On September 30, 1955, while traveling to a race meeting in his “Little Bastard” Porsche 550 Spyder, James Dean’s career as an actor and racing driver was cruelly ended.
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Dean received a speeding ticket from a California Highway patrolman during the trip up north. Later, he met fellow Southern California racer Lance Reventlow, the trust-fund kid who would later construct the Scarab race cars, at a cafe along the way. Dean told fellow SoCal racer Bruce Kessler that he had cranked the Porsche up to 120 mph before departing. A Ford sedan was almost head-on-crashed into as it made a left turn across traffic less than an hour later, close to the no-stoplight town of Cholame.
The impact probably certainly caused Dean’s death. Wutherich, who was thrown from the cockpit, was severely hurt. Photos taken on the site demonstrate how badly damaged the Porsche was. Barris soon started presenting a little more aesthetically damaged Spyder at auto events with a sign that said “James Dean’s Last Sports Car” though.
According to Raskin, Barris’ car “was patched together using sheets of metal.”
Barris claimed to have purchased the vehicle from Dean’s relatives. He claimed that as it was being unloaded at his shop, it collapsed on a mechanic, breaking both of his legs. Dr. Troy McHenry purchased the engine from Barris after which he was killed when the automobile he was racing collided with a tree. (Barris said that a different physician who used a transaxle taken from a Spyder accidently became paralyzed.) Barris claimed that the car toppled off a stand and broke a teenager’s hip after it was modified to display at safety demonstrations. A few weeks later, the automobile is said to have fallen off the trailer while being transported, killing the truck driver. Other stories included those of a robber who fractured his arm while attempting to steal the steering wheel and a mechanic who shattered another leg when a car door came loose.
It should be noted that Barris was a consummate showman and ruthless promoter. Raskin is certain that the majority of his claims are erroneous, and several of them have been proven to be so. Raskin claims that instead of Barris, a local doctor and club racer named William Eschrich purchased the 550’s broken corpse. Eschrich salvaged what he could and destroyed the chassis. (Raskin thinks the original engine is still with Eschrich’s son.)
Raskin speculates that Barris’s car was “cobbled together with sheets of aluminum” and then battered with 2x4s to make it appear as though it had been in an accident, even though the front boot and rear desk lid appeared to be authentic.
Before being purchased thirty years ago by Jack Styles, the veteran parts manager at the renowned Paul Russell restoration business, the original transaxle passed through a number of hands. Styles sold the item to Porsche trader and collector Don Ahearn last year, who listed it on BaT. 1,345 people commented on the listing, and the highest bid, a dismal (!) $382,000, was received. But an even bigger shock came from learning who the buyer was.
Zak Bagans, the winning bidder, calls himself “a pioneer in the paranormal area.” Dr. Jack Kervorkian’s alleged “death van” is one of his showpiece exhibits at the Haunted Museum he owns in Las Vegas. The “curse” transaxle should blend in seamlessly.
Raskin declares, “It’s going to be a weird show.” George Barris must be giggling in the afterlife.
Has the Long-Missing Porsche Spyder of James Dean’s Mystery Been Solved?
One of the most enduringly intriguing mysteries surrounding vintage cars may soon be explained.
On September 30, 1955, while driving along Route 466 near Cholame with a buddy, legendary actor James Dean collided head-on with a 1950 Ford Tudor coupe being operated by 23-year-old college student Donald Turnipseed. Dean’s car was flipped into the air due to the impact’s extreme velocity. Dean was trapped inside with a fractured neck when it crashed back onto its wheels in a gully. The rising celebrity passed away while being taken to the hospital.
Dean’s Porsche, known as “Little Bastard,” had been modified by Dean Jeffries, a great pinstriper, and George Barris, the renowned creator of the Batmobile and the Munster Koach. Barris’ shop was right next to Jeffries’. Barris bought the car’s wreckage after the collision and frequently lends it to the California Highway Patrol for use in exhibits meant to deter speeding. Later, he sold the engine, the chassis, and the two remaining tires to a young New Yorker who was also an avid racer. The Little Bastard engine and chassis were used in the cars that the two doctors raced on October 21, 1956. One lost control and crashed into a tree, instantly killing the driver. Additionally, it was alleged that the young New Yorker’s car’s two tires burst simultaneously, sending the vehicle careening into a ditch.
But Little Bastard’s unexplained abduction from a locked container while being shipped from Miami to Los Angeles in 1960 was the most puzzling turn of events. In 2005, Chicago’s Volo Auto Museum made a public offer to purchase the automobile from whoever owned it for $1 million as part of an exhibition commemorating Dean’s passing on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Since then, all but one of the advice have been dead ends.
A contact was made to the museum a few months ago from a guy in Whatcom County, Washington, who claimed to have seen the car being concealed behind a building’s fake wall when he was a young boy in the 1960s. Officials at the museum requested that the man undergo a polygraph test to ensure that they weren’t being sent phantom chasing. He did, and he succeeded brilliantly.
While attorneys sort out all the relevant issues, authorities are keeping the man’s identity and that of the building where Dean’s fabled automobile is purportedly hidden a secret. After more than 60 years since the horrific death of its illustrious owner, Little Bastard’s destiny may finally be revealed to the public if a deal can be reached.
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A component from James Dean’s 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder sold for $382,000 to someone.
James Dean died driving a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, but the car’s 4-speed transaxle is still in existence and was recently sold for $382,000 on Bring a Trailer. The price was higher than what Porsche charged for its most recent 911 Speedster, yes.
