1 Mil offered For James Dean Car

[AutoInsane]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/08/30/...che/index.html

[jimbo]

I was just reading about this car.
http://www.snopes.com/autos/cursed/spyder.asp

[AutoInsane]

$1M offered for James Dean death car

Museum offers payment for Porsche Spyder in which star died, if someone knows where it is.

August 30, 2005; Posted: 11:09 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - An Illinois auto museum is offering $1 million for the car in which actor James Dean died in 1955. The car's whereabouts are currently unknown.

Dean crashed the 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder on Sept. 30, 1955 on a California highway. The badly wrecked car was purchased by car customizer George Barris, who created the customized 1949 Mercury that Dean drove in the movie, "Rebel Without a Cause."

Barris is famous for creating the Batmobile from the 1960s "Batman" TV series as well as the Munster Koach used in the series "The Munsters," and several other TV and movie cars.

Barris had also customized the Porsche for Dean, adding the number "130" and the nickname "Little Bastard" on the back of the car.

Barris sent the wrecked Porsche around the country as part of a police safety demonstration. The car disappeared shortly after one such demonstration in Florida.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dean's death, the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Ill., is exhibiting artifacts from the crash including a passenger-side door from the car. The Museum says it will pay $1 million for the car, if someone will come forward to sell it.

To be eligible for the $1 million payment, the car will have to be authenticated by Barris, the museum said in an announcement.

The price would not be an unreasonable amount for a museum to pay for the car, said McKeel Hagerty, president of Hagerty Insurance a company that insures collectible cars.

Ordinarily, a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, in nearly pristine shape, would sell for about half as much, he said.

[AutoInsane]

Two views on what may have happened to the shell of the Porsche:

The shell of the Dean car was being transported to a road safety exhibition in Salinas when the truck skidded and crashed. The driver was killed.

Stolen from the scene of that fatal accident was the shell of James Dean's car. It's never been recovered.

Another version of the disappearance of the shell was reported in a Los Angeles Times article on 30 October 1989. George Barris (the guy who sold the car for parts) was quoted as saying the last time he saw the shell was when he exhibited it in Florida in 1958. The car was loaded on a truck afterwards, but eight days later when the truck arrived at its destination, the car wasn't there. No mention of an accident

[SOM2001SS]

There was a "Behind the Headlights" show about James Dean and the car a while back on the Speed Channel. Pretty interesting. I remember some of those curse details in that show too.
BTW, the James Dean Fest car show in Fairmount, IN was the first car show I ever went to Pretty good show.

[47Hammer]

I heard a story that the engine was sold to some doctor who was a club racer and was later killed at some racetrack. Anyone hear that one?

[AutoInsane]

From Snopes.com :

Claim: Parts from James Dean's crashed Porsche Spyder were re-used in other automobiles, with disastrous results.

Status: Undetermined.

Origins: James Dean was killed in a car crash on 30 September 1955 when his new Porsche Spyder crashed head on into another car. Dean's passenger was thrown from the car and survived, but Dean was pinned inside. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. After the accident, many fans refused to believe Dean was dead.


Back to the "haunted" Porsche. The following "information" comes from a newspaper article. Make of it what you will:

After the accident the Porsche was sold to a second-hand car dealer who put it on public view.

Car designer George Barris next bought the car and planned to sell it for parts. When the car was delivered to his yard, it rolled back off the truck and broke a mechanic's legs.

Troy McHenry, a Beverly Hills doctor, bought the Dean engine and used it to replace the engine in his Porsche. The doctor was killed in a crash the first time he took the car out.

(Troy McHenry died on 22 October 1956 during a automobile race at the Pomona Fairground near Los Angeles. He was driving a Porsche Spyder, but I've yet to determine if Dean's engine was in that car.)

Another unnamed doctor bought the Dean transmission. He too was later seriously injured in a car crash.

An unnamed New Yorker bought two of the Dean tires. His car crashed when both tires mysteriously blew out at the same time.

The shell of the Dean car was being transported to a road safety exhibition in Salinas when the truck skidded and crashed. The driver was killed.

Stolen from the scene of that fatal accident was the shell of James Dean's car. It's never been recovered.

[Canucklehead]

So if this car does surface who owns it?. I would imagine george would still be the owner unless it was insured and the company paid him out. Then the insurance company would then be the owner and the person that comes forward would then be arrested for possesion of stolen property. Very much the same way that the missing transport truck loaded with 69 camaros that dissapeared, the insurance company owns them.

[Donutblue]

Murray is absolutely correct. But let me add a twister for ya. --- What happens when the insurance company that pays the claim from many years ago goes under and Bankrupt ?? Their remaining assets already distributed, and years have passed. Try to finder the owner then.