Then again, we also have: an animal (such as a horse) that is wild and unmanageable. So how do we arrive at the Porsche Outlaw?

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Well, if the definition of a hot rod is to take an old car, strip it down, upgrade the brakes and suspension, and install a hot engine, the Porsche guys do that. But they don’t call their cars hot rods: they call them Outlaws, race-tuned to perfection, the visions of owners with talents for bespoke engineering.

This California car is equipped with a 4-speed manual transmission, upgraded – the essence of the Porsche Outlaw – with a Super-90 4-cylinder air-cooled engine (90HP), Dell’Orto dual carburetors, VDO instrumentation, single exhaust outlet, two-spoke steering wheel with a horn ring, chrome trim, Falken tires, black dashboard, nerf bar bumpers, and black-painted wheels. Amenities include Recaro front seats, manual-crank windows, dual-side rearview mirrors, pop-out rear quarter windows, glove box, sun visors, and a passenger dash grab handle. This Reutter Coupe that has been with the same owner since 1980 comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Do not miss a unique opportunity to get behind the wheel of this race-inspired 356A Coupe Outlaw that is extremely exclusive as well as mechanically sound.

What is it about Porsches that make them such unique examples of supercars, so ripe for transmogrification into Outlaws? That makes them like poetry in motion, almost a guarantee of high-end elan and status?

When in 1948 Porsche introduced the 356, it became the brand’s first production model. The Reutter denotation attached to the model we have is essential. Not to be confused with a certain global news-gathering operation, Reutter was the tiny Stuttgart company Ferry Porsche struck a deal with to build steel bodies for the 356 – the first 356s had been aluminum-bodied and built by hand.

Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle (which Ferdinand Porsche Sr. had designed), the 356 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car with unitized pan and body construction. The chassis was a completely new design, as was the 356’s body, dreamt up by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda. At the same time, certain mechanical components, including the engine case and some suspension components, were based on and initially sourced from Volkswagen.

Ferry Porsche described the thinking behind the development of the 356 in an interview with the editor of Panorama magazine in September 1972. ‘…I had always driven very speedy cars. I had an Alfa Romeo, also a BMW, and others. ….By the end of the war, I had a Volkswagen Cabriolet with a supercharged engine, and that was the basic idea.’

The first 356 was road certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, and was entered in a race in Innsbruck where it won its class. Porsche re-engineered and refined the car with a focus on performance.

Little noticed at its inception, mostly by a small number of auto-racing enthusiasts, the first 356s sold primarily in Austria and Germany. It took Porsche two years, starting with the first prototype in 1948, to manufacture the first 50 automobiles.

But as Ferry Porsche said, ‘I saw that if you had enough power in a small car, it is nicer to drive than if you have a big car which is also overpowered. And it is more fun.’

Especially if it is an Outlaw.

-Alex Manos, Owner