Spyder 550 550A

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[Tunisian 550]

Dear all,

I'm attaching a picture of the "tunisian" 550 spyder. The people faces are not so important since the picture was taken in the 60's when a french doctor bought it to drive it in Bizerte ( Tunisia). Then it was sold again and apparently a US citizen took it out from the country. The first owner in Tunisia was Prince Slaheddine Bey, the son of the bey. After the independance and the proclamation of the republic it was confiscated. It stayed in Tunisia until late 60's. As you can see it has two large brakes air intakes in the front which are tangent with the oil cooler air intake hole. It was at that time red with white bonnet. It was probably purchased during or directly after the GP de Tunis 1955. For this reason i'm looking for pictures of the GP de Tunis 1955 in "Le Belvedere".

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Thank you for sharing this great bit of history. I'm sure Andrew knows the exact whereabouts of this car today. ~Vance

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Andrew, Was this the early Spyder that you and Steve had the legendary disagreement about?
~Vance

[Type550]

yes Vance - this is 550-07 - notice when it went to Veuillet the quad cam engine was removed and replaced with a push rod - still has the rudge wheels though!

[Type550]

The restored spyder made its first appearance at Amelia this year

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Thank you for the confirmation Andrew. So this is the same car today? They didn't restore it with the early headlights and tail configuration?
~Vance

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