Whenever you think about James Dean and his cars, it's impossible not to think about the vehicle he was driving at the time of his tragic death in September 1955. The talented Hollywood actor was just 24 and many at the time felt that the Porsche he was in charge of was cursed. Sports cars still capture the imagination today, as netcars.com shows and this particular car adds to the mythology of the charismatic star.
Dean drove many cars both on and off set but it was the Silver Porsche Spyder that he will forever be associated with. When Dean acquired the vehicle, there were only 90 such models in existence and it is shrouded in rumour and conjecture. It's said that when his friends first saw the car, they immediately had a bad feeling about it and stated straight away that it would be 'trouble'.
The car that subsequently became known as 'The Little Bastard' was to take Dean to his death on the 30th September 1955 when the actor set off with his mechanic, Rolf Wutherich to a sports car race in Salinas, California. Wutherich had spent the morning preparing the vehicle and getting it ready for competition standard for the meeting.
Sadly, history recalls that they never made it, as they were involved in a head on collision with a white Ford Custom Tudor on US Route 466. Dean died at the scene whilst Wutherich survived. However, he never fully recovered mentally and after several suicide attempts, he died in a road accident in his native Germany in 1981.
This unfortunate legacy does tend to detract from some of the great vehicles that Dean drove. A famed car enthusiast, he had been at the wheel of some classic cars both in his role as a Hollywood actor and in his everyday life.