2008 Porsche RS Spyder

While touring "The Porsche Effect" exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum several years ago, the author's first reaction upon seeing this car was that it is "a modern race car," until one realizes that it was ten years old and therefore historical.

In 2005, Porsche and their long-time partner, Penske Racing entered into an agreement to race the Porsche-designed RS Spyder in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype Class 2) class of the North American American LeMans Series (ALMS). The Penske/Porsche RS Spyder competed for three full ALMS seasons – 2006, 2007, and 2008 - and dominated with 24 wins and nine championships.

The RS used a mid-engine longitudinally mounted carbon fiber moncoque chassis with double wishbone torsion bar pushrod suspension anti-roll bars and carbon fiber brakes at all four corners. 

The RS powerplant, the Porsche MR6, engine was a 207 cubic inch 90 degree DOHC double overhead camshaft V-8 with four valves per cylinder that developed 478 horsepower. The power was fed through to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox that like the engine was used as a stressed member.         

In the ten-race 2006 ALMS season, Penske Racing with their twin Porsche RS Spyders sponsored by the international package handling service DHL scored seven class wins and one overall win at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and claimed the LMP2 team and manufacturer championships. Sascha Maassen, the German driver of the #6 RS Spyder won the driver’s championship with Lucas Lohr, driver of Penske #7 RS Spyder the runner-up.

For the 2007 ALMS season all competitors raced with 10% E10 ethanol enrichment in their fuel tanks. The yellow and red DHL-sponsored Penske Porsche RS Spyders dominated the series, as in twelve races, they scored eight overall wins and three class wins. Penske repeated as the LMP2 team champion, Porsche again won the Chassis Manufacturers' and Automobile Manufacturers' Championship and Frenchman Romain Dumas won the drivers’ championship, as the Penske drivers captured the first four positions.

For 2008, Porsche added direct fuel injection and the output of the MR6 engine increased to 503 horsepower, although the ALMS required the LMP2 class cars to carry 55 pounds more weight than previous years. 

This car shown at “the Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum won the 12 hours of Sebring overall to mark Porsche’s 18th overall win and first overall win at Sebring since 1988 on the 20th anniversary since its last win. The first three cars all finished on the same lap, as this car - chassis #802 - driven by German Timo Bernhard, Dumas and fellow Frenchman Emmanuel Collard finished with a winning margin of one minute and two seconds.  

The Penske team also claimed an overall 2008 victory at Miller Motorsports Park, to go along with class wins at St. Petersburg Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta. Team Penske won the team LMP2 championship for the third consecutive year, as did Porsche with the manufacturer championship as Bernhard and Dumas shared the driver’s title. 

With the announcement of the 2009 ALMS requirement of restrictor plates on the Porsche at the end of the 2008 season, Penske Racing Inc. withdrew from ALMS competition with a total of 24 class wins and eleven overall race wins. The car shown at the Petersen exhibit remains part of the Team Penske collection.       

All photographs by the author

The Sauter Porsche – one of one

One car on display as part of the special single-marque exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum entitled ‘The Porsche Effect’ is this modified 1951 Porsche 356 known as the “Sauter Porsche.” While the car’s history does not include any major racing victories, it is a remarkable story and the significance of its impact on Porsche design is undeniable.

In 1951, Heinrich Sauter, the young heir of the German Hahn + Kolb toolmaking firm based in Stuttgart, purchased Porsche 356 cabriolet chassis #10359. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive 356 powered by an air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine was Porsche’s first post-war production car. Sauter’s car was powered by a 1300 cubic centimeter (CC) (79 cubic inch) engine advertised to develop 44 horsepower, plenty of power to push along the lightweight 1290-pound machine.

Sauter was a racer who competed mainly in hill climbs and rallies, and he wanted more performance so he contacted Karosserie (coachbuilder) Klenk in Frankfurt Germany to modify his 356. Klenk had close ties to the Porsche factory and installed a new larger Porsche 1500S (1500 CC or 91 cubic inches) engine which developed 55 horsepower, but the important change was the new steel low-profile bodywork.

 

 

 

With input from the factory, Klenk built a body with “suicide” (front opening) doors, a new panel to fill in for the missing convertible top, air ducts to cool the front brakes, small competition windscreens, ducts at the rear to allow air out of the engine compartment and an external fuel tank filler.      

