The "Killer Porsche" Myth
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 the Porsche was sold to a second-hand car dealer who put it on public view (supposedly in support of a campaign for road safety). He charged viewers twenty-five cents each to look at it.
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.
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.
You decide.
Barbara "Dean nicknamed the car 'Little Bastard' -- maybe 'Christine' would have been more accurate" Mikkelson
Feel free to add more myths, auto related or not that you have heard of:)
