356B in briar patch
 

Today I found a 356B buried under a foot or so of thorn bushes in a abandoned lot with a bunch of old VW's.

It's pretty far gone having dents and having lost its drivetrain.

What I would like to know is how I could tell visually if the car is a Carrera(on the small chance that it is a long lost carrera) before I let it return to its sleep and eventual return to iron ore.

I know that they had dual ignition switches and a different fuel pump location but what other clues would help me to tell if the car may be a carrera the interior is pretty well stripped but appears to be in boxes in the cab.

Thanks in advance

Kelly

Look at the front lip of the nose. It should be rolled under I believe if it is a carrera. Also, put a magnet on the doors and decklid. If these are aluminum it would be a carrera most likely but not definitely. get under the car and check the tranny gearing. Get a serial number. You can check that way too.

I got the serial number and I referenced it through 356a.com
and it matched it with year 1960 and the various types of engines that were available for that car.
I was under the impression that only the certificate of authenticity(and still that has been known to be error prone) could show that the serial number matched the carrera engine, how else would I reference the number to the engine?
Unfortunately the drivetrain is missing so ID'ing the trans isnt an option.
I will take a good look at it and use the magnet when I remove some of the thorn bushes later this week.

Kelly

Hallo

Many details:

Carreras have two sitches beside the Tach for the ignitioncircuits.
A handthrottlepull in the Dashface.
Tach showing 8000/min speedo showing 150 mph.

The body has some additional holes for the electric gas heater in the rear valance, the drysump oiltank ( driverside ) the oilines are going forward to the oilcoolers behind the horngrills. One cooler on each side. The supportbrace under the front light bucket is different for them. The oilines are runing inside the doorsills.
Thed floorpan is different. The front bulkhead and the rear kick panel, the rear bulkheadwall, the inner sills/rockers are also different. Not all carreras came with aluminium doors and hoods.

The lower enginbay sourunding sheetmetall is unboltable to service the engine.

The brakes are 60mm drums or discs with the caliper boltet inside and the disc runing outside like the satelite. ( Audi V8 drivers know them as UFO´s ;) )

The rear axle has the additional leafspring ( also stock with Super 90 ). Carrera had aluminium rims and hubcaps. ( Not all )

Carreras had mostly the larger fuel tank (60L ) and a slight different toolset ( more tools and some very special )
They had a electric fuelpump ( mount under the tank ) and always 12Volt ( instruments, bulbs, switches )

They had a different rear valance with two straight pipes out and a different rear bumper as well. ( ROW no horns )

They mostly had a steering wheel with wood rim ( 2000 for sure )

Grüse

I think that the oil cooler lines to the front are a dead giveaway...

-Wayne

Well it turns out it originally sported a super engine and not a four cam(Suprised?)
I have spoken with the owner who has no interest in the car, it is however pretty far gone and partially stripped but i think that I will cannibalize what is still useable and leave the chassis to resthttp://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/huil.gif as the rust is probably terminal.
I know now that if I see a bunch of old veedubs in a lot I will investigate further.

thanks for all of the good replies,

Kelly