- “Porsche 550 Spyder” 50 years anniversary -
one of my favourite Porsches, the legendary Porsche 550 Spyder becomes 50 years old, so happy birthday old lady!!!
in oct. 1953 the first particularly racing car from Stuttgart was presented at Paris car salon to the public for the first time.
undoubtedly, Porsche has the most successful history in motor racing among all car makers. since the early 60s, we saw countless of racing cars came out of weissach and dominated endurance racing and GT racing. in racing circuits, from LeMans to Nurburgring, from Sebring to Daytona, we saw at least half of the field was filled with Porsche's machines, most of which were private enters. to the competitors, the word "Porsche" meant nightmare while the numbers 911, 917, 935, 956 and 962 were ... well, just like counting the number of victories. All these success started with the 550 Spyder.
before this, Ferdinand Porsche created several awesome racing cars, including Mercedes SSK and Auto Union's V16 mid-engined Grand Prix car. however, as Ferdinand was half-retired since WWII, while Ferry was concentrating on creating the company's first production car, the first racing car was not developed until the summer of 1952. although Ferry was more a “road car man”than a “acing man” unlike Enzo Ferrari, he still had the ambition to dominate the motorsport world like his father.
however, Porsche was still a small company then. although some money was earned by engineering consultant service to subsidise the programme, they still had to use the existing suspension parts and wheels from the 356, incorporated in a ladder chassis which was also modified from the 356. engine, again from 356, was tuned to 78 hp from 1500 cc. nevertheless, 550 Spyder was still unmistakably a racing car because of its aluminium body and the mid-engined layout, a first for Porsche.
Porsche engineer Wilhelm Hild constructed the first 550 in 1953. he designed the 550 just like the “Glöckler Porsche”, which also had a flat frame welded of pipes, the 550´s successor the 550A presented in 1956 received a new space frame chassis which was not only lighter, but added 3 times torsional rigidity over the ladder chassis. engine was boosted to 135 hp and the 550A handled a lot better than its predecessors.
Porsche built eight racing prototypes before selling the car to the public in 1954. the first generation “public” 550, called 1500RS, featured a new engine - a 1500 c.c. boxer four with 4 camshafts and twin-spark plugs per cylinder. this was very advanced by contemporary standards. with 125 hp and a still-outstanding 1320 pounds weight, no wonder it continued to dominate class racing. please note that the “public” 550 was still primarily designed for racing although it was finished in road-legal trim. driving it too hard in public highway may lead to tragedy, one of the examples was James Dean - in 1955 he crashed his 550 Spyder on a californian highway and died.
as the 550 Spyder remained unbeatable in the 1500cc class for nearly a full decade, Porsche became a famous name in motor racing. from 1960 it terminated all development of the 550 and started to take a new challenge in F1 ...
to sum it all up, a little insider info, many ppl say that the 550 is named after its weight, 550kg, but the reason why it`s called 550 is simple: it had been Porsches 550th construction.
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