Porsche: Brochures and Sales Literature, A Source Book 1948–1965

by Susann C Miller & Richard F Merritt

Are you are a Porsche person? Do you know about this book? If not, you should.

Are you a researcher or historian? Is this book already in your library? If not, you are missing a worthwhile resource.

Porsche Brochures and Sales Literature, 1948-1965, now in its Third Edition, has been revised and expanded twice since it was first published in 1978. As with most books of this type, the mere act of publishing brings forth additional information. Sometimes the volume of new material, coupled with the popularity (and sales) of the book, warrant these second, third, etc editions.

Although the book is made up of reproductions of factory literature, the co-authors have written captions containing detailed descriptions of each piece, as well as of the individual pages of each. Descriptions begin with measurements in both metric and US, followed by physical properties and appearances including color and tone of paper and inks used. The book is printed in black and white as color reproduction and printing was deemed too costly. Yet the descriptions are sufficiently clear and detailed to enable the book to be used as a source for authenticating and differentiating a true original collectible piece of factory literature from a high-quality copy.

As a reference and research tool, this book is a dream. It contains “all the known brochures and sales literature published or made available by Porsche from 1948 to 1965”. The material is arranged chronologically—an accomplishment in itself since, as anyone who has examined or owns manufacturer’s literature knows, it isn’t always clearly dated. Finding a particular piece or item of information is simplified by a Table of Contents that clearly and thoroughly lists each piece. Better yet, these are not poor quality indecipherable reproductions. You can read every word of every item reproduced throughout the book due to the care taken accomplishing the photocopying or scanning. The book was then printed landscape format on a gloss stock. There’s no eye-strain involved in reading each and every page bound between the hard covers. Lest you be concerned or curious; no rules or laws of copyright were broken or “conveniently ignored” either. That said, the reproduction of any pages in this book is restricted under Universal and Pan American copyright conventions.

To give you an idea of the just how comprehensive the information is, it covers and includes; paint numbers, accessories, specifications, technical data, color charts, delivery plans, price lists, Porsche’s marine and aircraft engines, the Rotorcycle, the Porsche farm tractor and more. The authors did not limit themselves only to material they had personally managed to acquire. In a show of trust and support of the project, some really rare, obscure and hard to find (thus monetarily very valuable) material was loaned to them for processing in order that it could be included too.

So, what of these authors? Who are they? Well, Susann Miller has now been vintage racing her 1968 Porsche 911L for well over a decade. She has also authored additional Porsche titles including the now out-of-print Porsche Power, Performance & Perfection and the two Source Books, one titledPorsche 911/912 and the other Porsche 911. Richard Merritt divides his automotive attention and enthusiasm between Porsches and Ferraris, and has authored or co-authored books about each.

With just shy of 100 different, multi-paged pieces of factory literature reproduced on its 320 10” x 8” pages, this book is veritable treasure trove of information.

Copyright 2009 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)

Porsche: Brochures and Sales Literature, A Source Book, 1948–1965
by Susann C Miller & Richard F Merritt
M & M Creative Group, 2005
320 pages, Hundreds of b/w illustrations, hardcover
List Price: $75
ISBN 13: 0-915927-05-5

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