If you’re not familiar with the tale, Dean was a passionate amateur racer who bought the 550 Spyder to participate in SCCA competitions. However, Dean passed away on September 30, 1955, just a few days after purchasing the Porsche, in a crash close to Salinas, California.
According to the listing, Dean’s insurance company supposedly sold the wreck to another California racer; after that, the transaxle was taken out of the vehicle and stored for many years.
The transaxle was purchased by the present owner in March 2020, and it is currently set up on a movable display platform. In pictures, it appears to be very complete; there are drum brakes, a starter motor, and even undamaged CV-joint boots. The body of Dean’s 550 Spyder has been thought to be missing for many years, thus this is probably the greatest portion that is still present.
According to the advertisement, this transaxle is the one from Dean’s automobile since it has a Volkswagen serial number (the transaxle was a recycled VW Beetle unit) stamped into the split magnesium box. In the transaction was documentation proving that the serial number matches the one on the transaxle that was put in Dean’s automobile.
Who would spend more than $300,000 on a fragment of a deceased celebrity’s car? Zak Bagans, who stars on the Travel Channel series “Ghost Adventures” and owns The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, is likely the successful bidder. So this grisly artifact might soon be on exhibit for the whole public.
Porsche 550 Spyder Transaxle from James Dean’s “Curse” Visits Haunted Museum in Las Vegas
There is a market for celebrity memorabilia as well as a more specialized niche for macabre showbiz-related items. Even though it is little, it nevertheless makes a lot of money because people will always be captivated by death and what follows after it.
That Little Bastard’s only surviving component, the Porsche 550 Spyder James Dean was killed in on September 30, 1955, fetched a high price at auction is not surprising. It is also not surprising that the transaxle, a similar component, would be shown at The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The transaxle first appeared on Bring a Trailer late last month, with the vendor stating that they have owned it since 2020 and displaying it on a metal frame. The 550 Spyder is associated with the legend that it was “cursed” because James Dean, an actor and racer who became synonymous with teenage revolt and disillusionment, passed away in it only a few weeks after purchasing it. Following the collision, the Porsche’s parts were reused, and a series of accidents—one fatal—also involving the receiving vehicles.
Of course, it is absurd to think that an automobile, or anything else for that matter, could be “cursed” and harm or kill someone on its own. Depending on who you ask, either way. Considering that Zak Bagans, the host of the Travel Channel program Ghost Adventures and proprietor of The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, firmly thinks that these occurrences are real.
After making six offers on the platform, he was the one who ultimately paid $382,000 for the transaxle. He claims in one comment that he wants “everyone” to see the piece, thus it will be displayed at the Nevada museum. The news was not well received by Porsche purists, who claimed that the classic 550 Spyder should have been reconstructed using as many original components as possible.
Bagans claims that the transaxle is unquestionably “cursed,” much like the automobile was, in an interview with TMZ. It is quite likely that the transaxle still possesses the “curse” that killed Dean because it is the only piece of Little Bastard that is still known to exist (the body itself has been missing since the 1960s, when George Barris reported it stolen from a shipping container).
Even if it isn’t, the museum tickets it will get are worth their weight in gold.
James Dean’s crashed Porsche will be sold in part at auction.
NEW YORK Part of James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder, which was involved in the infamous collision more than 65 years ago, is being auctioned off.
The original and entire transaxle assembly was discovered in a remote area of Massachusetts after spending more than 30 years hidden from view and kept in a wooden crate. This discovery was made last September and revealed by an East Coast Porsche collector.
The only verified and documented component of the James Dean Spyder that is still known to exist is maybe this assembly.
On September 30, 1955, a famous actor passes away close to Cholame, California. He wrecked while traveling to an auto racing competition.
While returning from a highway safety exhibit in 1960, the original body and chassis were reported stolen.
The transaxle is now out of the wooden crate and put in a specially made exhibition pedestal.
James Dean perishes in a car crash.
Actor James Dean, 24, is murdered in Cholame, California, at 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, when the Porsche he is operating collides with a Ford Tudor car at an intersection. While Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wutherich, suffered severe injuries but lived, the second car’s driver, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was mainly unharmed but left bewildered. Only one of Dean’s films, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his passing; “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” came out soon after; however, he was on the verge of celebrity when he died, and the crash cemented his place in history.
James Dean loved racing automobiles, and he was actually traveling to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco, in his brand-new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible. Witnesses insisted that Dean wasn’t speeding at the time of the collision because Turnupseed had made a left turn directly into the path of the Spyder. However, some people have noted that Dean must have been traveling at an alarmingly high speed because he had received a speeding ticket in Bakersfield, 84 miles away from the crash site, at 3:30 p.m. and had stopped at a diner for a Coke. This indicated that he had traveled a No matter how fast the Porsche was traveling, Turnupseed would not have been able to notice it coming due to the advancing dusk and the sun’s glare.
There is a rumor that Dean’s vehicle, the Little Bastard, was cursed. After the collision, a nearby mechanic’s legs were crushed as the car rolled off the back of a truck. Later, after a used-car dealer sold its components to buyers across the nation, the odd occurrences increased: the car’s engine, transmission, and tires were all installed in vehicles that were later involved in fatal collisions, and a truck transporting the Spyder’s chassis to a highway-safety exhibition skidded off the road, killing its driver. The car’s wreckage disappeared from the scene of the collision and hasn’t been seen again.
Wutherich attempted suicide twice in the 1960s due to ongoing guilt over the vehicle tragedy. In a failed murder-suicide attempt in 1967, he stabbed his wife 14 times with a kitchen knife. Wutherich passed away in an alcohol-related car accident in 1981. Turnupseed passed away in 1995 from lung cancer.