For everyone at Porsche, 2018 was a year of big numbers. The 70th anniversary of the original Porsche sports car, the 356, was the pivotal point for a series of unforgettable events around the world, and at their heart was the very car that started it all: the 356 ‘No.1’ Roadster. This modestly powered, mid-engine two-seater was the Genesis of Ferry Porsche’s vision to create the ultimate road-going sports car. Hand built in a small workshop in Gmünd, the ‘No. 1’ broke the mould for high-quality, low volume sports cars, its ingenious engineering solutions offering for the first time the possibility of an affordable, useable alternative to the highly bespoke and expensive pre-war European standard.
The 356 ‘No.1’ Roadster was awarded its general operating permit on 8 June of 1948, officially recognising this unprecedented product as road-legal, and at the same time marking a major milestone in automotive history. Porsche was a bona fide manufacturer of sports cars.
‘No. 1’, then, is a car of singular importance to Porsche, and a slice of company history everyone was keen to share as widely as possible in its all-important anniversary year. So a small group of men and women in Zuffenhausen got around a table in early 2018 to plan the definitive international exhibition for the original 356.
