Porsche 550

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Porsche 550 Spyder

Porsche 550 RS

The Porsche 550 was a sports car automobile produced by Porsche during the 1950s.

Inspired by a small Porsche 356 Spyder which was created and raced by Walter Glöckler in 1951, the factory decided to build such a car, being its first designed specifically for use in auto racing. The 550 is very low to the ground, in order to be efficient for racing. In fact, former German Formula One racer Hans Herrmann drove it under closed railroad crossing gates during the 1954 Mille Miglia

The 550 became known as Spyder or RS, and gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio.

Its successor from 1957 onwards, the Porsche 718, was even more successful, scoring points in Formula One as late as 1963. A descendant of the Porsche 550 is generally considered to be the Porsche Boxster S 550 Spyder; the Spyder name was effectively resurrected with the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype.

The Porsche 550 "Little Bastard" is well known as the car in which James Dean died.^[1]

[edit] Replicas

The 550 is among the most frequently reproduced classic automobiles, like the Shelby Cobra and Lotus Seven. Several companies have sprung up in the last 25 years, some of which build near-exact replicas from the ground up, including spaceframes built to exacting specs from Porsche blueprints. Some of the companies that make replicas are Boulder Speedster, Chuck Beck Motorsports, Automotive Legends, Chamonix do Brasil, Thunder Ranch, and Vintage Spyders.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Porsche 550 Spyder

• Spyder club
• The Best Porsche
• (English) (German) Solitude Memorial