commonly see now as the 911. The original 356/1 was a tube chassis, mid engine prototype roadster, later the 356/2 was developed to be rear engine and an unibody coupe. The 356/1 was developed into street cars with the likes of the 550 Spyder, the 914, Boxter, Cayman and the infamous Carrera GT. You would imagine finding parts for the earlier models would be challenging, yes there are reproductions, fakes and 3d printed custom jobs, but the original parts? Yes, very hard to come by these days. Something small like the handbrake lever, from a 550 Spyder has been included in Scott’s 356b, something that you would not pick at first glance, second or probably 3rd, there is so much to look at and drool over. Porsche decided to build the 356’s air-cooled 4 cylinder around the engine case they had originally designed for the Volkswagen Beetle, with some tweaks, cylinder heads, camshaft, crankshaft, intake and exhaust manifolds and dual carburettors. This doubles the original VW motor power. It almost seems un natural that a VW engine would end up back in the engine bay of a Porsche 356. Scott has done exactly that, having a motor built from the ground up by Australian VW Performance. Located here in Melbourne, “Honestly they did an amazing job. The engine pulls all day, runs great and sounds even better.” A 2.4L motor isn’t your standard motor for a VW at the time or even now, so there are a lot of performance parts in the car and she runs like a dream.
A VW motor in a Porsche will turn a few heads and put people off side a little. People buy a Porsche for the exclusivity and the raw road and track feeling you can achieve from their cars. Scott was never going to make a matching number car. Having weighed up the options of a 356 flat 4 motor, with a power output of 70-90hp and a cost of nearly $20,000, or the alternative of spending up to $9,000 on a worked 2.4L VW motor, with the power nearly at 200hp, it was an easy decision. Fitting this engine to a standard gearbox would have its issues as well, the original gearbox is not designed to hold 200hp. Dropping the clutch in first gear can explode the gear itself. For this issue, Scott has given the gearbox a full overhaul with strengthened gears. Cooling of the engine had to be upgraded too, with some very creative and awesome looking cooling ducts from the rear window into the engine bay, dry sump setup with 8L of oil circulating instead of 2.5L and finally a Porsche cooling fan to keep the engine from overheating. This car is loud, really really loud, its just so loud. No sound dampening at all, metal everywhere to help bounce the noise rather than soak it up, custom exhaust and a 2.4L carburettor, straight cut, dry sump engine behind a thin sheet of metal which might as well be the skin of a drum. “She is low and with metal seats you feel everything, these Melbourne streets are not kind to my spine.”
The interior is completely custom, as mentioned when Scott started this project, it was a mess. The seats are custom, dashboard is all steel to complete the theme outside the car and inside too, gauges are retro styled, rear seats and middle seat cover, all custom. Seat belts are more of an aviation style belt and look to match the theme, they really do suit the finish of the interior. Custom door cards, window winders, floor panelling, all custom. The level of detail is insane, the seat runners which most people would never look at or even think of, Scott has created custom seat runners that are truely beautiful. Despite looking uncomfortable, Scott assures me that on a long trip the car is actually not what it appears, its comfortable. You just need a set of earplugs with how loud it is! Out of all the interiors I have seen, this one just tops the list with the level of detail and the overall look. You can quite easily be lost in the interior alone. A car like this would create some wonderful memories, and one story Scott has shared with me is, “Best memory is first driving the car after the restoration. Now this isn’t how to run in an engine, but we had a short track session on running in oil at the Volkswagen Spectacular in NSW event maybe 8 or 9 years ago now. Getting lost on the way to the track and driving around in circles. The captive nut coming off the clutch cable so we couldn’t change gears. Sliding on the belly pan on country roads. It was an amazing weekend. Me and Wayne had a blast!”
Having a storage garage, you would assume Scott and Wayne would have a decent car collection. A brief run down from Scott put things into perspective on how much both himself and Wayne really enjoyed the air cooled cars. Scott’s first car was a Ford Fiesta 1.1 in resale red. “It seemed to need its sills replacing every year. A great little car until it was stolen and set on fire in a car park in Hull, England.” Following this, Scott had a 1275 mini for a while that kept having head gasket issues, moved on the Mini for a Porsche V8 Panamera. This sounds great, until Scott told me that it needed a new engine due to bore scoring. Currently in the garage Scott and Wayne have a couple of split screen VW buses ranging from 1957 to 1965, 3x semaphore beetles including a 1951 split window beetle and a turbo charged Oval. A couple of 911’s grace the garage, a 911SC targa and a 1985 930, “this car is a beast with upgraded cams and an upgraded turbo, the original widow maker for sure.” Scott’s favourite car in the garage, however one Wayne totally hates, is the very very very rusty 1951 Tempo Matador. Any suicide door car is cool, but this one is extra cool as it also runs on a flat 4 air-cooled engine. Some thanks for the help along the way Scott would like to mention is Wayne for his amazing design work on the car and for looking after her whilst Scott was working overseas, Greg as well for selling me my dream car. Finally, A massive thanks to Australian VW Performance for all of the work they did and how they continue to look after her, they have been fantastic.
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