Beck 550 Sypder

[ChrisZang]

Hmmmmm,

at this time this WAS an ultra powerful race car that was hard to handle.
Porsche actually sent an engineer to train James Dean on how to handle the car. Dean had raced 356es before and that was the first time for him to take a 550 to the race track (It's always referred to as "Salinas", which I guess makes it Laguna Seca). Due to his celebrity he actually got priority in the waiting list for the car.
The engineer was sitting in the passenger seat next to James Dean at the time of the accident but was thrown from the car and survived (I believe with minor injuries).
I think the "hard to handle" part comes from the fact that the suspension that was used on the 550 was, well state of the art in the 50 ies, but had the tendency to snap within split seconds from understeer to severe oversteer and then the car turned into a handful, especially in the hand of an inexperienced driver.

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

I always had this false impression that the 550 James Dean died in was some ultra powerful racing car that was hard to handle.

[Ronzi]

The guy with Dean was Rolf Wutherich, a Porsche factory mechanic dispatched to the US for a while to tend to 550s sold to customers. Competition Motors received a shipment of 8 550s, one of which (#550-055) was sold to Dean. Part of the sales agreement was that Wutherich would serve as Dean's mechanic at races.
Salinas was to be the first race for the car. Dean and Wutherich drove the car instead of trailering it because the car was still so new it only had a few hundred miles on it, and Wutherich wanted at least 1,500 miles before it was raced.

Photographer Miles Collier (I think that was his name) followed along in Dean's Ford station wagon towing a trailer. That's why there are photos of Dean on that "last ride". Of course Dean outpaced the wagon through the hills east of Cholame, so Collier didn't actually witness the crash.

Wutherich recovered from his injuries and stayed in the US for a few years mothering other cars, but ultimately returned to Germany, where he died in a road crash in 1981.

Salinas was, I believe, at the time (1955) an airport circuit, not the Laguna Seca track we have today.

[Ronzi]

Originally Posted by Ronzi

Photographer Miles Collier (I think that was his name) followed along in Dean's Ford station wagon towing a trailer. That's why there are photos of Dean on that "last ride". Of course Dean outpaced the wagon through the hills east of Cholame, so Collier didn't actually witness the crash.

I wasn't even close on the photographer's name. Actually it was Sanford (Sandy) Roth. With him in the Ford wagon, the driver, was actor Bill Hickman.
Roth was working on a photo essay on Dean for a Collier's magazine article.

Roth arrived on the scene in Cholame only a few minutes after the crash and apparently took a large number of photos of the scene and Dean's body. He vowed the pictures would never be published, and except for a few of the more innocuous ones, they never have been.

As a further correction, the trip to Salinas was on Friday, Sept. 30, 1955, not Saturday.

[Grizzly]

The stories surrounding the Dean 550 after the crash are nearly as interesting and mysterioous as the crash itself...

"After the tragedy, George Barris bought the wreck for $2,500. When the wreck arrived at Barris' garage, the Porsche slipped and fell on one of the mechanics unloading it. The accident broke both of the mechanic's legs.

While Barris had bad feelings about the car when he first saw it, his suspicions were confirmed during a race at the Pomona Fair Grounds on October 24, 1956. Two physicians, Troy McHenry and William Eschrid, were both racing cars that had parts from the "Little Bastard." McHenry died when his car, which had the Porsche's engine installed, went out of control and hit a tree. Eschrid's car flipped over. Eschrid, who survived despite serious injuries, later said that the car suddenly locked up when he went into a curve.

The car's malevolent influence continued after the race. A man trying to steal the Porsche's steering wheel slipped and gashed his arm. Barris reluctantly sold two of the car's tires to a young man. Within a week, the man was nearly involved in a wreck when the two tires blew out simultaneously.

Feeling that the Porsche could be put to good use, Barris loaned the wrecked car to the California Highway Patrol for a touring display to illustrate the importance of automobile safety. Within days, the garage housing the Spyder burnt to the ground. With the exception of the "Little Bastard," every vehicle parked inside the garage was destroyed. When the car was put on exhibit in Sacramento, it fell from its display and broke a teenager's hip. George Barkuis, who was hauling the Spyder on a flatbed truck, was killed instantly when the Porsche fell on him after he was thrown from his truck in an accident.

The mishaps surrounding the car continued until 1960, when the Porsche was loaned out for a safety exhibit in Miami, Florida. When the exhibit was over, the wreckage, en route to Los Angeles on a truck, mysteriously vanished. To this day, the "Little Bastard's" whereabouts are unknown. "

[Ronzi]

Originally Posted by Grizzly

The mishaps surrounding the car continued until 1960, when the Porsche was loaned out for a safety exhibit in Miami, Florida. When the exhibit was over, the wreckage, en route to Los Angeles on a truck, mysteriously vanished. To this day, the "Little Bastard's" whereabouts are unknown. "[/I]

This is without doubt one of the few remaining mysteries about the Dean 550. George Barris has at times said the car was shipped by truck back to CA. On other occasions he has said it was shipped back from Florida by rail. In either case, when the container was opened, it was empty. Barris has said he retained "Pinkerton's Detectives" to track down what happened to the car, to no avail.
My suspicious and cynical nature smells a rat. The man doesn't KNOW how it was shipped back from Florida??? One of the iconic cars in automobile history, and it disappears out of a locked box, and the owner has no idea what happened to it.

