Thread by @iowahawkblog

How's this for a barn (OK, container) find? After 35 years in storage, 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder chassis # 0069 (nice). Hat tip to my pal @oldcrowspeed who found the 550 and is seen here bringing it out of its tomb into the sunlight.

btw for you non-car people, the Porsche 550 Spyder is (sadly) best known as James Dean's "Little Bastard" death car. Dean's 550 was VIN 550-0055, built 14 cars ahead on the Stuttgart assembly line.

oddly enough James Dean died in 1955, in a Porsche 550, serial #550-0055.

I guess you could say that James Dean.... can't drive 55.

I'll show myself out now

no, it was a fairly small 1950 Ford making a left turn, and Dean basically hit him head on, almost vaporizing the 550. The 550 was an insanely light car at ~1200 pounds, not much more than full dress Harley.

https://twitter.com/WellspringGP/status/1381011274738241538

You can't repeal the laws of physics. Btw, the only remaining verifiable piece of Dean's car - the transaxle - was recently discovered. At least I think it was, as there have been a couple of scam and/or mistaken IDs over the year.

Here's the transaxle, and the case stamping matches with Porsche factory assembly records for Dean's chassis #0055.

George Barris reportedly bought the mangled aluminum body, but it would be nigh impossible to prove its provenance at this point.

hagerty.com/media/news/jam….

btw, if you see one of these things lying around with the number 90 059 stamped on it, you can look forward to a comfortable retirement.