October 01 2008
1 of 30: early 1960s APAL Porsche Coupé
In the fifties and sixties it was pretty common to get a good chassis and then to put a specially designed body on it, and not just in Britain or Italy. Two Belgians got together in Liège in the fifties and started designing cars on a Beetle chassis. They formed the company APAL and went down the glassfibre route.
Between 1961 and 1965 they made about 150 cars based on the 1959 Porsche 356 Abarth. They had some different design features. Especially the rear lights and rear bumper combination looks quite funky. About 30 cars though were made entirely with Porsche 356 components. Engine, gearbox, brakes, interior, etc. All under a fibreglass Porsche replica body.
Then APAL decided to try a bit of motorsport and were quite successfull. No surprise really as they had Porsche mechanics and were about 300kg lighter than the Porsches themselves. Later on, after APAL had established a good relationship with Belgian VW importer d’Ieteren supplying them with chassis, they decided on making buggy body tubs and also had a brief spell making bodyparts for the Triumph Spitfire.
This particular car seems to have come up for sale a few times, and could be because of a too opportunistic asking price. It is still a first owner example and looks nice and original. The 1600cc S90 engine could do with a little updating maybe.
We have mentioned before that in Belgium rear fog lights are compulsory equipment and on this particular car the added lights detract from the beautiful rear end with the very unusual bumper-rear light combination. We would try and work out something to restore the nice lines.
The car is for sale in the SW of Belgium, it doesn’t mention a price unfortunately. Also to mention: there is a nice informative APAL club website with loads of information.
