OBJECT FILE
'Little Bastard' — James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder
FOLLOWCA, United States
THE OBJECT
Porsche 550 Spyder chassis 550-0055, bought by James Dean from Competition Motors in Hollywood in the last week of September 1955 and wrecked at the junction of Routes 41 and 46 near Cholame on 30 September 1955, killing him. Dr William Eschrich bought the wreck from a Burbank salvage yard and stripped it for racing parts; the customiser George Barris acquired the shell and, from 1957 to 1959, lent it to the National Safety Council for touring displays. Barris said it disappeared in 1960 in transit from Miami to Los Angeles. A $1,000,000 reward offered by the Volo Auto Museum in 2005 went unclaimed. In June 2021 the transaxle — the only part whose whereabouts are documented — sold on Bring a Trailer for $382,000 to Zak Bagans for The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
The 'curse' is Barris's: Troy McHenry, killed at Pomona in 1956 racing with parts from the car; a garage fire at Fresno in March 1959; a display that fell on a boy; a truck driver crushed by the shell. Lee Raskin, who has documented the car's history, considers most of the anecdotes Barris's invention and several demonstrably false. The disappearance itself is unconfirmed beyond Barris's account.
WHERE IT IS NOW
Lost / whereabouts unknown. CA, United States.
PROVENANCE · 5 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1955 – 1955
James Dean
Competition Motors (purchase); Dean's garage, Hollywood, CA, United States
Purchase date given as about a week before the crash; 21 September is the date most sources use.
Source: Hagerty UK ('a week before the fatal crash'); Raskin (2018)
1955 – 1955
the crash
junction of Routes 41 and 46, Cholame, CA, United States
Collision with Donald Turnupseed's Ford Tudor, 30 September 1955.
Source: Motor Sport Magazine; Hagerty UK
1955 – 1957
Dr William Eschrich (bought the wreck from a Burbank salvage yard); George Barris (the shell)
salvage yard; Barris Kustoms, Burbank / Los Angeles, CA, United States
Source: Motor Sport Magazine (Raskin: the wreck was bought by Eschrich, not Barris as Barris claimed); Hagerty UK
1957 – 1960
George Barris, on loan to the Los Angeles chapter of the National Safety Council
touring safety exhibit (car shows, cinemas, bowling alleys), California and beyond, CA, United States
Fresno storage fire, March 1959. Barris said the car vanished in 1960 in a sealed boxcar between Miami and Los Angeles — unconfirmed.
Source: Hagerty UK ('from 1957 to 1959, it went on a gruesome tour'); Motor Sport Magazine
2021 — CURRENT LOCATION
Zak Bagans (the transaxle only)
The Haunted Museum, Las Vegas, NV, United States
This stay is the TRANSAXLE, the one documented surviving part. The car itself is lost — no pin.
Source: The Drive, June 2021; TMZ, 2 June 2021
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
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