The Curse of the "Little Bastard"... [PIC]

After filming his last movie, "Giant", James Dean bought this Porsche 550RS Spyder, one of 90 built by Porsche to dominate the 1.5 liter class. Dean put over 1000 miles in a short time mostly driving on Mulholland Drive to prepare himself for the race season. While in LA, he met Sir Alec Guiness, who look at the car as something sinister and told Dean "Please, never get in it...If you do, you'll be found dead in it by this time next week". Dean laughed it off and assembled a crew of mechanics and stunt driver Bill Hickman ( the Charger driver in "Bullitt" and "The French Connection"). Instead of towing the car to the track, it was decided that he would drive it to further get used to it. With Hickman and company following in a truck and trailer, Dean set out with his Porsche mechanic to the races in Salinas. Stopped once for speeding, he continued anyway at about 85 mph. A young kid in a tudor Ford suddenly pulled out in front of Dean and the resulting crash knocked the Ford some 40 ft and the mechanic was ejected and Dean was killed.

George Barris bought the wreck to restore it, but it turned out to be impossible. Barris turned it into a traveling safety exhibit while parting out the engine (put in a Lotus and crashed) and a pair of tires that mysteriously blew at the same time causing a near fatal crash. While on tour there was a fire and twice the wreck fell on someone causing serious injuries. In 1960, the Porsche disappeared from a railroad car never to be seen again.

This CMC model is also an early vintage replica, but for its time it was extremely well done. The James Dean figure is an unpainted, parts-on-tree kit from Preiser.