The Porsche 356 was a two-seater based on the Volkswagen, code-named Type 356 after its design office number. With Fiat-based Cisitalia sports cars as an inspiration, the first Type 356 had a tubular frame; and its body, designed by Erwin Kommenda, was the first to bear the legendary name Porsche, cast in a logotype that is almost unaltered to this day.
The Type 356 cars that followed had a platform chassis like the Volkswagen, but retained the same basic mechanical lay-out and Kommenda’s distinctive body. Why change the chassis so soon? That is a question that might be asked about the myriad changes to Porsches ever since. The reason is simple; Porsche people are perfectionists and, because the cars have always been produced in relatively small quantities, it has been easy to change things in detail. Wherever the technical wizards could see a way of improving a component they would, usually after testing it on a racing Porsche.
The result has been a stream of fascinating, complex and confusing cars, each one almost invariably a little better than the one before. But as their logo remained unaltered, so did their basic lay-out for 27 years: with only a brief flirtation with open-wheeled racers, they have all been rear-engined, air-cooled, all independently sprung sports cars. Only since 1975 have there been more conventional front-engined, water-cooled Porsches, and they are still true sporting cars.