Records indicate that Sauter raced the car sparingly before his sold it back to the Porsche factory and during 1952 it was raced across Europe by Frenchman Francois Picard, before it was sold to American Jack Armstrong. Armstrong shipped the car to the Unified States and it was raced on the West Coast in 1953 by Stan Mullin in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) events at Santa Barbara and Long Beach. Armstrong himself drove the Sauter 356 at the August 1953 races held at Moffett Field Naval Air Station near Mountain View California.

 

 

 

By the time of the SCCA Orange Empire National Sports Car Races held at March Air Field in November 1953, Mullin and Armstrong were listed as partners in the ownership of the special-bodied Porsche. Mullin became the owner/driver in 1954, and after a single appearance at the March races held at Minter Field in Shafter California, the Sauter Porsche dropped from sight.

 

Porsche factory photo of a 356 America

 

While not a great success on the racetrack, the ground-breaking styling of the Sauter Porsche inspired three subsequent Porsche 356 designs. In 1952, Porsche built a small series (less than 25) of cars destined for the North American market known as the “356 America Roadster.” Clad with an aluminum body built by Dresden-based Gläser-Karosserie with cut-down doors and a removable windshield, the “America” a true roadster with no permanent top or roll-up windows weighed 1330 pounds. However, the cost of production was higher than expected and reportedly coachbuilder Glaser lost money on each body. In the end the high-priced stripped down racing “America” sports car was a dismal commercial failure.  

 

 

 

In late 1954 in his New York City showroom designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Porsche importer/dealer Max Hoffman unveiled the iconic “356 Speedster” which featured the design elements shown in the Sauter Porsche, namely a 1500 CC engine, a stripped down interior with no roll-up side windows and a cut-down windshield. Equipped with a minimal convertible top,  the “Speedster” was an immediate hit with over 4,100 Porsche 356 and 356A Speedsters built before production ended in 1959.

The Speedster appealed particularly to Hollywood celebrities. Before he traded it in on his Porsche 550 Spyder death car, actor James Dean owned and raced a white 1955 Porsche 1500 Super Speedster, chassis # 80126, and won one race at Palm Springs in March of 1955. “The King of Cool” Steve McQueen owned and raced a black 1959 Porsche 1600 Super Speedster serial number 84855 equipped with Rudge alloy knock-off wheels and won a SCCA novice race at the Goleta airport course on Memorial Day 1959.

 

 

The final Porsche production car that can trace its origins back to the Sauter Porsche is the 1955 Porsche Continental, the brainchild of North American Porsche importer Max Hoffman who thought that a plusher Porsche would appeal to the American market. In addition to a plusher interior and high-quality convertible top, the bodywork of the Continental, built by Stuttgart’s’ Karosserie Reutter, was accented by “Continental” in gold script on the front fenders, “turbine style” wheel covers and whitewall tires.  Within the first year however, the name of the car was changed to “European” reportedly after the Ford Motor Company explained that they held the rights to the “Continental” trademark for automobiles.    

The history of the Sauter Porsche itself fast forwards to 1982 when an Indianapolis physician Dr. Ray Knight bought a strange “Porsche/Volkswagen hybrid” from a rural eastern Indiana junkyard. Reportedly the car had been stored outside since 1958 and was fitted with an incorrect albeit blown engine, but Knight paid $4,500 for the car and then set out to research its history and restore the car.

Knight tracked down the car’s provenance through interviews with Sauter, Klenk and Mullin and spent nearly 4,000 man-hours to bring the car up to the level of finish we see today. Several years ago Knight sold the car to collector Phil White, and Dr. Knight donated half of the “high six figure” proceeds to his alma mater Wabash College. Under Mr. White’s ownership the Sauter Porsche won an award as the “best open 356” at the Porsche Club of America 2017 Werks Reunion in Monterey California.  

Color photographs by the author

A historic Porsche 917K

For the 1970 season, the world motorsports governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) designated that Group 4 Sports Cars with maximum engine capacity of 5 liters (305 cubic inches) would contest the FIA's International Championship for Makes in 1970 & 1971.

 

Author's copy of an original 917 brochure

 

The Porsche racing department designed and built the 917 in just nine months and on March 12, 1969, a 917 was displayed to the public at the Geneva Motor Show. Qualifying  manufacturers had to build 25 examples (down from the original 50), and on April 20 1969 Porsche displayed a line of 25 completed 917s which met the new FIA regulations with two seats, a luggage compartment, spare tire, turn signals, turn-key ignition, and a horn.

