KK Scale 1:12 1957 Porsche 550A Spyder #130, Little Bastard: James Dean (w/Figure)

James Dean’s career as an actor and racer was cut tragically short on September 30, 1955, when his “Little Bastard” Porsche 550 Spyder was involved in a catastrophic collision on the way to a race meeting. Dean was killed instantly, but Little Bastard would go on to cause considerably more trouble.

In fact Little Bastard had caused upset almost from the moment Dean bought it. A week before the fatal crash Dean met British actor Alec Guinness in Los Angeles. Guinness had an ominous feeling on seeing the Porsche and would later write in his diary: ‘The sports car looked sinister to me . . . exhausted, hungry, feeling a little ill-tempered in spite of Dean’s kindness, I heard myself saying in a voice I could hardly recognize as my own: ‘Please never get in it. . .  if you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.’”

Dean laughed it off and set about preparing the car for the Salinas sports car races with his Porsche mechanic Rolf Wütherich. Enlisting stuntman Bill Hickman to help out, the original plan was to tow Little Bastard to the races, but Wütherich felt it would be better for Dean to get used to the Spyder and run the engine in. On that fateful Friday, Wütherich sat next to Dean, while Hickman followed with his truck and trailer. Police pulled over the convoy and issued a pair of speeding tickets just outside Bakersfield. It didn’t slow Dean down one bit.

Dean was barreling down Route 466 at an estimated 85 mph when a young Cal Poly student named Donald Turnupseed, driving a Ford Tudor, decided to make a sudden turn on to Route 41. The impact sent the Ford almost 40 feet down the road and ejected Wütherich from the Porsche. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at the Paso Robles War Memorial hospital at 6.20pm.

Despite being declared a total loss by the insurance company, the car was sold on and would continue to cause carnage wherever it–or even parts of it–went.