Spyder 550 550A

[Porschinelle]

[Porschinelle]

[Porschinelle]

Some more pics taken during the race

[Steve Heinrichs]

I'll check. Have been out a couple of days. I am catching up on several things.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

It is the 1954 LeMans

Here is # 41 (550-11)

[Steve Heinrichs]

Yes, LM. Start 47 is 550-13./steve

[Type550]

John Cochran
November 17, 1957
St Lucie County Airport at Fort Pierce, Florida
Sam Collier Memorial Trophy 4 Hours

[Steve Heinrichs]

Andrew, do you think this is Cochran car? We are having second thoughts.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

Why do you say that...?

[Steve Heinrichs]

Perhaps I should have said ---we are having second thoughts about Cochran. That is, it seems the car is going up fo sale. We thought Cochran but the tail stripes are missing in this photo and the date is long after the autoshow.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

THis is supposedly the same car rebodied in the '70s. It has similar additional grills on the rear (a little higher though). It also still looks like it has a type 547 engine.

[Porschinelle]

I have found some more pics of the 550 at the 1954 Le Mans 24 hours race
Both pics show clearly that Porsche indeed had brought 5 off 550 for that race and that only 4 raced
The funniest thinck is that the Porsche star team of Richard Von Frankenberg/Helm Glockler had 2 off number 41 cars and none of them finished the race

[Steve Heinrichs]

The "extra" one was 550-08. It was a "reserve" car...generally used to go get take-out food.

Steve Heinrichs

[Steve Heinrichs]

By the way---Glockler Nr. 5 (sorry no umlaut) had a 4-cam motor after 5-54. The races for this Glockler (with umlaut) will all be shown in the book as well as the 4-cam number. And, this will help explain what happened to one of the 550 prototypes.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

1954 12 h Reims
#41 8th overall (1st in class) Polensky / von Frankenberg
#40 13th overall (2nd in class) Veuillet / Olivier