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Scene and Passion Jan 14, 2020
Project 356/930 After thirty-one years in Australia, Viktor Grahser returned to his native Austria with one suitcase and three 356s. Eleven years after Grahser died, one 356 Roadster has now been completely restored. And has found a distinguished owner.
The year is 1996. The place is an inn in the village of Klein-Neusiedl, population nine hundred, around twenty-five kilometers southeast of the Austrian capital of Vienna. Viktor Grahser sits alone at a table in the far corner, talking excitedly in English. He has ordered stuffed crêpes, like he does every Friday. Three years ago he returned to Austria for reasons of the heart. The woman for whom he left his adopted homeland of Australia after thirty-one years is no longer in his life. Grahser, who trained as an aviation mechanic, is fifty-six years old. His features are chiseled; his brown hair is combed back and sticks out over his collar. He’s wearing blue overalls, and his jacket with a Trans-Australia Airlines logo is slung over a chair. A rusted bicycle stands outside the door. Cigarettes lie on the table to his right, and to his left a car magazine that he leafs through while engaging in conversation with himself.
Auspicious encounter
“Here we go, my friend,” says Grahser, pointing to the heart of his home. Schmied can hardly believe his eyes. A Porsche 356 Speedster stands in the middle of the living room, with just one headlight and no floor or seats. The engine lies behind it, next to a pile of wood. “All right, now you can take pictures of me driving,” says Grahser. “And where are we going?” asks Schmied. ”I’m driving on the Great Ocean Road, on the southern coast of Australia. You’ve been there, right?” replies Grahser. Without waiting for a response, he sits down on the metal frame of the unfinished Speedster, puts both hands on the steering wheel, and imitates the sound of the engine while calling out, “Second gear, third gear—see, the wind is blowing through my hair.” He closes his eyes and turns the wheel to the left and right, shifts through imaginary gears, accelerates and brakes. All the while providing the appropriate acoustics.
Page 1 of 4 The dream of a museum
Grahser’s great dream is to open a Porsche museum in his Austrian homeland. He has the first three cars for it already; they just need to be restored. The 356 Speedster, which is one of the few built with the steering wheel on the right, stands in the living room, while the other two are still in the shipping container outside the door. They haven’t left it since departing Australia. The one on the upper level is a Porsche 356 A Coupé, partially converted to a 356 Speedster with 911 parts and a 2.7-liter engine with a mechanical fuel-injection pump. The one on the container’s ground floor is Grahser’s absolute favorite, a 1959 Porsche 356 B Roadster with a three-liter turbo engine from a 1977 Porsche 911 (Type 930). Grahser often opens the doors of the container just to be near this 356/930, as he calls it. He sits on a cushioned chair against the left wall of the container, above a vacuum cleaner and extension cable. An old wooden table with a built-in drawer stands against the right wall, two chairs placed on top of it. Grahser is relaxed, his legs stretched out, his ankles crossed, and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He’s looking to the left. At the two Porsches. During this time Grahser tells Schmied a lot about Australia and how he bought the first damaged 356 Roadster in 1981. Schmied hears how Grahser’s 356/930 project got started the following year, and how the aviation mechanic became one of the founding members of Australian Porsche 356 Register Inc. in 1986. After returning home to Austria, Grahser stayed in touch with his friends from the club, with letters flying back and forth.
Grahser dies—and his legacy?
A 356 with turbo technology: Walter Röhrl and his new car
The new owner is impressed
“But I approached this converted 356 B Roadster with its turbo parts very gingerly; it looked like too much had been altered. So I was all the more astonished at how perfectly balanced it felt right from the start of the first test-drive. The low lip in front, the heavy engine behind, 260 hp—it drives smoothly and precisely, and it’s a lot of fun.” Röhrl, a two-time rally world champion, now owns the car that Diez christened the “Porsche 356 3000 RR”—3000 refers to the engine displacement; RR stands for Röhrl Roadster. Its exterior is slate gray and its interior is red. Its engine cover sports Röhrl’s four victory badges from the Monte Carlo Rally. A 911 steering wheel with a 356 rim has been installed. Even the instruments are reminiscent of a 911. For Viktor Grahser, the 356 with 911 parts was intended to
Page 2 of 4 be his “Super Porsche.” That was his lifelong dream.
The meeting
As part of the work for this article, photographer Rudolf Schmied met the new owner of the Porsche 356 Roadster—and told two-time rally world champion Walter Röhrl the story of Viktor Grahser and his inimitable 356/930 project.
Info Text first published in the Porsche customer magazine Christophorus, No. 393.
AUTHOR
Christina Rahmes
PHOTOGRAPHER
Bernhard Huber
Link Collection
Link to this article
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