The Cotswolds workshop restores the original 356 chassis and wraps it in a broader, lower body formed by hand in aluminum. Seventy-five years later, Thornley Kelham translates the race car’s aerodynamic simplicity into a road-going commission that remains unmistakably a 356.the coupe’s hand-formed aluminum skin draws from Porsche’s 1951 Le Mans racer | images © Ed Curtiscoachbuilding shaped by digital toolsFor the team at Thornley Kelham, each aluminum body takes more than 2,000 hours to form and finish. each body requires more than 2,000 hours of metalworka flat-four rebuilt around lightnessBeneath the aluminum shell sits a bespoke 2.33L air-cooled flat-four based on the original 356 engine. Thornley Kelham strengthens and seam welds the original structure, then fits rack-and-pinion steering and rear suspension geometry influenced by early 911s. Thornley Kelham plans to build fifty coupe examples, each developed with its owner at the company’s Gloucestershire workshop.