The Porsche 550 Spyder

In the early 1950's Porsche began to realise that they needed a car that was going to be competitive and well they wanted a car that would be a perfect race car but the 356 just was not powerful enough to be competitive. In 1953 the Porsche 550 was born and this was their first competition car that Porsche had built. What made the 550 so special was that it weighed very little due to the aluminium body and a tubular frame but what's more it was open top.

The only team that Porsche were racing against where the Volkswagen team and in their class at the Le Mans they finished first and second in the 1500cc class. Then Porsche had a other win in the famous Pan Americana Mexican road race!

The 550's were on a winning streak and because of this Porsche began to dominate the motor racing scene worldwide. The 550 was such a good racing car because it was such a manoeuvrable car but not only that it was quick in fact it was extremely quick and because of that it wiped the floor with the competitors. The Porsche 550 was so popular on the track that it became inevitable that off the track it was popular and boy were they right every single one of this super quick perfect handling cars was sold and it became near impossible to find one that was for sale.

Porsche began the production of the 550A in 1956 this was an ever so slightly modified 550 but once again it was a success. The jaw dropping performance of it which shocked the entire world motor racing community by winning its first race in Targa Florio which is a notoriously dangerous road race but to the amazement of the whole motor racing industry it walked over the more powerful rivals like Ferrari and Jaguar. This run of good racing fortune did not stop at its first few races. Over the next 5 years or so it won almost every single race it was entered in. The media loved the car but for not only when it was winning but when on the odd occasion it didn't win this is thought to have bought in even more media attention!! So the Porsche 550 Spyder was a racing success and it made Porsche a really good name in the motor racing industry and even to this day Porsche are extremely competitive.