So I'm driving up PCH today and I see this little silver number in front of me. It was hard to catch up to the guy.

 

Liz,

I drove that all the way up from San Francisco when I first bought my Lex. Beautiful drive, but I did want off about half way because I was getting soo motion sick!!

Jonny

 

Well.....maybe movie star James Dean and his Porsche Speedster really didn't have that fatal accident in California back in 1954 after all. Maybe it was all a publicity stunt.

 

Maybe I'm spoiled living in Cali cos I saw a lot of nice cars today: Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, etc...and I ignored them all but this one caught my eye. I wish I was able to take better/more pictures for you all. My crappy camera phone was unable to catch the glimmer of sun on the car. That pure silver color is hard to get nowadays. And the guy was hauling azz too, nice to see the car really driven like it should be. Usually they just cruise at speed limit or less. Put a smile on my face.

 

I may be wrong but isn't that a Porsche 356, and not the Porsche 550 Spyder that James Dean died in?

 

True....but they are rather difficult to tell from a distance. If you can easily tell them apart you have better eyes than I do. The pictures I've seen of JD's car before it was totalled are quite similiar to the shot that Liz took....even the silver color.

 

The spyder is quite different than either the regular 356 or the speedster.

 

I can't tell the older ones apart, but it had "Speedster" on the side, but he could have added that himself I suppose. Either way that car was hawt.

 

MMmarshall,

Look at the website referenced and you will see a striking difference. The reason that I am so sure of this is a friend who is a fanatic Porshe collector has a 550 Spyder in addition to approximately 50 other Porsches including a Porsche tractor.

http://www.allsportauto.com/english/...78&zl_idMD=912

 

Nice find Liz, but please be carefull

 

Apparantly we're both right...he owned a 356 and a 550....bought them both in 1955. And they do, as you say, look different. Perhaps I confused Spyder and Speedster..it's possible.
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...james+dean+356

I may have been off one year on his death, though.....and that is where it gets confusing. Some accounts say he died in 1954...others 1955. From these sites, 1955 appears more obvious.

 

Drivin' up the PCH is always great!

My homie had a Porsche Speedster that he was going to restore. He got it for like 5g's but the motor was in a crate and the rest of the car needed alot of work. He had to get rid of the car since he underestimated the cost of the resources it would take to restore the thing so he flipped it about 2 yrs ago for 10 g's...came up 5G's but I would have rather he saved money and restored it.

 

Thanks.

 

ACK! Don't tell me that or you'll burst my bubble.

I guess it is a possibility, it was very clean.

 

Seize, if it was a matching numbers vehicle, I would have never sold it! Even a Speedster kit car is over $20k...