1955 Porsche Type 550 Spyder: Little Bastard or Giant Killer. As legend has it, the “Little Bastard” caused mayhem and death nearly everywhere it went.
On Sept. 30th, 1955, Hollywood star James Dean died in a tragic car accident at the age of 24. He was driving his new 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder Convertible, the “Little Bastard”. It had nicknam also the “Giant Killer” as it dominate races in the ’50s.
The Porsche 550 Spyder came powered by a 110-horsepower, sophisticated 1.5-liter flat-four cylinder, air-cooled, with dual overhead camshafts and a dry sump oiling system. The all-aluminum engine came mated to a synchronized four-speed manual transaxle that sent power to the rear wheels through a ZF locking type differential.
The car could reach speed of approximately 140 mph and could hit 60 mph in roughly seven seconds. That’s more than fast for sports cars back in the 1950s. The Porsche rides on a tube-frame chassis, hand-built buy the guys in Stuttgart. That, combined with the lightweight aluminum body, gave the car a curb weight of roughly 1,400 pounds.
The first three hand built prototypes came in a coupé with a removable hardtop. The first (550-03) raced as a roadster at the Nurburgring Eifel Race in May 1953 winning its first race. Later that year the 550 took class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana; the Carrera Panamericana win was commemorated with the Carrera branding for later Porsches with performance options.
From 1953 to 1957, the Porsche works team evolved and raced the 550 with outstanding success and was recognized wherever it appeared. The silver Werke cars were painted with spears of different colors on the rear fenders to aid recognition from the pits. Hans Herrmann’s particularly famous ‘red-tail’ car No 41 went from victory to victory. For such a limited number of 90 prototype and customer builds, the 550 Spyder was always in a winning position, usually finishing in the top three results in its class.
The 1956 version, the 550A with a lighter and more rigid spaceframe chassis, gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio. During this era Porsche was the first car manufacturer to get race sponsorship, which was through Fletcher Aviation, who Porsche was working with to design a light aircraft engine and later Telefunken and Castrol.
Overall, these lightweight Porsche 550 Spyders with their fine power-to-weight ratio and responsiveness shone in the 1100 and 1500cc classes of International racing through the mid-1950s and are eligible today for the majority of world-renowned Retro-type events, including the Mille Miglia, the Tour de France.
