Spyder 550 550A

[Type550]

550-0020 is currently up for sale. I have heard from a reliable source and I also have documents indicating it is not the original. It was made up of panels and parts from 550-0079 when 0079 got rebodied into an RSK.

[Steve Heinrichs]

Andrew,

550-0020 is an interesting one. I think I have seen the photos before but am not sure. Many people for a long time believed that 550-0020 was never a car but, rather, was a chassis/frame only. It was seen that way at Freisinger and I have photos of it as a frame and, more, the Factory once confirmed it as such. It was thought to have been a display item. But---all of that is wrong. It was a car. I have the inital test sheet showing miles tested and more and it was raced.

Still, like many others, it "lost" its body and needed to be "re-bodied". It could well be that 550-0079 panels were used (at least those were from a real 550 not just new metal).

Anyway----who, if you know, was the pilot for the 550/718 with the 550-0079 base?

Steve Heinrichs

[Blechquäler]

[Steve Heinrichs]

I do not know. Did not see. Maybe the 550 to 718 change took place after the '60s.

Steve Heinrichs

[Blechquäler]

It was listed as a RSK.
You might be right cause the changed body looked used in that days.

[Blechquäler]

Was not in 1990 but 1989 but can't find photos of it.

[Type550]

Hi Steve,

I have my records with Tracey Bird as a possible early owner. He raced a 550 in Phoenix in 1957. Here is a pic when it was an RSK.



550-0079 was the red spyder in this Porsche promo photo

[Steve Heinrichs]

Andrew,

This is another tough problem. We have Bird in a 550 other than 0079 (I know you did not say he was in 0079 at Phoenix) in Phoenix. That is, we have our view in red in the book (meaning we are not sure).

What I cannot find is a later race where there is an unidentified RSK.

Also, we show 0079 as not having come to the U.S. during the main race years---meaning we have no U.S. races for that 550.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

I have it as a Hoffman delivery

[Steve Heinrichs]

550-0079? We think Switzerland.

550-0020 Hoffmann

Steve Heinrichs

[Carrera GT]

Steve / Andrew,

Excellent collaboration between you.

Cheers to both of you!

Michael Doyle

[Type550]

You want to open the can of worms Steve...?

This is what I have been supplied by the current owner:

Porsche factory records show that the car 5500079 with engine number P90080 was sold to Hoffman in New York.

Herr Trotsmanns notes say the car was completed on 2/2/1956, sold to Porsche distributor Max Hoffman and delivered to Venezuela. It was painted Black with Chrome wheels.

Assuming it went to Venezuela, I have been told there were two 550s that went there:
i)550.0030 which went to Gutierrez, then Juan Montalvo (raced in Venezuelan GP)
ii) car supplied to Izquierdo, of which no details are known as far as I can tell.

One car that was black with chrome wheels was being raced in the USA by Tracy Bird, President of the SCCA. His first race I can find would be some 14 months after 550.0079 was delivered new.
Black with chrome wheels must be an unusual specification, so hopefully one day we can work out how many cars in this specification were sold.

I have found 4 events Tracy raced his car, always carrying race number 9. Palm Springs 7April 1957, Fort Sumner/New Mexico 29/9/1957, Phoenix 8 Dec 1957 and Phoenix 2 march 1959. It is known that Tracy Bird's car ended up with Milt Minter who raced it once at the Pacific GP at Laguna Seca on 23 Oct 1960 and the engine was damaged. he sold it in 1961 to a Porsche Club member named Warren Crumly.
I suspect between Bird and Minter there may have been another owner.

At some stage the car ends up in Switzerland.
The car was painted red.
At some stage the car ended up with car dealer Pierre de Sibenthal for sale. When for sale the bodywork had been removed and a body from a RS60 fitted. The rear end is certainly original (and believed to be from a "famous ex LeMans car"). A well known French Porsche man recalls it being offered to him by Hans Matti at this stage.
The car ends up with Jo Siffert who sold it (via Johnny Tissbad) to Uwe Hucke.

Uwe then somehow lost the car to one Heribert Kuke from Essen (who did transport for the Porsche museum) but this is an unpleasant story which I can go into later if interested.

Kuke raced the car (along with Jurgen Barth possibly). I know of it running at Nurburgring 1974, Prix Maritim 1975, Nurburgring 1975 (I was told he couldn't run the car there). Supposedly rebuilt at Porsche after running at Zolder in 1982.

Kuke sold the car to my father, who saw it for sale on a stand at the Essen show in 1982. The bill of sale is dated July 1982. I know my father ran it at Nurburgring in 1984 but it didn't run well and had an engine overhaul at Porsche (they found some broken valve springs).

Going back to Switzerland:
The original bodywork parts from 550.0079 were bought in Lausanne in 1980 by Marco Marinello, and sold in 1985 to Schroder. The body was numbered in chalk 64, and had been "red with a white stripe". These bodywork parts ended up with a chassis frame 550-0020 which then went through various hands.

What remains on our is the car is the seats, the firewall, wheel arches (that have the chassis plate) and under-trays. There is plenty of red paint under the present silver.

The engine number is now 901163, a very high number. i presume this was a later supplied spare. The gearbox is correct RS1500, and the rear suspension has been modified - clearly done in period and very nicely done with coil over shock absorbers.

[Jack Staggs]

[JTR70]

Steve / Andrew,

Excellent collaboration between you.

Cheers to both of you!

Michael Doyle

+1 Great stuff!

[Blechquäler]

So now the time has come for a reunion of the parts?