1953 Porsche 550 Coupe

Porsche 550 Coupe

Porsche 550 Coupe

Porsche 550 Coupe

Porsche 550 Coupe

Porsche 550 Coupe

The first Porsche 550, outfitted with a Roadster body, had its racing debut at the Eiffel Races at Nurburging. Piloted by Helm Glockler, the Porsche immediately proved its capabilities. Unfortunately, the weather was poor and there were problems with a carburetor but it was not enough from keeping Glockler and the 550 from winning the race. Even with strong competition, its first race had been victorious. Porsche turned his sights onto the grueling but prestigious 24 Hours of LeMans endurance race.

LeMans is a high speed track and manufacturers often build custom bodies for their cars to take advantage of better aerodynamics to achieve higher speeds. Two cars were prepared by Porsche for the race, both with coupe bodies. They were entered into the 1101-1500 cc class and by the end of the race had easily beaten the competition. Overall, they had finished 15th and 16th. Porsche 550-02 driven by Richard Frankenberg and Paul Frere were awarded the class victory. The cars were later raced in two German competition events.

Ernst Furhmann continued on his engine development project, under strict direction to stay in the 1500 cc limit. He borrowed from one of his previous designs; a flat-12 engine used in the Cisitalia Grand Prix car. It had a large bore and a small stroke. Instead of using the overhead valve configuration of the 356's, he went with an overhead camshaft design where each set of two cylinders had two overhead camshafts driven by shafts. When the new engine was complete, it was placed in a new 550 chassis which had continued the evolution of design, strength, rigidity, and weight reduction. It was still a tubular frame but had been modified through knowledge gained from testing and racing. A new body was created, designed by Erwin Komenda and in similar fashion to the original bodies of the other 550's.

This newly developed 550 was first shown to the public at the 1953 Hockenheim Grand Prix where it was unable to match the speeds of the 550 Coupe. It was raced a week later at a hillclimb where it scored a respectable third place finish. A month later a fifth 550 was on display at the Paris Motorshow where it was accompanied by news that the 550 RS Spyder would soon enter production and be available in 1954. The show car had a few luxurious that were void on the other racers, such as a full windshield with wipers, seating for two, convertible top, and the convenience of a lockable glove-box. Porsche worked hard on getting the 550's ready for racing during 1953 and 1954. Near the close of 1954, the vehicles were ready. In the hands of capable privateers, the 550's quickly began amassing many victories often beating the larger engine competition. One of the owners of a 550 Spyder, serial number 550-0055, was the legendary James Dean who nicknamed his machine 'Little Bastard.' On September 30th, 1955 at the intersection of Highways 466 and 41, James Dean's life came to a close while driving the 550 Spyder