- I would say the number
of Porsche's left in the world that
are untouched in this condition,
you could probably count on two hands.
I'm Tom Cotter.
The first car I found, I was 12 years old.
I'm 61 years old now and still finding cars.
And in this series, you'll see that
there are still plenty of cars left.
(mumbling)
I've been dreaming since I'm probably
12 years old about finding a car like this.
We're about to walk in to meet a woman named Nely
to see a car she's got in her garage.
It's been in her family for 50 years.
I found out about the car from her son Jose.
Let's go check it out.
Boy, aren't you nice?
Wow!
(mumbles)
Nobody's ever done this for us before.
- Nobody has?
Oh, I am so glad we did it first.
Okay, let me show you the album.
Okay, now you're ready?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I have it here!
Here is the Porsche!
- Ah.
- See, this was original color.
It was kinda white or off white.
And maybe that was before he painted it grey.
- Now what year did he buy it, do you know?
- In 1967.
- '67.
- And he started driving it when he was 26.
- Were you married to him then?
- No.
- Did you know him then?
- I met him in 1967, and I was
going to my, we met on the bus.
I was going to my brother's medical school graduation,
and we both missed the bus that would leave earlier.
So we wait, and that's where we met.
Once we boarded the bus, we met.
He have the 26, and I have 28.
26, 27.
- You were?
- We were sitting in the same.
- Isn't that something.
- Three, four months after, we met in May.
And in June he send two of his best friends from Texas,
he send them to meet my parents and I.
And let me go over there and bring something back,
something that I'm going to show you.
He said take this to Nely,
and she produced this from her purse.
And she said this pen is the color of his car.
She didn't say Porsche or anything.
It's the same color of his car in which
he will be coming to meet your parents.
- Really?
- And then.
- That's amazing.
- She went back to her purse, reach
and produced a measuring tape.
What is the measuring tape for?
And she said, this is to measure you for your wedding gown.
- That's amazing.
- So, I am 5'2" but at that time I felt up in the clouds.
Five, 6'2", like he was, six feet.
- So tell me about, you got married, you moved to Dallas.
- Moved to Dallas.
- And you had the little Porsche.
Did you go on rallies?
- It was just for, we used to drive it
to Oklahoma, to Dallas, Fort Worth.
That was our weekend car.
Until he passed away.
He acquired Lou Gehrig Disease.
- Oh, Lou Gehrig's?
- Lou Gehrig Disease.
And he passed away in April of 204.
- So should we look at the car?
- Yes, let's go look at the car.
- There are iconic cars that collectors dream of finding,
and those cars might include '63 split window Corvette,
a Gullwing Mercedes, a Jaguar E-Type.
There's just this group of cars,
there's probably maybe 10 cars that every collector dreams,
no matter what your interest is.
We haven't seen what's behind this garage door yet,
but this is one of those iconic cars
that collectors dream of, certainly I have.
Since I'm a teenager I've dreamed
about finding a car like this, probably in this condition,
that hasn't been used in so many years.
So we're about to see this
thing together for the first time.
(laughter)
Wow!
So this is the light cover,
and I see what you've modified it with.
- Yes.
- With clothespins.
You take the front, I'll take the back?
- Okay.
- I only have one hand here.
Oh, look at that.
That's the same color as the pen.
- Same color as the pen.
- Isn't that amazing?
- So this has an optional hard top, it's fiberglass.
And there may be a soft top still in the car, let's see.
It truly is a time capsule.
Never restored, long time ownership.
I guess we're look at 50 years of ownership.
So it's got Coco Mats, which is what every sports car
had in the 60's, back in the day.
You can see the original color was right here, white.
We saw the photograph in the book, the car was ivory color.
And then we saw it grey, it probably was grey primer
as he was preparing to paint it orange.
Alright, bring that camera over here.
I'm gonna lift up this floor mat here.
This is the condition that a Porsche
enthusiast would dream about finding.
A Porsche Speedster with zero rust.
And you can look at this floor
and it's solid as a rock underneath the mats.
I mean, that's the benefit of finding a car
in Texas as opposed to Vermont.
I'm gonna pop the trunk.
(popping sound)
Just the way it should look.
This is a horizontally-opposed air-cooled Porsche 356 motor.
Interestingly, the Porsche Speedster
was not Porsche's idea to build.
