Spyder 550 550A

[356]

[356]

Fascinating to see that vintage photo and a match or clue in the present day. It must be so exciting to put these puzzle pieces together Andrew.
~Vance

[356]

Same car as in your previous post Andrew?

[JTR70]

What a great artifact. If anyone's going to unravel that mystery its going to be you Andrew.

[Type550]

Good to be back Vance. Still doing a heap of research on many of the spyders with some good finds and many dead ends. Someone on instagram posted a photo of a rear end of a spyder they saved from a skip which was amongst parts when 550-10 was restored. I noticed the extra middle rear grill and holes for tail lights similar to 550-13, which I was able to confirm with period photos. The question now is why did the owner of 550-10 have the rear of 550-13 - cannot find a link along the line of previous owners...

[356]

Quite fascinating guys and scary all at once. Buyer beware was never so true. By the way great to see you back here Andrew. I've been on holiday but I am left wondering where everyone else is??
~Vance

Here's a new though the image appears flipped.

[JTR70]

I'll reach out to Vietta and see what's going on if anything.

[JTR70]

Hey Andrew, so good to see you back. I thought Alan's post might be of interest to you in particular. Just from these two posts, your stock has gone up my friend. So much fraud going on a potential buyer would be very foolish to buy one of these old racers without consulting with you first.

[JTR70]

How I envy you Alan, You've had a lot of amazing Porsches! What a time to be around when these where just old cars and attainable. That VIN tag of yours; just more proof of all the chicanery going on these days. Thanks for sharing the story and the info!
Justin

[alan hall]

Seems to be a lot of that these days, especially new bodies but also cases with frames replaced but original bodies then the original frame that was replaced is repaired and a new body built. Which one is considered the original? Probably the one with the original serial number tags.

[Type550]

I was recently involved in the sale of a 550A and what started out as a couple of panels replaced ended up being totally rebodied, but everything else original, which then after a bit of digging changed to the majority of the parts and accessories new - at what stage is it still original..?

[alan hall]

I agree with your assessment Andrew! Thinking about 0126 I wonder if they "reproduce" a s/n plate to put on a newly fabricated body did they also "reproduce" a frame s/n plate to attach to a newly built frame? I would be very concerned if I had paid over 3 million for the car, Who knows, maybe I own more that is original to 0126 than the new owner does.

[Type550]

I have found in excess of 1000 errors in the book and they continue to arise. There was no final errata sheet and there never will be, seeing that Vietta is not funded any more to review it. As these cars increase in value, everything gets reproduced to make them look new again. I have reviewed many spyders for owners, buyers and auction houses and a number of reports I have written will never see the light of day because of what I revealed. Have you ever noticed how miraculously the original engine or gear box is found for these cars after 40 years being missing? Most owners will pay a heap for an ex Porsche driver come 'historian' to write a report to say how the restoration is 'like it has just left the factory...' There is so much BS now and a great story always gets in the way of the facts.

[alan hall]

I agree Andrew there are a number of errors in Heinrich's book. At one time there were errata sheets being put together by Steve and his editor, Vietta. Does anyone know if there was a final version of the errata sheet?

[alan hall]

Interesting! I didn't realize people were making repro s/n plates these days! Seems to me Spyders were more fun back when they were not worth much.