 

The 917 was designed by Porsche chief engineer Hans Mezger using a lightweight aluminum spaceframe chassis which weighs less than 100 pounds. Power came from a new 4.5-liter (274 cubic inch) air-cooled engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, with twin overhead camshafts and two spark plugs per cylinder fed from twin distributors. The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was driven from centrally mounted gears.

 

 

Porsche’s first 12-cylinder engine produced 520 horsepower at 8000 revolutions per minute and used and aluminum crankcase and cylinder heads along with the use of such exotic materials as titanium (for the connecting rods) and magnesium. To keep the car compact despite the large engine and longitudinal transmission, the driver’s position is so far forward that the driver’s feet are ahead of the front axle. The entire machine fueled and ready to race weighs less than 1800 pounds.

 

Details of the original 917 tail designs

 

In testing the original design of the 917 proved to be, at least according to test driver Brian Redman "incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed,” while fellow test driver Jo Siffert reported that the car “is not only unstable, but it is frankly dangerous.” The 917’s results during the 1969 racing season were disappointing so for 1970 J.W. Automotive Engineering (JWA) became the Porsche factory racing and development team.

Run by John Willment and his partner John Wyer who had won the 24 hours of LeMans as a team manager three times in 1959, 1968, and 1969 the team had sponsorship from the Gulf Oil Company.  In early testing of the unstable 917, the JWA engineers created a new wedge shaped tail, called the ‘kurzer shwanz‘ or ‘short tail’ which transformed the car’s handling and this revised car became known as the 917K.  

The new Porsche 917K raced for the first time at the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona held on the 3.8-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. This car, chassis 917-015 (race number 2) assigned to Mexican driver Pedro Rodriquez and Finnish driver Leo Kinnunen, qualified third behind their JWA team car (race number 1) driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman.   

 

The blue and orange #2 Porsche 917K took the race lead 2 hours and 35 minutes into the event and never relinquished the lead, and completed 724 laps (a new record) 45 laps ahead of the #1 Porsche 917K. In an interesting twist, Redman wound up driving both the first and second place cars, as he drove one stint in place of Kinnunen.   

The Gulf Porsche 917Ks dominated the 1970 International Championship for Makes, as they won six of the ten rounds; Rodriquez and Kinnunen won four races, while Siffert and Redman won two rounds. At the crown jewel of the series, the 24 hours of LeMans, while the JW team did not win, but a 917K won, entered by the Porsche racing department and driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Hermann.  

Porsche 917Ks returned for 1971, the second and final year of the FIA rules package, and one again were dominant, as they won six of the eleven races and were again crowned the International Makes champion. The JW Gulf Porsches won five 1971 rounds, but fell short again at LeMans and finished second to a similar Porsche 917K entered by Martini & Rossi Racing.  

The 1970 Daytona 24-hour winner chassis 917-015 shown as part of ‘The Porsche Effect’ exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum was restored and is owned by Bruce Canepa of Scotts Valley California.   For more detailed photographs of this immaculate machine visit http://canepa.com/museum/1969-porsche-917k-015/


Color photographs by the author

 

Porsche 917/30 – “the Can-Am killer”

After John Surtees drove a Lola to the inaugural 1966 season championship for the Johnson Wax-sponsored SCCA Canadian-American Challenge (Can-Am) series, the series for FIA Group 7 racing machines was dominated for the next five seasons by Team McLaren in their orange Chevrolet-powered rockets.  

 

 

Then as now, Porsche, the German sports car manufacturer sold a large percentage of its production in North America, had made previous attempts at competing in the Can-Am series with a spyder (open-top) short-tail version of the 908 sports car for driver Tony Dean in 1969 and 1970.

 

In 1969 the 183-cubic inch flat six powered 908 was part of a two-car factory effort and the following year Dean himself was the entrant of the 908.  Dean in the 908 emerged as the surprise winner of the seventh round of the 1970 Can-Am series at Road Atlanta after four separate accidents eliminated the leaders. 