Porsche was bringing cars into the United States
called Cabriolets and Roadsters,
and they had roll up windows and a taller windshield.
And the US importer for Porsche was named
Max Hoffman, out of Manhattan, New York.
And Max went to Porsche and said,
your cars are beautiful, the coachwork is beautiful,
but they're too expensive.
Americans don't want sports cars that expensive.
Why don't you try building something less expensive?
So together, Max Hoffman and Porsche came up
with the concept of a Speedster.
The Speedster has no roll up windows,
there is a slot here and a slot here,
and side curtains go in here.
So there's a window that slides in here, and it closes.
If you wanna open the window, you've gotta take
the window out and stow it underneath the hood.
The other thing the Speedster had was a cut down windshield.
A Cabriolet or a Roadster windshield
was several inches taller.
Speedster also had the soft top, which is down inside there.
There was no padding or anything like that.
It was bare bones, very Spartan,
inexpensive, and Americans loved them.
So this went from being the lowest price Porsche of the day
to now probably being the most valuable
and most desirable Porsche made in the at era.
Pop the hood on here.
There we go.
So you can see the original body color.
So this is the body color that
came from the factory, this ivory white.
If you can bring that camera over here.
The battery sits right down here,
and that's the spot where corrosion is the worst there.
Why?
Because well it's closed off,
there's no fresh air that gets in there.
So if there's any moisture,
it just sits there underneath the battery.
And then some batteries would seep acid out of the top caps,
and that acid would just go down.
And so most Porsche's that you find,
at least the battery tray here has to be replaced.
So this car has the front and rear bumpers are not on there.
Which was a common modification in the day.
You just pull the bumpers off,
just to give it a sleeker look.
If you look, this car's known as a bathtub.
The nickname is a Bathtub Porsche.
It kind looks like an old fashioned
bathtub turned upside down.
Well, as we say there's no bumpers on the car,
they're not on the car, but they're tied up
near the ceiling in the garage.
So this car is pretty darn complete.
I would say the number of Porsche's left in the world
that are untouched in this condition,
you could probably count it on two hands.
Ones where they've been sitting in one spot for 40 years,
ones that have solid floors, solid battery trays,
and complete down to the bumpers and the attic.
The emblem's on here, all the gauges.
This car's never been monkeyed with.
Oh, you have more things?
Porsche emblem, a Speedster emblem.
Here's the Porsche handbook by Floyd Clymer.
He was the repair manual guy who wrote manuals
for all the sports cars back in the day.
Here's bumper guards, an extra headlight rim,
a pushrod tube for rebuilding the motor if you wanted to.
Spare tail light lens, this looks like an inner door panel.
I bet this goes inside this door right here.
Let's see.
It might actually go right there.
There's remnants of an old oil change sticker.
Unfortunately, it's not enough to see what the mileage was.
Let's see what the mileage is.
Well, it looks like 15,000, something something something.
So the question is, is this a 15,000 mile car,
is it a 115,000 mile car, or did the
speedometer break somewhere in between?
And I don't know.
It's a very special car we've
been honored in unveiling today.
You know, cars are only original once,
and this car has not been touched.
What I would do with this car, if I was lucky enough
to own it, would just be clean it up.
Probably rebuild the motor, clean it up.
Rebuild the brakes of course, put new tires on it,
and just drive it the way Sam drove it
every day when he went to school.
What a wonderful heritage this car has.
(gentle rock music)
About a year ago, Jerry Seinfeld
bought a car very similar to this.
This is a 57 Type A Speedster,
and Jerry bought a 58 Type A Speedster.
And he went to auction and bought it for $583,000.
Which for a car that had rust on it, this car has no rust.
But Jerry was criticized,
you paid too much money for the car.
You're gonna drive, the whole hobby
now is gonna suffer because you.
He said no, wait a minute.
This is an original car, never been restored, it's complete.
I just want an original car,
and that's what it took to buy this car.
So don't criticize me.
So if that car were worth $583,000 with some rust,
what could this be for with no rust?
(gentle rock music)
Same pen, same car, same paint job, and same wonderful lady.
- Thank you.
Beautiful.
Wow.
We just met an amazing woman, Nely.
We heard her story and saw a car that has been
in her family for more than half a century.
If you're interested in a car like that,
that Barn Finds Speedster will be coming up
for auction in the near future.
So keep your eye on the Hagerty newsletter
for more information.
Happy hunting!
(engine growls)