Special Edition, Inc.

HISTORY

The original ENVEMO (ENgineering of VEhicles and MOtors) project was born in the late 1970’s when a then young Porsche enthusiast in Sao Paulo by the name of Luis Fernando Goncalves, while on a visit to Rio, came home with an old Porsche 356C coupe that he just could not help but purchase.

His father, Angelo, a prominent businessman and fellow automotive enthusiast,  took one look at the car and said,  “let’s build one of these on a Brasilia floorpan.”  Within the year the ENVEMO company was born, making what is still widely regarded as the benchmark of reproduction Porsche cars, the ENVEMO 356C coupe.

I met Luis shortly after this at an automotive exhibition held at the Brazilian Consulate in Dallas, Texas.  I was working for Lafer Automoveis, another Sao Paulo based replicator. We were making a kit of the MG-TD based on the Beelte platform of the day.  Luis and I became friends instantly and spent many days together, both in the USA and Brazil.

ENVEMO went on to produce about 250 of the coupe version and far fewer, perhaps as few as 40, of the Cabriolet version of the 1965 356C.  No expenses were spared and Angelo had a reputation around the shop as a real stickler for exacting detail, right down to the gear ratios in the wind-up window mechanisms!

These were good times, and the cars acquired a small, loyal following.  Sadly,  the $15,000.00 price tag of the replica was very close to that of an original car of the day, and sales were limited.  ENVEMO ceased production after only 4 short years.

In the ensuing years the project bounced around Sao Paulo a bit.  (CBP, a Brazilian helmet maker produced a few in the late 1980’s). Eventually the Cabriolet tooling, by now very much worn, found it’s way into our Brazilian production facility along with enough trim and hardware to produce a few additional Cabriolets, which we did, sending them to our USA based assembly shop in Houston, TX. nestled in the corner of Jim Simpsons Blue Ray GT Engineering facility.  (See Pseudo Super 90, European Car Magazine, January 1993.)

Production demands for our Beck Spyder 550 and development of the Beck Speedster took precedence and the project, once again, stopped.  Suppliers lost trim toolings or disappeared completely and further production became less likely to ever occur.  To add to the difficulty the coupe molds were badly damaged in a fire which rendered them useless.  Time marched on.

Today, the original ENVEMO coupes and Cabrio’s demand mid 5 figure price tags, and have been highly sought after by European customers, leaving few in the USA.  In the recent past wee have even restored a few for loyal German customers!  Frankly, if you had told me that, one day, we would be restoring a kit car from our past, I would have thought you…well, let’s just say optimistic.

Fast forward to today.  The body molds for the Cabriolet have been re-made (this is the easy part) and several years of spare time have been dedicated to re-tooling the hardware and trim parts.  This project remains in the hearts of all of those who participated in it’s development, building, and distribution as a “labor of love”.

A love for the 356C, which ended an era of Porsche cars, and ushered in another. 

A love for the people who appreciated the enormous amount of work and dedication that it took to make this a reality, and especially,

A love for the Goncalves family, who tragically lost Luis to an untimely death at the hands of a would be robber.  We miss him, his whit, and his dedication to the preservation of very special cars of all marques.  Each year, we that knew and respected him, raise a glass to his memory at the Monterey Historic Races, an event that he rarely missed and so very much appreciated.

I thank you for reading this entry, and appreciate any further input you may have on the subject.

CABRIOLET PRODUCTION BEGINS AGAIN !

After many years the long awaited return of a limited number of 356C Cabriolet reproductions has resumed.  While we have never removed this offering from our factory website, this project had remained an unrealized goal. A tribute to the past, and a much needed addition to the replica marketplace.

Chamonix and Special Edition, Inc. produced only 2 Super 90 Cabriolets for the 2008 model year. Both were pre-sold. These are now in Indiana for final assembly.  We will be relying on many reproduction parts, as well as the skilled labor of our painting and upholstery teams here in Indiana to complete these cars. Carey Hines is personally overseeing these and is performing much of the work himself.

No longer based on a VW platform, the New Super 90 Cabriolet will be fitted to our proprietary 3” tubular chassis, incorporating front disc brakes, and a swing axle style transaxle.  Each will be fitted with the customer’s choice of Type1 or Type IV engine and custom exhaust system.  Full leather interior, triple layered convertible top, Tonneau and many other features, as offered in our Speedster options section of this website.

Estimated completed MSRP will be $50,000.00.  These S-90's will be very well equipped as standard, including all trim, original style radio (with new guts), electric antenna, rear reflectors, original style gauges, and interior appointments,  bumper overriders,  clock, glove box, etc.  They are made to replicate the very rare Carrera version with below the rear bumper exhaust exits thru the slotted body panel, not thru the rear overriders as on the normal S-90 of '64.  An original Carrera version is currently selling for over $200K.