One to Buy: ex-Los Angeles Motor Show 1955 Porsche 356 1500 Continental Coupe
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Porsche most famously came a cropper with regard to trademark law when, in late 1964, the German firm was forced to re-brand its 901 as the 911 because Peugeot had already registered three digit type numbers with a ‘0’ in the middle several years prior.
Less well known, however, was an incident when Porsche had to drop the use of Continental branding back in late 1955 owing to litigation from Ford which had been using the moniker for its Lincoln brand since the 1940s.
As a consequence of Ford’s legal action, only a small number of Continental-badged 356s emerged from Porsche’s Stuttgart factory during the 1955 model year: 860 Coupes and 69 Cabriolets.
At RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in California scheduled for August 13th to 15th, one of the most interesting of those 356 Continental Coupes will be going under the hammer: chassis 54174.
Supplied by Porsche’s US distributor, the Hoffman Motor Company in New York, to West Coast agent, John Von Neumann’s Competition Motors in Hollywood, after delivery to California chassis 54174 was placed on display at the Los Angeles Motor Show which took place between March 5th and 13th.
Here, the white Sunroof-equipped 356 Continental Coupe was purchased by Bill Bond, the brother of Road & Track publisher, John Bond. After four years of enjoyment, Bill Bond sold chassis 54174 to a young Road & Track employee, William Mott, who cherished it for the next four decades, during which the Porsche was used as Mott’s daily driver.
In 1998, chassis 54174 featured in a Road & Track article that described the car’s meticulously documented history and Mott’s passion for it.
A year later, Bill and Carmie Casella became the Porsche’s third custodians and commissioned a sympathetic restoration which included new paint and chrome, an interior refurb and a rebuild of the car’s numbers-matching engine. Chassis 54174 went on to achieve back-to-back First in Class finishes at the 2003 and 2004 356 Porsche Club Concours d’Elegance in Dana Point, California.
2012 saw the immaculate Porsche join the famous White Collection where it remained until acquisition by the supplying vendor in 2023.
Chassis 54174 heads to auction with a copy of its Kardex, service records dating back to 2000, period photographs, tool roll and the all-important factory book pack.
