Vehicle Description
Chassis No. 111937
The story of the Porsche 356 Zagato Coupe traces its roots back to
1957, when accomplished French racing driver Claude Storez sought
to enhance the performance of his Porsche 356 Speedster. Storez
turned to Carrozzeria Zagato, which had built a reputation for its
dramatic lightweight and competition-focused designs, to conduct a
sleek, aluminum-bodied transformation of his racing Speedster.
Completed in the summer of 1958, the Zagato Speedster was an
elegant and highly functional machine, sporting a narrow
streamlined body and a distinctive low curved windshield. Once the
handcrafted bodywork was completed in Zagato's Milan workshops, the
car was shipped to Stuttgart to be painted and fine-tuned before
delivering it to Storez. After a minor hiccup involving his cousin
accepting delivery of the car, the racer wasted no time putting his
unique Speedster to the test. It was entered in the arduous Tour de
France Automobile in September 1958, where he finished second in
the GT race at Reims, trailing only the Ferrari 250 GT TdF of
Olivier Gendebien. Tragedy struck both Storez and the Zagato
Speedster in 1959 during the Rallye des Routes du Nord in France.
During the event's final stage, he suffered a fatal crash, with the
Speedster mysteriously disappearing after the race.
Decades later, an American Porsche collector and racer, deeply
fascinated by the lost Porsche Zagato Speedster, approached Zagato
with a request to resurrect Storez's fabled one-off coachbuilt
Speedster. Andrea Zagato believed that "...we can't afford not to
make a car that's this important and this amazing because it marked
the first collaboration between Zagato and Porsche." This
initiative became part of Zagato's "Sanction Lost" program, a
venture dedicated to reviving historically significant designs that
were lost or never realized in their time. To ensure authenticity,
Zagato employed cutting-edge photometric technology to analyze
archival photographs of Storez's car, digitally reconstructing its
bodywork with meticulous precision. As the team delved deeper into
the design, they uncovered an intriguing surprise-a design sketch
dated 11 September 1959, depicting a never-realized Porsche 356
Carrera GT Coupe envisioned by Zagato at Porsche's request.
Inspired by this discovery, Zagato expanded the project to include
not only nine examples of Storez's Speedster but also nine Coupe
variants that had never seen production.
Each of these special period correct Zagatos were constructed using
an original Porsche 356 as a donor vehicle, just as Zagato would
have done in the late 1950s. While maintaining the handcrafted
techniques of the era, the project combined traditional aluminum
shaping with state-of-the-art digital design, culminating in a
machine brought to life at the intersection of historical
coachbuilding and modern automotive craftsmanship. The Porsche 356
Zagato Coupe Sanction Lost is thus not merely a recreation-it is
the execution of a vision first conceived over half a century
ago.
One of only nine Sanction Lost 356 Zagato Coupes, chassis number
111937 was originally born as a 1960 Porsche 356 B Super 90 Coupe
in Silver Metallic destined for Tourist Delivery via Autogerma in
Italy, as recorded by a copy of the Porsche-issued Kardex warranty
card. In the mid-2010s, the Coupe was selected as the donor to be
transformed into a Sanction Lost Coupe and sent to Zagato's
facility in Milan, Italy. During the ensuing build process, Zagato
worked in consultation with the original client based in the
Netherlands who Zagato notes "followed the entire process with
passion and friendship." The Zagato-provided color and trim
document reveals that the coachbuilt Porsche 356 retains the same
timeless Silver Metallic finished aluminum bodywork as delivered by
Zagato. The interior was selected in black leather and white piping
surrounded by a body color dashboard housing Porsche-correct VDO
instrumentation and a three-spoke wood-rimmed Nardi steering wheel.
While the 356 was under transformation at Zagato, the mechanicals,
including the original matching numbers engine, were sent to an
Italian Porsche specialist to be rebuilt and restored in a manner
reflective of the care and expertise employed in the entire
project.
Delivered in 2015 to its first owner in the Netherlands, the Zagato
would be cherished and enjoyed until finding a new home in
California with longtime Porsche dealer and racer Tom Claridge.
While in Claridge's ownership, the svelte lightweight coupe caught
the eye of the current owner, himself a devoted Porsche racer and
collector, and a deal was struck. The odometer reading at
cataloging, merely 1,100 kilometers (approximately 680 miles)
reveals that this modern work of art has seen limited use since it
left Italy. The car is furnished with a copy of its original
Porsche Kardex, Zagato correspondence, and Sanction Lost color and
trim specification sheet. As an exceptional blend of German
performance and Italian style, 1960 Porsche 356 B Super 90 Zagato
Coupe chassis number 111937 offers its next fortunate caretaker a
rare opportunity to acquire the fruits of a collaboration between
two storied automotive concerns thought lost to time.
