“Unraveling the Enigma: Could James Dean’s Iconic Car Hold Dark Secrets of a Cursed Legacy?”
Soon after buying the 356, however, Dean traded it up for the doomed 550 Spyder. He planned to race it in the Salinas Road Races but never had the chance.
“Little Bastard”
Dean nicknamed his new purchase “Little Bastard”, which was a name that his friend, Warner Bros. stunt driver Bill Hickman, called Dean. By the terms of his contract, he was banned from all racing during filming and calling the car such a cheeky name was a way to defiantly show the studio that he’d return to the sport as soon as shooting was over.
He had a custom car painter named Dean Jeffries paint “Little Bastard” on the rear of the Porsche, and the number 130 on the front hood.
Words Of Warning From A Fellow Actor
On September 23, 1955, two days after purchasing the Spyder, Dean spotted the British actor Alec Guinness outside the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood. Dean introduced himself and showed off his new acquisition. Guinness (pictured here) thought the car looked “sinister” and was struck with a bad feeling.
He later wrote of the encounter, “[E]xhausted, 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 in response but was dead exactly seven days later.
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