Steve McQueen, Janis Joplin and one woman's quest to find the one that got away
Long-time Chicago resident Pamela Brundage is not your average vintage sports car owner. There are mainly two types: Hoarders and drivers. Brundage is the latter. “I understand the reasoning behind never driving a vintage car,” says the fashionable American Airlines flight attendant. “That type of owner is doing the world a favour by preserving the car in its most pristine state for future generations. However, they aren’t enjoying it. They aren’t using the car for what it was made for—to drive. It’s sad.”
Brundage drives her vintage sports car, a 1962 Porsche 356B Super 90 coupe, as often as possible. “Not every day,” she admits. “But as often as the harsh Chicago weather will allow.” If it gets dirty, she cleans it. If it gets wet, she dries it off. But she doesn’t want it to rust and fade away.
Though Brundage has only been collecting for a few years, her love affair with the 356 dates back more than four decades, ever since her mother, Jean, bought a used 1961 356B Coupe in the late 1960s. However, unlike most collectors who wait a lifetime to find that one car, that Holy Grail that elevates their collection, Brundage found hers several months ago. That very same 356B her mother owned all those years ago. The car in which she actually learnt to drive.
Brundage’s most recent road trip brought her from Chicago to Long Island, New York, in October last year for ‘Driven to America 2’, an annual celebration of air-cooled Porsches built between 1948 and 1998 (of which the 356 is one), and the man responsible for introducing the Porsche marque to America in 1951, Max Hoffman. Making the journey meant driving her silver 1962 356B Super 90 more than 1,200 kilometres, and each time behind the wheel reminds her of the inspiration for her Porsche passion—her mother.
“My mother, Jean, worked for Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, during the space race,” Brundage recalls. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, her mom was a secretary in the reception area of the budding aerospace company. Part of her job was to greet astronauts and other VIPs from the space programme. As it happened, most of the engineers at Lockheed owned Porsche 356s. They were so easy to wrench on, so easy to tweak into a race car. The engineers couldn’t resist.
The first 356s first rolled off the “assembly line” in 1948 and immediately set the bar for every Porsche that followed. It made the German automaker synonymous with top-notch craftsmanship, outstanding road manners, and minimalist aesthetic. Designed by “Ferry” Porsche, the son of company founder Ferdinand Porsche, the 356 is actually quite a simple car. Though it is the first roadster to bear the Porsche name, the 356 was essentially a souped-up Volkswagen Beetle.
(This story appears in the 26 April, 2019 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)