James Bryon Dean was a hollywood legend.
Despite being in just 3 films, he was already cemented as one of Hollywood's finest, thanks to his iconic roles
in Rebel without a cause, East of Eden and Giant.
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Most of Dean's money from his acting roles went into buying high end cars - although acting was his bread and butter, he was truly passionate about motorsport.
Eventually, Dean managed to get himself a beautiful Porsche 550 Spyder.
When it came out in 1953, it was one of the fastest cars around.
Despite its small engine, it was capable of outrunning much bigger cars,
thanks to weighing just 550kg. With a 1.5 litre four cylinder putting out 108hp and 121nm of torque, it had an astonishing 196 hp per tonne, putting it above even the 300sl Gullwing which came out the next year, and the legendary Jaguar xk120. Suffice to say, Porsche had a winning formula on their hands.
There was one downside to the shockingly low weight of the 550 though.
It wasn't really able to withstand crashes very well. They were infamous for crushing like a can of coke under high speed, making them extremely dangerous for the few lucky enough to ever drive them.
The 550 wasn't dean's first rodeo in the Porsche world. In march of 1955, Dean traded in his 53 MG TD for a brand spanking new Speedster,
which he drove hard. He competed in a number of races to great success, and it was at this point that he was under the spell of racing.
On September the 21st of the same year, just around when he was finishing up filming on Giant, he traded in the Speedster for the legendary 550 Spyder, which he got from the same showroom. Presumably his ever growing love of racing paired with a nice pay check made it a
necessary purchase for the 24 year old.
Legend has it that James himself had earned the nickname "little bastard", after a stunt driver who he was friends with gave it to him.
Bill Hickman, who gave him the nickname, was called "big bastard" in return by Dean.
Dean then decided to get some minor aesthetic modifications done on his 550, to make it race ready. Along with number 130 across the car, he also had his nickname painted on the car, which transferred the nickname over to the 550 too.
Shortly after getting the 550, he also bought a 1955 Ford country squire, which he planned on using for transporting his 550 to race events.
Just 9 days later, Dean's luck would run out. Dean and his mechanic, Rolf Wutherich were at competition motors, doing some final race prep for an imminent race that weekend over at Salinas.
Now although Dean had bought his Ford with the intention of using it as a way to tow his 550 to and from race events, he had a problem.
The 550 hadn't clocked up enough miles to have been broken in yet.
Therefore, Dean's mechanic decided that driving the 550 rather than towing it could be a good way to bring up the miles to let him race.
So, Dean did just that.
Dean began a near 300 mile journey to the event, departing from
Hollywood at around 2pm after stopping to fill up. Rolf Wutherich, his mechanic, was in the passenger seat. The plan was to go north up the golden state highway, and then further north to eventually get to the race.
About an hour and a half after leaving,
Dean was pulled over by a policeman a bit south of Bakersfield,
because he had been caught driving 65 in a 55. It wasn't just Dean who got in a bit of trouble though. Hickman, Dean's friend and Hollywood Stunt driver and Sanford H Roth, a photographer, got caught going 20 over in Deans Ford Estate and were handed a ticket. Since Hickman had a trailer attached, he should have been going 45, and subsequently got a ticket.
After this minor kerfuffle, the gang went west in an effort to avoid the 25 limit through the middle of Bakersfield. The road they joined onto was the SR166/SR33. This road was a known road used by racers to get from southern California up to Salinas faster, and had a nickname.
The Racer's Road. This bit's actually not entirely clear, by the way.
A researcher and Biographer by the name of Warren Beath,
instead thinks they had actually gone through Bakersfield and joined the US 466 from there instead. Regardless, the trip was plain sailing until quarter to six that evening.
A black and white Ford Tudor, headed east down the 466, began turning left to head north towards Fresno. As the Ford was turning left, it crossed over the middle of the road, directly in front of Dean, who was barrelling towards them at 85 miles and hour. As a keen, experienced Racing Driver, James knew that what was immediately ahead of him spelled
disaster. In a quickfire attempt to avoid a head on crash, he tried steer out of the way. Unfortunately, Dean ran out of tarmac and time.
The Ford and the 550 mashed each other to pieces on impact.
The Porsche cartwheeled a few times, landing by the edge of the road.
The sheer speed of the collision moved the Ford into the opposite lane.
1 окт 2024
