For those with Discovery HD Channel
 

On the show "Rides"

"Examine Hollywood's love affair with that German beauty known as Porsche. Watch a perfect clone of James Dean's 1955 550 Porsche built by hand; see Steve McQueen's LeMans Gulf Porsche 917, and Jay Leno runs his elite Carrera GT at the Talladega Speedway."

Tonight at 11pm Central, or you can find other times here:
http://dhd.discovery.com/

Hi, Thanks

Oh crud I tuned in 1 hour late so that means I missed it completely lol, atleast it replays in 2 more hrs

Thanks for the info! I passed it by when all I saw was Hollywood Speed. Missed the 9 pm so DVR is set for the midnight showing.

Just watched this tonight! Excellent!

Patrick

O THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 16 minutes till it starts.........

Crap, I just saw this thread. I hope they show it again!

I caught it last night. Great show and great commentary on Porsches. At one point they mentioned that one of the or was it the original Porsche engine was called the Carrera. Did anyone catch that or have any more background?

To the best of my recollection, Porsche first used the name "Carrera" on a series of 356s, both coupes and Speedsters, fitted with the four-cam type 547 engine developed for the 550 racing Spyders.
I don't believe any of the 550s were called Carreras.

Nice! I just went and set my DVR to record it later this afternoon! W00T!

Thanks Ronzi. If I heard them correctly they said the first engine was nicknamed the Carrera. They weren't referring to the car, just the engine.

I saw that program yesterday, and I agree that the 550 expert did refer to the 4-cam engines in the 550s as "Carrera" engines.
Far be it from me to take issue with information provided by an acknowledged expert in this area ... but I will anyway.
There is reference in Porsche historical literature to some type 547s as "Carrera engine(s)", but only in the context of them as the engine installed in the 356 Carrera and Carrera GT cars. The 550s were never called Carreras, even though the origin of "Carrera" in the Porsche lexicon refers to Porsche's success in the Carrera Panamericana road races of the early '50s. Much, but by no means all, of that success was attributable to 550s equipped with the 547 engine. The result of that success was the application of the Carrera name to a series of street cars, the aforementioned Carrera/Carrera GT models, most of which were equipped with type 547 engines.
In my view it would be more accurate to say that the Carrera and Carrera GT cars were equipped with "550 engines", than that the 550s were equipped with "Carrera engines."

did anyone catch the name of the company that built the 550 replicas? they looked pretty nice

Automotive Legends.
www.automotivelegends.com

Their 550s look very nice, don't they?
There are a bunch of other outfits that make 550 replicas, probably the most well-known of which is Beck. www.beckspeedster.com

The replica Spyders look really great! Hard to believe those can be had in the 20k range.

I've got to hand it to Leno, pretty good skills he showed at Talladaga. I don't know if it was luck or skill, but he sure got out of a potentially bad crash!

I think I saw an article about the Beck 550 replicas in a hot rod magazine my dad signed me up for.

They use a Subaru 2.5l boxer in it... I think you can get the full decked out one for $30-40k.

I picked it up about half way through and it was great. Already set the DVR to record it when it repeats.

I owned a Beck Spyder built in 1999 with the 2160cc motor. I never should have sold it but a guy offered me $5k more than I paid for it so I let it go.

That car was a blast to drive and got so many thumbs up/looks. Sounded great too. Straight 4 into 1 exhaust.

Usable top speed is only about 75 as the 4.12 to 1 ring and pinion set in the tranny is turning 3500-4000 rpm's in that range. 0-60 was a blur with 160 HP and only 1200 pounds.

I have to get another one some day.

Jeff

An acquaintance built a Speedster replica, I think it was a Classic Motor Carriages kit car. Looked really good when he got done with it, but he had a hell of a time getting insurance for it. None of the usual suspects (Farmer's, State Farm, etc.) would touch it. It was a few years ago, before all the specialty insurance companies were around. Probably not as big a problem today.