Almost immediately after arriving on American shores, the Porsche 356 found an unlikely second home among the heady custom hot rod builders of Southern California.

These intrepid enthusiasts began ripping off stock bumpers, swapping rims for improved offsets, welding in Stinger exhausts, and tackling canyon roads or taking to the track for sanctioned competition.

The unbridled ingenuity and enthusiasm of these passionate hot-rodders created homegrown sports cars so ferocious that the even staid Porsche engineers back in Zuffenhausen took notice and eventually debuted the official 356 Speedster.

Gary Emory grew up in his father Neil’s Valley Custom shop supplying many of Southern California’s early Porsche hot-rodders with plenty of go-fast parts.

By the early 1990s, he was fully entrenched in the Porsche world with his own company, Parts Obsolete, and was the go-to for rare Porsche parts, not to mention an exceptionally deep knowledge base extending well beyond the realms of concou...