The History of "Trouble"

A few months ago, we came across an Instagram account that caught our eye: @thestoryoftrouble. Run by Lawrence Todd, the account was focused around the restoration of a really cool barn-find 1962 Porsche 356 B Super 90 that he named “Trouble”.  Lawrence’s journey with “Trouble” started with his love for classic cars and bikes. His dad has always had a passion for cars and motorsport, so it was inevitable that Lawrence would inherit this passion too. 

Back in 2018, he came across one of our most-loved t-shirt designs, ‘Caffeine and Gasoline’ which led him to following the brand more closely, and after seeing one too many P&Co posts of people riding Cafe Racers or Scramblers, he decided it was time to scratch his itch and finally get a moto project of his own. Initially, planning on buying a motorbike,  his family quickly vetoed that plan, so he set his sights on a project with four wheels instead. At the same time, he stumbled upon a car restorer in America called Rod Emory and was super inspired by his work, deciding that if he was going to restore a car, it was going to be a car like the one Rod was working on: a Porsche 356. 

A year later, he stumbled upon “Trouble” on eBay—a barn find from the US, untouched and full of history. Unfortunately, being a barn-find, he doesn’t know too much about the history of the car (yet), but what he does know is that she was specced in Luxembourg and then later in life, was shipped over to the US, where she was eventually found rotting away in a barn in Maryland. In 2018, a UK trader bought her and shipped her over to the UK, where Lawrence stumbled across her on Ebay and ended up buying her with his sister. 

When he picked the car up, she was like a time machine. There were still 8 track tapes and matches in the glove box, a cigar box under the seat and countless fuel receipts in the door cards. The last fuel receipt dates to 1974, suggesting that this could have been one of the last years she was on the road. He also discovered that her red colour was not in fact her original colour. Originally, she was Porsche Slate Gray. She’s also got some rare features like a large capacity fuel tank, an Euberspacher petrol heater, fog lights, and air horns. These extras hint she might have been a rally car back in the day, but Lawrence is still working on finding out more about this. 

Since starting the restoration process, he’s stripped her down to bare metal. It was a massive job—removing the interior, exterior, engine, gearbox, and more. After media blasting revealed her true condition, Lawrence realised he needed expert help for the bodywork and handed her over to a 356 restoration specialist. Meanwhile, he focused on rebuilding her engine, a first for him.

Once she’s back on the road, Lawrence has big plans. A road trip to the Porsche factory in Germany is high on the list, along with a drive through the Swiss Alps, especially the Furka Pass. And if it turns out Trouble was indeed a rally car, Lawrence dreams of getting her back on a rally stage, even if only for a non-competitive event. We’re really looking forward to following the rest of Lawrence’s journey with Trouble, and if you’d like to follow along too, head over to his Instagram account or his Youtube channel, “The Story of Trouble with Lawrence Todd”.