Back When The Porsche Club of America Was The 356 Club

Long before the Porsche 911 became an icon, the 356 was the car that defined Porsche in America. In the 1950s, lightweight 356 coupes, cabriolets, and Speedsters were still relatively rare machines, but they found a natural home at Elkhart Lake and Road America, where sports car racing was taking root in the rolling Kettle Moraine countryside.

This photograph, taken circa 1959, looks south across Road America near Turn 5. The hillside at upper right remains one of the circuit’s great viewing areas, while the upper left shows the area that would later become the Gear Box concession stand. For Wisconsin Porsche enthusiasts, this landscape is more than a racetrack backdrop. It is part of the club’s origin story.

The 356 has been gathering here since the 1950s, when Porsche ownership was still a small, close-knit world and the Porsche Club of America was new. Those early gatherings connected owners, racers, families, and friends around the same things that still bring the club together today: simple, beautifully engineered cars, good roads, Road America, and the lasting camaraderie of the Porsche 356.