There is little doubt that by 1960, after the numerous mishaps at different shows, the Dean 550 was rapidly becoming a shapeless pile of wrinkled aluminum. It's days as a useful, and perhaps profitable, display prop were approaching an end.
Was it, by any chance insured? Could it be that the best outcome was for the remains to "disappear", and a quiet insurance claim be collected as a final tribute to James Dean, the Hollywood legend?
I wonder?

[porsche986spyder]

Originally Posted by ChrisZang

Hmmmmm,

at this time this WAS an ultra powerful race car that was hard to handle.
Porsche actually sent an engineer to train James Dean on how to handle the car. Dean had raced 356es before and that was the first time for him to take a 550 to the race track (It's always referred to as "Salinas", which I guess makes it Laguna Seca). Due to his celebrity he actually got priority in the waiting list for the car.
The engineer was sitting in the passenger seat next to James Dean at the time of the accident but was thrown from the car and survived (I believe with minor injuries).
I think the "hard to handle" part comes from the fact that the suspension that was used on the 550 was, well state of the art in the 50 ies, but had the tendency to snap within split seconds from understeer to severe oversteer and then the car turned into a handful, especially in the hand of an inexperienced driver.

Yes, James Dan was actualy on his way to a race after just picking up his new car only hours earlier that morning. His personal mechanic/engineer was thrown from the car and received a few broken ribs. Dean died instantly when the larger than life steering wheel broke his neck upon impact with the other car just before ejecting the mechanic and doing a seriers of tumbles and sumersults into the air. It finaly came to rest at a telephone pole. Dean had also received a speeding ticket just a few hours earlier that day. However, the mechanic said Dean was not speeding at the time of the accident, and that the the driver of the the Ford that turned infront of them was unexpected and unavoidable. By the way, I'm a huge James Dean fan and thats how I know all this info.
Here are some pitures of Dean's 550 Sypder with Red stripes on the rear. There were different colors used to signify different meanings for the drivers and car owners. Red meant engineer/mechanic, while yellow, green and blue were also used. I'm not sure what the other colors meant.

Dean also had the name "Little Bastard" painted on the back of his car. It was a nickname that the producer gave him while working on the set of Giant the movie. Dean felt it was a good name since his father told him one day that he may not be his real father, hence the nickname.

[Dr. Kill]

Originally Posted by porsche986spyder

By the way, I'm a huge James Dean fan and thats how I know all this info.

Is that why you drive a silver Boxster, or did you become a James Dean fan as some sort of result of driving a silver Boxster, or are the two items just unrelated?

[porsche986spyder]

Originally Posted by Dr. Kill

Is that why you drive a silver Boxster, or did you become a James Dean fan as some sort of result of driving a silver Boxster, or are the two items just unrelated?

Yep, I wanted the silver for that reason. But I was a Dean fan way before I bought my Boxster. And a die hard Porsche fan too. I wanted silver but actualy settled for the Metalic Seal Grey. I thought it was better looking and a little bit more modern of paint color. It's hard to tell the 2 colors apart from my pictures. Check out my earlier post. Shows Dean's race number and car replica paint sceme. Here is "The Last Ride" picture.

[Ronzi]

I don't know that we need to get into a battle of James Dean minutae, but Dean had actually had the 550 for a couple of weeks. Time enough for him to have been on several rides around Hollywood and the surrounding hills, and for him to have had a mishap that banged up the left front corner.
I agree he did pick it up from Competition Mtrs. on Sat. morning, but that was from preparation for the race, not the original purchase.
As I recall George Barris fixed the body damage at the same time that he painted "Little Bastard" on the tail. Note the missing left parking light lens, the remains of that incident.

[porsche986spyder]

Originally Posted by Ronzi

I don't know that we need to get into a battle of James Dean minutae, but Dean had actually had the 550 for a couple of weeks. Time enough for him to have been on several rides around Hollywood and the surrounding hills, and for him to have had a mishap that banged up the left front corner.
I agree he did pick it up from Competition Mtrs. on Sat. morning, but that was from preparation for the race, not the original purchase.
As I recall George Barris fixed the body damage at the same time that he painted "Little Bastard" on the tail. Note the missing left parking light lens, the remains of that incident.

Yes, your right. He had the car for a few weeks. I meant it was new as in the time frame that he owned it. He had just picked it up earlier that morning like you said after having the name painted on the back.