STATES OF MIND

California. It’s the Golden State, where the sun always shines and rain never falls. Well, that’s what many sellers of Stateside classic cars would have eager buyers in Europe believe. In fact, if many of today’s classifieds are to be taken at their word, all classic cars residing in the USA have spent the majority — if not all — of their lives lapping up the warmth of the Pacific coast, their only fault being sun-faded paintwork. In today’s sales terminology, you can expect this to be described as patina, which we’re led to believe is hugely desirable and, consequently, demands your budget to be stretched even further than you’d otherwise anticipated, potentially eating into the money you’d allocated for shipping costs and any applicable import duties. It’s worth it to get a car completely free of rust, though, right?

Sadly, this is an all too familiar fable — patiently awaiting the arrival of their recently purchased classic Porsche from America to European shores, many buyers are often greeted by a vehicle far from the condition they were expecting. Sadly, in some cases, the cost of fixing faults and correcting corrosion not disclosed by the seller can often stack up to more spend than buying a solid example of an air-cooled Porsche in the buyer’s home country, making that ‘cheap’ import something of a false economy. This is especially true of super-old Porsches, including the 356, which may have