Interesting artifact for sale on BaT -- the transaxle from James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/gearbox/
The provenance on this seems pretty solid, despite the fact that most of the rest of the 550 is unaccounted for. Apparently the wreck was bought by a doctor/racer in SoCal who stripped it of (some?) parts and then disposed of it. His family still has the engine, I guess, which he used for a time front-mounted in a Lotus IX he called "Potus."
https://bendsandcurves.com/2020/11/2...mp-connection/
George Barris was involved, too, showing off what he claimed to be the wreck and then ultimately "losing" it, though historians seem to think his story is full of holes.
Anyway, I was chatting with a friend who's a little obsessed with the Dean story and he mentioned that Donald Turnupseed, the guy who hit Dean, was actually a car guy and a hot rodder, too. I thought that was interesting, because I've only ever heard him described as a "college student," and the Ford Tudor he was driving gives the impression of a big family car.
But I guess even though he didn't talk about the wreck hardly at all, he wrote a friend from the Navy a year afterward and mentioned some of the work he'd done on the car (apparently he was a terrible speller):
Quote:
I had my ford [1950 Ford Tudor] fixed like we had planned on the ship. A 3/8 by ½ Merc engen. I salvage[d] the manofold and carbs were all that were left. A brand new set of Offenhouser heads gone, a H&M magneto run down the throught [throat] of a new eagle cam
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According to the flathead guys, a "3/8 x 3/8" was a thing back in the day, and it referred to a bored and stroked flathead. The first 3/8 means a 3 and 3/8 bore, and the second means a 3/8 increase in stroke; this would have been a pretty serious build back in the day. A 3/8 x 1/2 is obviously similar, but even more extreme in terms of stroke; the engine would have had a bump from 3.75" of stroke to 4.25," and displaced just over 300 cubic inches, which is a lot for a flathead. With multiple carbs (Stromberg 2 barrels in double or triple were popular) and Offenhauser heads that 1950 Ford would have moved along pretty well.
None of this matters much to anything, I just thought it was an interesting twist and kind of a neat part of the story that doesn't get told much.