Dean's 550 finally found?

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Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

Interesting story that has been in the media the last couple of days -

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MUSEUM HAS NEW LEAD IN HUNT FOR JAMES DEAN'S WRECKED PORSCHE
Monday, September 28, 2015 12:57PM

VOLO, Ill. (WLS) --The Volo Auto Museum says it has a credible tip regarding the whereabouts of James Dean's Porsche Spyder wreckage, missing since the early 1960s.

Dean died on Sept. 30, 1955, after crashing his car. The wrecked Porsche toured nationally as a highway safety exhibit after the actor's death, only to go missing while being transported from Florida to California.

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The wreckage of James Dean's Porsche Spyder, on display as part of a highway safety exhibit. Dean was killed when he wrecked the car on Sept. 30, 1955.

Long rumored to be cursed, the Auto Museum made a reward offering of $1 million for the wreckage in 2005. Following an episode of "Brad Meltzer's Lost History" that aired in winter 2014, the museum says, they were contacted by a man in the spring with an intriguing tale.

"He said he was 6 years old at the time, and was present as his father and some other men put the wreckage behind a false wall in a building in Whatcom County, Washington," said Brian Grams, director of the Volo Auto Museum.

Grams said the man also recounted some conversational details that supported his claim and offered to take, and passed, a polygraph test.

Grams said the man has declined to reveal the building's location until he has signed a deal for a portion of the reward and the museum will pay only if it gains legal possession of the car, whose current ownership is in question, but communications are still ongoing.

"This guy's story is awesome, and our most believable lead to date," Grams said. "It's kind of like Al Capone's vault. If it is in there, it continues the legend of this car's notorious history."


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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Retrobug »

Wonder if it will be worth more restored or as is :?
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

I once read that the car that was put up on display wasn't even the original Dean car?

Compare the accident scene wreck with the display - wreck looks a lot worse?

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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by eben »

Pine wrote:I once read that the car that was put up on display wasn't even the original Dean car?

Compare the accident scene wreck with the display - wreck looks a lot worse?

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Front and rear hood and left front wheel has identical damage... looks like the left door has been refitted though...
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Piet »

The left front wing was repaired too.
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by retrovan »

Even changed it from a RHD to a LHD............ :lol:

Must have fixed the steering wheel as well.

What attention to detail....

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No.. these are two different cars for sure.

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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by buggyfan »

:roll: http://www.hauntedvehicles.com/jamesdeanspyder.html. with all the accidents that the wreck was involved in while being transported around,no wonder it doesn't look like the same car anymore
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

It is today exactly 60 years ago that James Dean died in the 550. It would be really interesting (coincidence?) if the car is found today... :shock:
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rest on his performances in only these three films.

Dean's premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status. He became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 17th best male movie star on their AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.

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In 1954, Dean became interested in developing an auto racing career. He purchased various vehicles after filming for East of Eden had concluded, including a Triumph Tiger T110 and a Porsche 356. Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, he competed in his first professional event at the Palm Springs Road Races, which was held in Palm Springs, California on March 26–27, 1955. Dean achieved first place in the novice class, and second place at the main event. His racing continued in Bakersfield a month later, where he finished first in his class and third overall. Dean hoped to compete in the Indianapolis 500, but his busy schedule made this vision impossible.

Dean's final race occurred in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, 1955. He was unable to finish the competition due to a blown piston. His brief career was put on hold when Warner Brothers barred him from all racing during the production of Giant. Dean had finished shooting his scenes and the movie was in post-production when he decided to race again.

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Longing to return to the "liberating prospects" of motor racing, Dean was scheduled to compete at a racing event in Salinas, California on September 30, 1955. Accompanying the actor to the occasion was stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier's photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" car. Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche. At 3:30 p.m., both Dean and Hickman, who were driving behind the Porsche, were ticketed for speeding.

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As the group traveled to the event via U.S. Route 466, at approximately 5:15 p.m. a 1950 Ford Tudor made a hesitant attempt to turn away from an intersection, placing him at the center of the road. Dean, unable to stop in time, slammed into the driver's quadrant of the Ford Tudor, and zipped across the pavement onto the side of the highway. The driver, Donald Turnupseed, exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries. Wütherich had catapulted from the severely mangled Porsche, while a trapped Dean sustained numerous fatal injuries, including a broken neck. The accident was witnessed by a number of passersby who stopped to help. A woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse, but "death appeared to have been instantaneous". Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m.

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Though initially slow to reach newspapers in the Eastern United States, details of Dean's death rapidly spread via radio and television. By October 2, his death had received significant coverage from domestic and foreign media outlets. Dean's funeral was held on October 8, 1955 at the Fairmount Friends Church in Fairmount, Indiana. The coffin remained closed to conceal his mutilated corpse. An estimated 600 mourners were in attendance, while another 2400 fans gathered outside of the building during the procession.

