Porsche 550 Spyder

By Jack Nerad

It is hard to separate the Porsche 550 Spyder from the legend of actor James Dean, so why don't we get it all out of the way right now. On September 30, 1955, Dean, fresh off the film Giant, left George Barris's shop in Los Angeles to go racing in Salinas, a farm town inland of Monterrey made famous by John Steinbeck. (Dean, of course, had recently starred in the movie of Steinbeck's novel East of Eden, set in the same area.) The young actor was at the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spyder called "Little Bastard," a term that Dean might well have applied to himself.

By that time, Dean had done more than a little racing. A Porsche fan, he had just traded his 356 for the racier, LeMans-winning 550 Spyder, and he was desirous of testing its mettle (and his own) on the track in Salinas. But as he drove toward the sun on that late Friday afternoon along Highway 46, a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Donald Turnupseed, was driving home in his 1950 Ford. Not seeing Dean's car in the twilight, Turnupseed turned into the path of the actor's speeding car, and, with little time to react, the 550 Spyder crashed headlong into the Ford. Dean's side of the Porsche got the worst of it, and he was killed instantly. His mechanic, Rolf W Next Greatest Car>>