Porsche Sport Roadster Typ 540

The predecessor to Porsche's iconic Speedster was the extremely limited production Typ 540 Sport Roadster, commonly known as the ‘America Roadster’ because of the intended destination of most of the cars, and ultimately, the subsequent Speedsters. Just 16 examples were produced in aluminium, with an additional car bodied in steel. Today, just 10 of the aluminium roadsters and the single steel car are known to exist.

When Porsche production began in 1948, it followed closely on the firm’s first car, the mid-engined roadster, 356-001, which was followed by a small series of aluminium Gmund 'Limousines' and a steel coupe. The Sports Roadster was not part of the German company’s plans, although Ferry Porsche agreed to have the car produced at the insistence of Max Hoffman. As the Porsche distributor in the United States, Hoffman was well attuned to the desires of his customers and he wanted the car to satisfy racing demands. It was a winner in that regard, but its $4,600 price was very high. As Hoffman put it, it was equal to "3 Chevrolets."

Porsche turned to the Glaser-Heuer company as the coachbuilder for the aluminium Sport Roadster, which was designated 356/4, with Typ 540 as the project number. The bodywork was extremely time consuming and labour intensive for Heuer and most of the bodies were late in arriving at Porsche. In the end, financial loss on each car built saw the curtailing of the production and the inevitable demise and bankruptcy of Heuer- two of the bodies ended up being completed at Porsche.

All but the first Sport Roadster was powered by Porsche's then new 1500 Super motor. It’s competition success was no doubt down to the engine; the 1.5-litre flat-four, fettled to produce 70hp - if that doesn’t sound like much, a 356 at the time produced just 40hp. As a racer, the Sport Roadster (initially called a 'Competition Roadster' in the United States and then the more familiar 'America Roadster') saw much track time, including at the Pebble Beach Races. It also met with much success. Nonetheless, it was too good and too costly and not possible to produce in quantity. The formula was spot on though and two years later, at the insistence of Hoffman, the Speedster became a reality.

All but one of the Typ540s were delivered new to wealthy privateer racers when new as their power to weight afforded them fantastic competition prowess even against the heavyweights- Austin- Healey and Jaguar. This America Roadster was built in 1952 and unusually features both a central fuel filler in the front bonnet as well as wire-mesh headlight covers. Both features were optioned with long-distance races in mind and when new, this car was first supplied to Larry Kulok who immediately entered the car in the 12 hours of Sebring in 1953,#21.

Unfortunately, the car was unable to start the race, the reason cited as a ‘gearbox problem’- interesting that this example was the first car fitted with a synchromesh transmission. Undeterred, Kulok would continue to race the car for two years.

Now believed to be the only example in Europe, it was imported to the UK and expertly restored by DK Engineering in 2001. It has since been stored as part of a collection of significant Porsche and VW cars care of DK. Rarely seen outside the collection of its long-term custodian, this Typ 540 was most recently invited to attend the Hampton Court Concours d’Elegance in 2020.