A superb and rare photo taken at the 1960 Sebring
road race.
The Porsche
550 Spyder was inspired by the smaller Porsche 356 Spyder which was
created and raced by Walter Glöckler in 1951. The Porsche factory specifically
designed to build the 550 Spyder in car racing. The 550 was designed as a very
low and aerodynamically efficient car. It was so low that 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. Interestingly, the 550
is amongst 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.
Professor Ferdinand Porsche
initially started the company called "Dr. ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931, with
main offices at Königstrasse in the center of Stuttgart. The company offered motor vehicle
development work and consulting, and did not initially build any cars under its
own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the
German government to design a car for the people, a "Volkswagen" in
German. The first Porsche, the Porsche 64, was developed in 1939 using many
components from the Volkswagen Beetle. After World War II, Ferdinand Porsche's
son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car because he could not find an
existing car that he would be interested in buying. The first models of what
was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria
and had aluminum bodywork: the modern Porsche company was born. The prototype
car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold,
production was begun. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because
it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. Porsche commissioned
Zuffenhausen-based company Reutter Carosseri, which had previously collaborated
with Porsche on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body.
Porsche constructed an assembly plant across the street from Reutter Carosseri;
that assembly plant is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road certified
in 1948. Not long afterwards, on January 30, 1951, Ferdinand Porsche died from
complications following a stroke. In post-war Germany parts were generally in
short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle
including its engine, gearbox, and suspension. The 356, however, had several
evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production and many VW parts were
replaced by Porsche-made parts. The last 356s were powered by entirely
Porsche-designed engines. The sleek bodywork was designed by Erwin Komenda who
also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs have,
from the beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the
Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but producing automobiles that are
very well balanced. In 1964, after some success in motor-racing, namely with
the Porsche 550 Spyder, the company launched the Porsche 911 another
air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, this time with a 6-cylinder
"boxer" engine. The team to lay out the body shell design was led by
Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design
phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda who led the body
design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made changes to
the design not being approved by him. Company leader Ferry Porsche took his
son's drawings to neighbouring body shell manufacturer Reuter bringing the
design to the 1963 state. Reuter's workshop was later acquired by Porsche
(so-called Werk II). Afterward Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today known
as Keiper-Recaro.
This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of
Porsche ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way. This is your rare
chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format
of ca. 8" x 9" (ca. 20 x 25 cm). It makes it perfectly
suitable for framing.