drove this same road this summer, i can easily see how this could happen, especially with those 50's brakes. stopped at the memorial too. anybody have any experience with the beck spyders?
It's a little different. Read a book by Bill Bast saying it was different today, saw this on the web from roadside america: " The original layout of the highway to the East of the intersection (What Dean actually drove on as he descended his last hill) is easily visible just alongside and to the South of the intersection as you look East up the grade (The intersection is in the original location but set up a little different to make if safer then it was in '55)." An article in either Octane or Classic Car mag with Leno asked him about rumors circulating that he not only acquired the shell of Little Bastard but also a Harley given to Elvis by Dean. Regardless it has a cool mysterious theme to it and it's probably parked along side the stolen F50 from Algar. Leno even jokes about such stories as listed on his garage site: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/photos/ElvisBike_shell.shtml http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/elvis.asp
I remember something about the rear end as well. It seems to me if all the above happened in todays age many people and lawyers would be very wealthy from lawsuits, LOL.
fun fact. the car Dean is pictured in on the Snopes link is a Ferrari Series I 500 Mondial. I dno't remember the s/n off the top of my head. also, the picture is printed backwards.
Actually, no. The 'old' 466 long ago 'moved' to a location that was less steep. See photo. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Just by chance I was driving this highway heading to Laguna Seca for the CHAMP CAR races on the 50th anniversary of the accident while driving my convertible Porsche. My friend and I were talking about the incident on the way, and the coincidence that we were also en route to Laguna Seca in a convertible Porsche . It wasn't until we stopped at the memorial that we realized the day was exactly 50 years later almost to the minute. It was an eerie feeling. My guess is the car was stolen and was stored away awaiting restoration or resale. Perhaps the curse continued on to the thief or thieves, and it is lying in a warehouse or barn where its true identity is not realized. At the Concorso Italiano this year at Laguna Seca Golf Course there was someone selling a rear end that they claimed was the rear end to the 550. No documentation or proof of such.
I wonder about the fate of his Jaguar D type he had on order through Champion which was to eventually replace the 550. Will look up the book the info came from later on. Wonder if it went to McQueen or someone or was converted.
Interesting thread.. But I am terribly curious. Do some of you (earlier posts) actually believe this superstitious hocus pocus about the car?
I hadn't heard that. AFAIK, Dean took delivery of the 550 only a few weeks before the accident. $6800 for the 550 was serious money for a car in 1955, and he traded his 1955 Speedster Super on the 550. So, he may have been a budding star, but seems not to have been swimming in cash at that point. Seeing as he hadn't raced it even once, I doubt he would have had a replacement car on order (?)
I don't. But the thought of buying the drivetrain out of it for use in another racer borders on the macabre, kind of like moving into a house where someone was killed.
Hmmm...some years ago I found the original course James Dean rode...on Google Earth. I lost it in a PC crash. Can someone find it for me? Please. Best: Staffan
Sorry for the delay Bullfighter... as I get older the memory slips a bit. It was Lotus he had on order, not a Jag. In a few bios, John Howlett's James Dean a Biography and David Dalton's James Dean The Mutant King, both make multiple references about his car on order from England. His 550 was a car Champion convinced him to purchase while he waiting for his Lotus Mark IX to be made. In fact, the reason he was driving the day he was killed was to put on the 1500 mile min races of his car type had to have. Otherwise it would have been trailer and fixed up by Champion which was a condition Dean made on buying the Spyder. His contract also stated after giant he was able to race in Europe for a whole year, by the time his new car or cars would have been made and ready to run, picked up straight from the factory.
