Spyder 550 550A

[Type550]

Traditionally they sit above the transmission in a 550 and in front of the fuel tank in a 550A

[Type550]

550A-0141, the polished 550A spyder is about to go onto the market. It has a great race history, but like many spyders, a complete new body.

[Bill Brown]

I`ve got a flat VDM wood wheel for one of these cars.

[356]

[jacques]

Hi
At the lit meet Rainer Coney was looking for engine 90058 does anyone know where it is?

[Porschinelle]

factory hard top

[Carrera GT]

Nice! ...very interesting photo of a factory hardtop on a 550 Buckelwagen.

Michael Doyle

factory hard top

[Type550]

They tried many configurations...

[Porschinelle]

Paris carshow October 1955

[Type550]

These cars continue to do my head in!

With the 1955 LeMans there were six 550 spyders entered - five of them were entered as Werks cars and 550-0016 entered by Olivier as a privateer, but participated in all the Porsche parades. There was also a spare car which was there to transport drivers from the hotel and also run errands.

The spare car is my problem. The Carrera book as inaccurate as it is, says the spare car is 550-0051 and the current owner told me this before the book even came out. 0051 was finished in production on 30th June 1955 and LeMans was 11 June 1955, which is my first problem. The next issue is 0051 was a french blue car and the spare car was silver in colour.

The silver car was also later painted with #37, the same as 550-0046 driven by Polensky and von Frankenberg, but the font is different and also does not have the white circle background.

Any insight would be much appreciated...

[Porschinelle]

550-031 race number 38 driven by the Swiss team Walter Riggenberg/Jorg Gilomen who was the only to not finish the race (engine breakage)

[Porschinelle]

550-048 race number driven by Auguste Veuillet (the Sonauto boss who drove the first Porsche to race in the Le Mans race in 1951)Arkus Duntov (a Belgo/American engineer who work as an engineer for Chevrolet and created for them the Corvette hence his nickname "the father of the vette") they finish 13th but also first in the 1.1 L sport class

550-047 race number 62 driven by Helmut Glockler/Jaroslav Juhan who finish 6th overall

550-016 race number 65 driven by Gonzague Olivier/Jaroslav Jeser who finish 18th

This car was presented to the registration control without beams
Indeed Gonzague Olivier had a contract with the french company SEV Marchal, when Porsche was exclusively linked to Bosch
Of course beams were back for the race but I don't know if they were Merchal or Bosch

[Porschinelle]

550-015 race number 66 driven by Olivier Gendebien/Wolfgang Seidel who finish 5th overall




On the Le Mans 1955 r

[Porschinelle]

Car race number 65 was entered by Gonzague Olivier in its own name
What is stange is that for that race the car was wearing a German custom plate

Car race number 66 was entered by the Ecurie Nationale Belge
No evidence that this car was yellow as all the ENB race cars
Also strange that Olivier Gendebien (Belgium pilot) was teaming with Wolfgang Seidel an habitual Porsche KG pilot and not another Belgium pilot as Pierre Strasse and Johnny Claes both Belgium pilots who have their names on the entry sheet

[Porschinelle]

Strange again as on this pic (already publish above)