An inquest into Dean's death occurred three days later at the Paso Robles City Hall, where a coroner's jury delivered a verdict that he was entirely at fault due to speeding, and that Turnupseed was innocent of any criminal act. However, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times of October 1, 2005, a former California Highway Patrol officer who had been called to the scene, Ron Nelson, said the "wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed at the time of the accident was more like 55 mph".
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

No news yet, but I have found another photograph of the wreck, taken after it was recovered from the crash site. The extensive damage is more clear in this photo:

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This is one of the very few pictures taken of the rear of the car before the accident, showing the 'Little Bastard' script, the (red) detailing above the rear wheel arches, and the licence plate:

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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by eben »

Quite a few similarities with this:
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

George Barris, one of the last remaning living links to the Dean Porsche, passed away yesterday. The custom red stripes over the rear wheel arches and 'Little Bastard' script was painted by George Barris. He also bought the wreck after the accident and was probably the brainchild of all the 'cursed car' stories.

(This is not an original photo, but a scene from a movie based on J.D.)
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George Barris (born George Salapatas; November 20, 1925 – November 5, 2015) was an American designer and builder of many famous Hollywood custom cars, most notably the Munster Koach and 1966 Batmobile.

George and his brother Sam (1924–1967) were born in Chicago in the 1920s. Barris was three years old when their father, a Greek immigrant from Chios, sent the brothers to live with an uncle and his wife in Roseville, California following the death of their mother.

By age 7, Barris was making models of cars using balsa wood and modifying their design and appearance with careful attention to details so his entries won contests sponsored by hobby shops.[2]

The brothers worked at the Greek restaurant owned by their family, and were given a 1925 Buick for their help. Although it was not in good shape, they swiftly restored it to running condition, and began to experiment with changing its appearance. This became the first Barris Brothers custom car. They sold it at a profit to buy another project vehicle. Before George had graduated from high school, demand for their work was growing, and they had created a club for owners of custom vehicles, called the Kustoms Car Club. This was the first use of the spelling "kustom", which would become associated with Barris.

According to Barris, some of his first film work consisted of making soft aluminum fenders for a Ford police car that crashes into the rear of a Mercedes Benz convertible driven by Cary Grant's character in North by Northwest. The idea was to give the collision a comedic quality while also preventing serious damage to the expensive Mercedes. He also built and supplied cars for the 1958 film High School Confidential and loaned some of his customs for the "future" scenes in the 1960 film adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. Other Barris-built film cars included a modified Dodge Charger for Thunder Alley, a Plymouth Barracuda for Fireball 500, the futuristic Supervan for a film of the same name, a gadget-filled Mercury station wagon for The Silencers, and a sinister rework of a Lincoln Continental Mark III for The Car.[5]

In the 1960s, the Barris firm became heavily involved in vehicle design for television production. At the beginning of the decade, Barris, who loved extravagant design, had purchased the Lincoln Futura, a concept car of the mid-1950s which had been built by Ghia of Italy. It remained in his collection for several years, until he was rather unexpectedly asked by ABC Television to create a signature vehicle for their Batman television series. Time was very short, as filming would begin in a few weeks, leaving insufficient time for a new design from scratch. Instead, Barris decided the Futura was a perfect base on which to create the Batmobile. Barris hired custom builder Gene Cushenberry to modify the car, which was ready in three weeks. The show was a hit, and the car gained notoriety for Barris. He retained ownership of the Batmobile until an auction on January 19, 2013, when Barris sold it for $4,620,000.

Other television cars built by Barris Kustom Industries include the Munster Koach and casket turned dragster (the "Drag-U-La") for The Munsters, an Oldsmobile Toronado turned into a roadster used in the first season of Mannix, a 1921 Oldsmobile touring car turned into a truck for The Beverly Hillbillies, the fictional "1928 Porter" for the NBC comedy My Mother the Car, Updated KITTs for later seasons of Knight Rider[7] and replicas of 1914 Stutz Bearcats for Bearcats!.[8][9]

George Barris was responsible for the frame of the original Batmobile and other famous customized automobiles he created for various celebrities. Barris created a customized gold Rolls Royce for actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. The golden Rolls Royce displayed the detailed work of Barris and included hand-etched window glass by Robb Rich showing butterflies, roses, and hummingbirds.[10]

Barris has built many novelty vehicles for other celebrities; these include golf carts for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ann-Margret, Glen Campbell, and Elton John; and 25 modified Mini Mokes for a record company contest involving the Beach Boys. He would also modify cars for Hollywood stars and others. Some examples include a Cadillac limousine for Elvis Presley; custom Pontiac station wagons for John Wayne, and a pair of "his & hers" 1966 Ford Mustang convertibles for Sonny and Cher. With the cooperation of American Motors, in 1969 he modified an AMX coupe into the AMX-400 show car which was later used in a 1972 episode of the TV mystery series Banacek,[11][12] and a Cadillac Eldorado turned into a station wagon for Dean Martin.[7]

Between 2002 and 2006, Barris also designed two custom Cadillac hearses for episodes of the cable television series Monster Garage. Barris' company often builds replicas of non-Barris designed vehicles from other TV series, including The Monkees (Monkeemobile), Starsky & Hutch (Ford Torino), Power Rangers (Turbo Vehicles)[13], and Knight Rider (KITT). Barris also designed and built from a 1979 Ford Country Squire wagon, the "Wagon Queen Family Truckster" for the 1983 movie National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase.
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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

No (new) news on the Dean car, but I have found this pic recently which I have never seen before showing a totally different view of the wreck..

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Re: Dean's 550 finally found?

Post by Pine »

Another pic I've never seen before. This haunting image of the back of Dean's car as he and Bill Hickman was driving a few hours before the accident is claimed to be the last picture taken of him before he died.

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