In the latter stages of the 1969 Can-Am season, in addition to the 908 entry the Porsche factory entered a spyder version of the new 917 sports car, known as the 917 PA that was driven by Swiss driver Jo Siffert. The 917 PA consistently placed in the top five finishers but being heavier and with “just” 580 horsepower as it was typically two seconds a lap slower and never in the hunt for victory versus the mighty big-block powered McLarens and Lolas.   

Porsche tried again with the revised bright red 917/10 spyder with STP Oil Treatment sponsorship for the 1971 Can-Am series. Powered by a naturally aspirated 305-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine the 917/10 finished in the top five positions in all six races that it appeared in, but it remained heavier and underpowered compared to its competition. That would change for the 1972 season, as the Porsche factory partnered with Team Penske, led by driver and engineer Mark Donohue.

Donohue and the Porsche developed an improved version of the Porsche 917/10 powered by the twin-turbocharged 330-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine that could develop over 1100 horsepower in qualifying trim. The #6 car with sponsorship from the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company’s L&M cigarette brand, won the pole position for at the opening race at Mosport Park and dominated the early stages of the race until Donohue pitted with engine problems.

With the problems solved, Donohue returned to the track three laps down then stormed back to finish second to finish on the same lap as winner Denny Hulme’s McLaren. After Donohue was injured in a pre-race test crash before the series’ next race at Road Atlanta, he was replaced by George Follmer who won five of the remaining eight races and the 1972 SCCA Can-Am championship while Donohue, recovered from his injuries, won one race in his twin 917/10.

Although the McLaren juggernaut had been vanquished in 1972 and McLaren had quit the series, for the 1973 Can-Am season Porsche and Team Penske continued their development program and built the most powerful racing car ever built to that time.  The 917/30 was bigger and faster in every aspect compared to the 1972 racer with a longer and aerodynamically efficient body and an engine that developed up to 1500 horsepower for qualifying.

 

 

 

Mark Donohue and the Sunoco-sponsored 917/30 won six of the season’s eight races, finished second once and won the championship in dominant fashion over his ex-teammate Follmer and Charlie Kemp who drove the former Penske 917/10 cars for Rinzler Racing with RC Cola sponsorship.  

 

 

 

The Porsche 917’s back-to-back domination of the series combined with the nationwide gasoline shortage led the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) to introduce a rule requiring 3-miles per gallon maximum fuel consumption for the series for 1974.  The new rule worked as Porsche withdrew from further Can-Am competition.

 

Without Porsche and Penske racing, competitor and fan interest ebbed and five races into the 1974 season, the SCCA cancelled the Can-Am series. Although the Can-Am series had already lost teams and spectators through the years, the death of the series was blamed on Porsche’s domination, and the 917/30 was branded “the Can-Am killer.”  Penske and Donohue saw it as another example of applying their “Unfair Advantage.”

The history of the 917/30 is worth reviewing. A total of six chassis were eventually built, but only three cars were actually raced in period, and only two of those competed in blue and yellow Sunoco colors. All six cars remain in existence and today five of them are painted in the Sunoco colors. 

The first car built, serial number #001 built during 1972 featured an adjustable wheelbase and served as the factory test car. In 1973 #001 was raced three times in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship (the European version of the Can-Am series) and scored a victory at Hockhenheim Germany driven by of Vic Elford. It raced again in 1975 and won at Hockenheim driven by Herbert Mueller. It is part of the Porsche factory collection, painted as it appeared in 1975 in sponsor’s Martini & Rossi colors of silver, red white and blue.

917/30 chassis serial number #002 was one of two cars built for use by Team Penske and Mark Donohue in the 1973 Can-Am challenge series. Donohue drove it to his first 1973 Can-Am victory in the third round of the season at Watkins Glen.

 

Serial #002 was later seriously damaged in a testing crash then was completely rebuilt and served as the Penske backup for the remainder of the 1973 season. After the Can-Am program had ended chassis serial number 002 was returned to Porsche and it has since been part of the factory museum collection. 

 

 

 

The car on display at “The Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum, chassis 917/30 #003 is the most historically significant as it was the most successful, driven by Mark Donohue to six consecutive victories in the 1973 SCCA Can-Am series.

 

 

 

Mark won both heats at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, followed by a win at Road America (where he won the pole position by over three seconds), Edmonton International Speedway, Laguna Seca Raceway (where he won by a lap) and the season finale  at Riverside International Raceway.

