♔ ‘First, it killed a Hollywood icon. Then it went on tour.’
James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder – Cursed, or Just Unlucky?
The Beginning of the End
James Dean bought a Porsche 550 Spyder on 21 September 1955. Nicknames it Little Bastard.
Nine days later, he’s killed while driving it to Salinas for a race. High speed. Head-on collision. A tragedy… but it should’ve ended there.
The Haunting Begins
The car is declared a write-off, but the parts live on.
The engine goes into a Lotus IX, and the suspension ends up in another Porsche.
Both new drivers crashed in the same race.
One dies. One survives.
(Read on…..)
James Dean’s Porsche didn’t just kill him. It kept going.
Parts reused. Drivers injured. One hit the only tree on the racetrack.
A tyre blew out on another.
The car body injured a bystander.
Then it fell and killed the truck driver transporting it.
Cursed? Coincidence? Or just an unlucky little bastard?
Further Mayhem
The wreck is loaned to a safety campaign.
The tyres? Sold off—both explode, simultaneously, in yet another crash.
The chassis falls off the display twice. One-time injuries. One-time kills.
The Vanishing Act
In 1960, en route from Miami to LA, the car vanishes. Poof. Gone. Never seen again.
Except for one part — a transaxle, found in a crate in rural Massachusetts. Of course.
The Verdict
Bad luck? Urban myth? Or something darker?
You decide.
♔ ‘They called it Little Bastard. In hindsight, that feels generous.’
