Spyder 550 550A

[Type550]

Bill Thomas at the 1955 National Glendale up against Pete Lovely in his Pooper. Steve - chassis number...?

This is Pete in John Edgar's 550A at Palm Springs in 1956

[Type550]

Another early shot of Eldon Beagle driving 550-0088 at the Sacramento fair grounds in '56 before the addition of the gills and headrest...

[Type550]

[356]

[Type550]

[356]

[356]

[Type550]

[JTR70]

Great photos you guys! Man, just about everyone smoked back then didn't they...

[Type550]

[356]

[Type550]

Don McKnought in the 1955 SCCA National Cumberland before and after his accident

[Steve Heinrichs]

re 550-0088

Andrew, thanks so much to you for the discussion regarding 550-0088. The thread identified a couple of items we did not have and enabled a correction as well.
We have 'fixed' the book accordingly.

Your help was much appreciated.

Steve Heinrichs

[Type550]

Hi Steve,

I am glad I could help with another piece of the puzzle, but like anything, it would not be possible without the guys on this forum who post the most amazing photos of these machines like John, Gerard and Chad and of course Justin for bringing it all together for us. Plus yourself for helping confirm which car is which. Over recent weeks I have removed myself from many spyder forums due to the pack of wankers who troll them. At least with this space it is always focussed and informative with only enough egotisticals to keep it edgy and worth contributing to.

I also found this photo of 550-0088 driven by Eldon Beagle and #74 driven by Sam Weiss at the 1956 Governor's Trophy at Nassau in the Bahamas.



550-0088 is a special spyder to me which is very much like a cinderella spyder. I met the owner Steve over the Rennsport reunion/charity event in 2011. As his car didn't look as pristine and original as the likes of Jerry's, at RRIV he was forced to park in the Paddock with the replicas on the Saturday, but that didn't worry Steve as he was happy to be there, and had driven his spyder up and back from LA unlike all the other trailer queens on show.



Steve is just an average guy who went against his father's advice and bought 0088 back in the 70s. He has kept it since but knew nothing about the car. When I spoke to him at PRCC he was really genuine with a passion for Spyders. I started doing some research to try and build a provenance on his car. As his had quite a distinctive headrest and the only spyder I have seen with the 3 crudely cut gills in the engine bay, I started scanning photos and first came up with this one with George Keck's 550A. I have known George for a while and asked him who owned the white 550 #21. It was Erv Lehr at the 1958 Laguna Seca - quite ironic as that is where I first saw 0088 in the flesh.



There were hints of the special features in the photo, so after some more research, I tracked down the son of Erv, who provided me some other photos proving it was the same car and told me the car was then sold to Eldon Beagle. Luckily I also knew Eldon's son Alan, who had quite a bit of history on the car and other cars he had raced. Eldon used the race numbers #12 and #112, so I started looking for those numbers and came up with some great pics too



And now we have Leon to add to the list. I am continuing to add to the history with both photos and results - it is a great challenge of investigative work but rewarding!

[Trevor]

550-0088 is a special spyder to me which is very much like a cinderella spyder. I met the owner Steve over the Rennsport reunion/charity event in 2011. As his car didn't look as pristine and original as the likes of Jerry's, at RRIV he was forced to park in the Paddock with the replicas on the Saturday, but that didn't worry Steve as he was happy to be there, and had driven his spyder up and back from LA unlike all the other trailer queens on show.

WOW, that's how it's done!

And now we have Leon to add to the list. I am continuing to add to the history with both photos and results - it is a great challenge of investigative work but rewarding!

Thanks Andrew, I'm sure it is rewarding for the owner and also for yourself. You must have a real passion for these cars to dedicate the time you do to putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Thanks for sharing the process with us. I know I'm not alone when I say thank you!