Classic Porsche Magazine Nov-25 Edizione posteriore

Our favourite restorations are those revealing more detail the longer they’re stared at. The kind of build — at first glance, anyway — appearing a beautifully presented Porsche with a hint of personalisation, but demonstrating myriad unique touches as eyeballs gaze from one panel to the next. The kind of restoration pictured on the cover of this magazine, in fact. Yep, the longer you look at Paul Leyton’s beautiful 1959-built 356 B T5, the more details it yields. The pulled-in bumpers, the lack of front indicators, the louvred decklid, the stitched ‘stripes’ spanning door card to engine bay. Nothing too outlandish, unless you count contrasting Gold Metallic with a bright green interior, though as regular readers will know, Paul has form in this department, as demonstrated by the pairing of orange paintwork and purple leather on his 911, as featured in these pages exactly two years ago. Has it really been that long?! Apparently so.

The other kind of restoration bound to excite us is the resurrection of a classic Porsche from circumstances making little sense to drag the car from, whether because the project is likely to prove prohibitively expensive (well beyond the financial worth of the finished build) or because conventional wisdom suggests the car is too far gone. Perhaps the fact I rescued a 944 Turbo from the hedge it had been living in for more than half a decade — and proceeded to commission restoration, despite a large amount of the car’s metalwork being heavily corroded — colours my judgment?

Regardless, Paul’s 356 ticks this box, too, having been seriously damaged by fire as a consequence of the new 911 GT3 RS it was parked next to going up in smoke. To make matters worse, the four-cylinder Porsche was not long from restoration in the USA and further work costing tens of thousands of pounds at a UK-based marque specialist. Yeesh.