356 Cockpits!

[Jack Staggs]

A few points of notice. T0 and T1 cars, with shifter far forward on the tunnel, appear to have bench seats that have the forward edge straight across. T2 cars seem to have a slight relief at the forward edge, to accommodate the more rearward shifter. The car in Trevor's photos show a much deeper cut out to the forward edge of the seat to accommodate the even more rearward shifter for the T5, necessary for those shifts into 2nd & 4th gear when your sweetheart is next to you.
Also of note is that the bench seat disappeared from the option list in Oct 1962, according to info on Der White's excellent web site. One difficulty with fitting bench seats to T6 would be completely re-designing the seat to use T6 seat rails. However, bench seats do not use seat rails attached to the center tunnel, only the outer seat rails, one near each door opening. It would have been very easy to install outer T5 seat mounts on a T6 during a chassis build. Not so easy if a customer wanted a bench seat installed at the dealership level, or wanted to fit bucket seats at a later date. Perhaps that is one reason the "sweetheart " seat option was dropped early in T6 production.

[356JAGER]

One has to wonder if they had all been used up prior to B cars, why would they go to the trouble of modifying the photo to show T-6 features and offer them as an option ? Would like to see the Kardex for the car shown on the previous pages to verify it as an original accessory. Obviously they can be fitted to the later cars.
Cheers,
Joel

[spyderwerks]

I owned a 1960 100% cabriolet about 6 years ago. Purchase from the granson of the original owner. It was purchased new in Albany Ca.l from the dealership Berkeylee. It had a black benchseat, the date stamp on the rear hinge was dated 3/60 or something close to that. The back verticle seat was fat like the earlier version, no headrests.

[spyderwerks]

I owned a 1960 100% cabriolet about 6 years ago. Purchase from the granson of the original owner. It was purchased new in Albany Ca. From the dealership Berkeylee. It had a black benchseat, the date stamp on the rear hinge was dated 3/60 or something close to that.

[Trevor]

There's a thread on the Registry with some bench seat discussion and hearsay from Jim Breazeale, probably good info knowing how long he's been involved with Porsche. To me it makes sense that Porsche did one production run of these and that was it.

[356JAGER]

Justin,
These were options for the T-6 B cars. The catalog used the same photo from the A cars with a B shift lever and steering wheel airbrushed in. Scroll through the following link.
http://derwhites356literature.com/356-BT-6Accessories.html
Speedster seats also on offer.
Cheers,
Joel

[JTR70]

Thanks Trevor!

Those are definitely early pre-A and/or 356AT1 "Fatback" seat backs. I'd swear this was retrofitted into this car Joel. I don't think I've seen a later T2 version bench seat. Has anyone?
Justin

[356JAGER]

Trevor,
First time I've seen the bench seat option in a B car. Wonder how many were produced. Seat back seems totally different from other B/C cars. Wonder if the seat was the same as A model bench ? Also wonder if they fitted headrests to these.
Cheers,
Joel

[Trevor]

[Stormin]

My interiors always smelled of pipe tobacco, latikia mostly.

[GT3]

[spyderwerks]

Here's what I remember of two different original Porsche's back in the day. Both had this distinct interior smell. One a 58 Speedster so sans the sound deadening material, the other a 59 coupe.

It was kind of a sweet smell so I suspected the seat inner material , which has been mentioned as horsehair. I've also heard it referred to as coconut hair or matting . Can either of these two products be verified ?

[Don C]

Didn't Kramer on Seinfeld do something like that, the smell of the beach perfume?

[JTR70]

As well as the old padding I think a lot of the signature 356 aroma is due to the tar and the oil soaked paper sound deadener lining. Also the faintest of fumes put out by the inboard fuel cock.

[Meissen540]

Joel.....Ahhhh yes can't you just smell that original aroma that only the original materials produce. Worth it's weight in Patina. Only the older folks know what I'm referring too
So true, that old wool, horsehair, hide of the Nauga mixed with a bit of oil smoke from the heaters and the detrius of time. Today an extremely unlikely.

So true indeed.
I made the mistake of having original seats redone, and did not specify to retain the original horse hair stuffing. That was a big mistake. Foam just does not smell or sit the same. That is something worth preserving.
Tom
Atlanta