With the withdrawal of Penske and Porsche from the 1974 Can-Am series following the SCCA fuel mileage rule change, the car sat in Penske’s Pennsylvania shop until 1975 when the bodywork was modified and painted in red and white to represent its sponsorship from “Cam 2” motor oil (a new hobbyist oil from Sun Oil Company) for Mark Donohue’s attempt to break the world’s closed course speed record.

In preliminary testing at Daytona International Speedway, the team broke the original 330-cubic inch engine as they discovered that the mighty flat-12 engine was not designed for sustained wide open throttle operation.  This meant they had to use the smaller 305-cubic inch engine from 1972, and with help from Porsche engineers, massive intercoolers were fitted to cool the charge air. 

The track chosen for the record attempt was the 2.66-mile long Talladega Motor Speedway oval in Alabama. Donohue, who had returned to driving after a short retirement of eight months, cut short his first attempt due to an engine wiring fire that destroyed the rear bodywork.

 

After overnight repairs, Donohue’s second attempt the following day on August 9th, 1975 in rainy and windy conditions opened with a lap of 195 miles per hour (MPH) from a standing start, followed by a 220.027 MPH lap, then on his third lap he set a new closed course standard of 211.160 MPH, with a recorded trap speed on the long back straightaway of 240 MPH.

 

 

 

The team expected faster lap speeds, but Donohue confessed after the run "I might have gone a little faster, too, but I got chicken," as he cited the weather conditions. Ten days later Donohue was killed in an accident while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix, but his speed record stood for 11 years until it broken by Penske IndyCar driver Rick Mears, who reset the record at 233.924 MPH at Michigan International Speedway. 

In 1976 Porsche chassis 917/30-003 was sold to noted American collector and Los Angeles Times owner/publisher Otis Chandler who had the car returned to its 1973 Can-Am appearance as part of his extensive collection. Following Chandler’s death, the car changed hands several times, and within the last few years it was purchased by  investment banker racer and NASCAR team owner Rob Kauffman who had chassis serial #003 recently meticulously restored by Canepa Motorsports of Scotts Valley California.

Chassis 917/30 #004 was under construction intended for use for the 1974 Can-Am season, but became obsolete following Porsche and Penske's withdrawal from the Can-Am series. It was sold as an unpainted car to long-time Porsche racer and Melbourne Australia Porsche dealer Alan Hamilton who displayed it in his showroom and later sold the car back to the Porsche factory in 1991. Porsche had #004 painted in the Sunoco livery and fitted with a rebuilt engine which reportedly produced 1,200 horsepower during a dynamometer test. At one time 917/30 chassis # 004 was owned by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.  

Chassis 917/30 #005 was never completed as work stopped with the termination of the program. In 1979, it was found at the Weissach factory as a bare chassis by Florida Porsche/Audi dealer and Porsche collector Gerry Sutterfield. After the factory’s discovery of a mislabeled 917 engine in storage and the exchange of a huge sum of money Porsche completed the car for Sutterfield and was delivered painted white with the Porsche logos. 917/30 chassis serial #005 was used for a track test that was published in the March 1982 issue of  Motor Trend magazine, and a subsequent owner had it painted in its current Sunoco livery.

Chassis 917/30-006 the final chassis was acquired by legendary Porsche dealer Vasek Polak in 1982 along with existing parts were after he found sufficient parts to complete the car in 1995 and had it painted as it might have appeared in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship. The car has since been painted in “Cam 2” motor oil livery to resemble the 1975 record attempt 917/30 serial number 003. 

Color photos by the author

 

An original Porsche 550 Spyder

The “Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum certainly would not have been complete without the inclusion of this example of the Porsche 550 Spyder, Porsche’s first production race car.

Inspired by the success of the Helm Glockler racing team's success with their Porsche 356, the Porsche factory began to develop a production racing car as project number 550 under the leadership of factory engineer Wilhelm Hild. In addition to later working on the development of the Porsche 911 passenger car, Hild also oversaw the Porsche 804 Formula One Grand Prix program as the manager of the competition department.   

1953 Paris Motor Show

Courtesy 550.com

The prototype Porsche 550 Spyder was first shown to the public in October 1953 at the Mondial de l'Automobile) (World of the Automobile) also known as the Paris Motor Show. Before the show, an internal Porsche memorandum announced that “this is the first time we are presenting a racing car that is not for sale as the main attraction at a motor show. Whether the cars will be delivered in small numbers to special customers for racing depends on next year’s racing season. We are therefore not able to quote a price today.”

