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ACD May 27, 2021

One of the main parts of the Porsche 550 Spyder in which the late 1950s icon James Dean died is up for auction.

There is no doubt that in the world of motorsport and celebrities there has always been some sort of fascination with cars in which famous people died.

One of them, perhaps the most iconic, is the Porsche 550 Spyder the one where 50s icon James Dean died and who received the nickname “Little Bastard” or “Little Bastard”. Dean bought the Spyder for use in some races and to test it he decided to travel from Los Angeles (USA) to the Salinas circuit in California. Dean, however, did not complete his trip, as he lost his life in a head-on traffic collision, which killed him at age 24.

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Well now one of the components of this car, exactly the four-speed transaxle, is auctioned on the site specializing in the purchase and sale of classic Bring A Trailer.

2 pictures James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder transaxle.

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The crashed car was on display at the Los Angeles Security Council for some time, earn the reputation of being a “cursed” car. The main body of the car disappeared while I was on tour with the Security Council display and it still seems to be missing.

However, all is not unknown. The air-cooled 1,500cc engine was sold to Dr. William Eschrich, who also purchased the transaxle and other mechanical parts. The aforementioned transaxle it was stored until it came into the hands of the current owner a little over a year ago, he has now decided to auction it off.

The transaxle looks quite complete– It has a starter, swing-axle rear suspension, drum brakes, and the split box has the proper Volkswagen gaskets, as these were four-speed Beetle transaxles.

At the time of writing, the highest bid to date is 100,000 dollars (approximately 82,000 euros at the current exchange rate).