Two 550 Coupes with bodies built by Karosseriewerk (body shop) Weidenhausen in Frankfurt were entered for the 1953 LeMans 24-hour endurance race and they both completed 247 laps and finished first and second in the 1.5 liter class. Later in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana (Mexican Road Race) two 550 coupes and two spyders were entered in the 1.6 liter and smaller sports car class. Both spyders and one of the coupes failed to finish, but the remaining coupe won its class albeit nearly six hours of accumulated time behind the winning Lancia D24 driven by Juan Fangio which was equipped with an engine twice the size of the Porsche engine.

The first two production Porsche 500 cars differed from their successors in a number of ways, primarily insofar as they were powered by modified Volkswagen 1500 Super engines. The third car, 500-003 was fitted with a new 1.5-liter, four-camshaft, four-cylinder engine equipped with two spark plugs per cylinder and twin down-draft carburetors.  Designed by Ernst Fuhrmann, the flat engine known as the 547 project developed 110 horsepower plenty of power for the 1400-pound car.

The chassis was built of seamless steel tubing with four-wheel fully independent torsion bar suspension with drum brakes and 16-inch Continental tires covered by an all-aluminum alloy body. The early series 550 Porsches were fitted with “flat-front” noses and exaggerated tail fins built by either the Weidenhausen or Weinsberg coach builders, but starting with chassis 550-016, all the sloped-front, smooth-tail bodies were built by Wendler in Reutlingen Germany. Eventually at total  of 90 production model 550s were built - three coupes and 87 spyders.  

Throughout history, Porsche 550 Spyders have attracted celebrity ownership; Ralph Lauren owns the restored chassis # 550-0061, while comedian Jerry Seinfeld reportedly owns several Porsche including #550-003 coupe, and he sold the unrestored # 550-0060 at auction in 2016 for over $5 million.

However the most famous (an infamous) Porsche 550 Spyder was chassis # 550-0055 finished in silver with red trim and red interior was delivered to actor James Dean on September 21, 1955.  Dean traded in his white Porsche 356 Speedster towards the purchase of the new machine at John von Neumann's Competition Motors on Vine Street in Hollywood.  

Dean took his new 550 Spyder to the shop of custom painter Dean Jeffries who applied the provisional race number 130 in washable black paint on the doors and across the front and rear of the car. Jeffries also painted “Little Bastard” in script across the lower rear deck lid - this was not the nickname of the car, rather it was nickname adopted by Dean, allegedly after Jack Warner the head of the Warner Brothers studio called him a “little bastard” after Dean refused to vacate a temporary trailer on the Warner lot after the completion of the filming of ‘East of Eden.’

In his first week of ownership, Dean had two minor incidents which dented the front of his new Porsche, then on September 30 1955 while enroute to the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) sanctioned Salinas Optimist Club race at the Salinas Airport, Dean struck another car head-on at the junction of Route 466 and Route 41 near Cholame, California. Dean just 24 years old with only three motion pictures to his credit was killed instantly.  

Dean’s wrecked Porsche was purchased for $876 from Dean’s insurance company, Pacific Indemnity,  by amateur racer Dr. William Eschrich, who stripped the wreckage of its type 547 engine, transmission, steering, brakes and other mechanical parts, then sold the body shell and frame to famed Hollywood automotive customizer George Barris.

The Dean death car on display

courtesy of 550.com

After partially straightening the body, the “King of Kustomizers” realized the car was beyond restoration and he loaned the mangled body shell to the National Safety Council for display at car shows the across the United States in order to raise motorists' awareness about highway safety with a sign entitled "this accident could have been avoided."  The hulk of Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder disappeared in 1960 while it was being transported from Miami, Florida, back to Barris’ shop near Los Angeles and it has never been seen again.  

The car shown at the Petersen Automotive Museum is the final production Porsche 550 Spyder, chassis #550-090, built in 1956. The car’s first owner was Willet H. Brown, a pioneer in television broadcasting who had operated the Hillcrest Motor Company Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills before he joined Don Lee, Incorporated, a broadcasting and automotive conglomerate. Brown, who in 1956 owned the Los Angeles television station KCAL, sold the car after he had driven it a scant 634 miles.

a scanned excerpt of the author's copy

of the June 1971 Road &Track article

After passing through several hands, the 550 Spyder wound up on the sales lot of Hermosa Beach Porsche dealer Vasek Polak in 1963 where it was purchased by a man known only as “Hank.” George Sebald who ran a body shop which specialized in Porsche repairs later purchased the car in 1967 with the intention of restoring it.  Sebald’s unrestored 550 was the subject of a ‘salon’ article in the June 1971 issue of Road & Track magazine as it was test driven by retired racer Paul “Richie” Ginther, who had won a number of SCCA West Coast Championship races in 1956 driving one of dealer John von Neumann’s 550 Spyders.     

Sebald realized the tremendous originality of the car and later “flipped” Porsche # 550-090 to another owner who then sold the car to the noted Porsche collector George Reilly for a reported $4,500, and Reilly owned the car for nearly thirty years. In 2010 the car appeared at shows with its ownership attributed to Indian liquor billionaire and Formula one team owner Dr. Vijay Mallya, and became part of his 30-car museum in Sausalito California.

Because it never raced, it never needed any repairs, thus Porsche # 550-090 is so true to the appearance it had the day that it rolled out of the factory that it has been used as a reference for other 550 Spyder restorations. Although the paint finish is spotty and discolored and the aluminum bodywork has a few waves and dings, it is totally original, which is why it fetched nearly $6 million dollars when sold at auction in 2016.

All color photos by the author  

A pair of real race cars at the Petersen

During a summertime 2017 tour of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, the author photographed a pair of nineteen seventies real race cars. 

This McLaren M8F represents what the author considers the pinnacle of American road racing, the Canadian-American Challenge Cup for group 7 race cars, basically no rules racing. In 1971, the author, then a teenager, pleaded with his father for weeks to attend the Valvoline Can-Am race in August at the Mid-Ohio sports car course. 

The author was thrilled when Denny Hulme qualified his #5 McLaren M8F powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet big-block engine for the pole position, but was disappointed when the mighty McLaren broke its drive line on the pace lap and never raced. 

Hulme and his teammate Peter Revson battled Jackie Stewart in the weird box-like Lola T260 all season long, and no racer besides those three men won any of the ten Can-Am races held in 1971. Stewart won two races that included Mid-Ohio, while Hulme won three races. Peter Revson won five races and was crowned the Can-Am champion.

This McLaren M8F example part of the Museum's permanent collection was restored by Canepa Motorsports of Scotts Valley California. 

In 1976, regular race fans could watch a Formula 1 grand prix race without confusion; the Ferrari is powered by a 183-cubic inch flat 12 cylinder engine connected to a transverse mounted five-speed gearbox. There was no carbon fiber, electro-hydraulic shifted transmissions, DRS wings, or  two-way communication with the "strategist" of the modern Formula One, just drivers that drove like hell. 

This Ferrari 312T2 represents the car defending world champion Niki Lauda drove that season, thus it carried the number 1. Even casual fans know the story of the 1976 season due to the success of the motion picture Rush.  Lauda nearly burned to death in a crash in Germany but returned to action after he missed two races six weeks later at Italy and finished fourth. 

Lauda won five races to James Hunt's six and lost the World Championship to Hunt by a single point after he withdrew after three laps in the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. Citing the danger of racing in a downpour, as Lauda later said "my life is worth more than a title."  Lauda returned with the 312T2  in 1977 and won the second of his three world championships.    

This Ferrari  312T2 is part of the exhibit "Seeing Red: 70 years of Ferrari" in the Bruce Meyer gallery through April 2018.   

Photos by the author 

3/4 (TQ) midgets at the Petersen

The Richard Varner Gallery  of the Petersen Automotive Museum has a current exhibition through 2018 entitled "Harley vs. Indian." The author really isn't a motorcycle guy, but the exhibit featured a pair of  early 3/4 (TQ) midgets, powered by (as you might have guessed) Harley Davidson and Indian engines. The Harley powered car was emblazoned "Half a Harley" so its safe to assume that the Indian TQ midget was also a single-cylinder power plant adapted from a motorcycle.

Click to enlarge these photos of the Harley TQ

 

 

Click to enlarge these photos of the Indian TQ

 

 

The author took these photographs and welcomes more information on either or both of these cars at kevracerhistory@aol.com