Porsche Spyder 550-141 As Pilote Knew It

A blog reader suggested this post indirectly.  He wanted to know about "great rides Pilote has had."  Only two in iconic cars: this Spyder and a Ferrari 250 GT.  Both were short, and I can't say anything about what they were like to drive.  So there's not much to say but "wow!"

But I can elaborate on the Spyder a bit.  In 1963, my summer job was "gofer" for an imported car store that sold Alfa Romeo, British Motor Corporation, and Porsche.  The owner was already an SCCA National Champion in Alfas: in G Production with a Giulietta (1959) and in D Production in a Giulietta Veloce (1961).  He would go on to win two more in an Alfa Romeo GTZ in 1964-65.  Which brings me to his Porsche Spyder, chassis 550-141.

He was running a partial season in his Veloce in 1962 when he heard in the paddock at the Dunkirk, NY SCCA Regional that a Spyder was for sale.  This car had had a typical Spyder history, which is worth recounting here to give a feel for those days.  550-141 was first sold to Porsche Salzburg in March, 1958.  Salzburg was Ferry Porsche's sister's dealership in Austria.  They  raced it for a year, with Ernst Vogel driving, principally in the Austrian Hill Climb Championship, which he won.  He also made a flying kilometer speed record attempt on an Autobahn, averaging 136 m.p.h.

Ernst Vogel (suit & tie) with 550-141 at the Gaisburg, Austria, hillclimb, August 15, 1958.  Spyders were the weapon of choice for hillclimbs in those days, whether factory or customer-entered.  There are five in this picture.

Porsche Salzburg traded 141 for an RSK Spyder that winter.  The factory reconditioned the car and sold it to Harry Blanchard of the U.S.A., an already successful Porsche pusher.  He raced it for a year.  Blanchard was killed in a racing accident in Buenos Aires in January, 1960.  His estate sold 141 to Millard Ripley, another Porsche racer.  Ripley broke a half-shaft at Dunkirk in 1962, and apparently had lost patience with the car.  Thus its "short sale" (so to speak) to my then-employer.

My employer didn't have much luck with the car--especially compared to his prior and later success in Alfas.  The car was fast, but not as fast as the newest RS-60/61 Spyders.  At Road America, in the June Sprints, the engine blew.  "It had a roller crank, which just stopped rolling."  He ordered a new 1.7 liter engine from Stuttgart, which is where my personal connection begins.  (To tie a ribbon around 550-141's 1963 season, it came 4th overall in the SCCA's USRRC race at Mid-Ohio in September, and was sold in the spring of 1964.  Alfa Romeo had offered my then-employer a friendly price on a GTZ after he co-drove to a class win at Sebring in a factory GTZ.)

550-141 as Pilote knew it in the summer of 1963.  It had a 1.7 liter engine , Dunlop R-7 "Green Spot" (rain) tires,  lovely light blue metallic paint, and plexiglas blisters over the Weber intakes.  Spyders were so light that you could run rain tires in the dry for sprint races.  This picture was taken at the June Sprints, in Thunder Valley, where the engine self-destructed a few laps later. 

After his Road America ka-BLAM-o (apologies to David Hobbs), my employer ordered a new "short engine" from Porsche.  A short engine was complete and ready to run, except that it lacked ancillaries like carbs, exhaust system, and cooling fan.  These he moved over from the engine blown at Road America.  Then he let me "help" him test-run it before he installed it in the car.  It was the latest development of the Typ 547, the Typ 692/0, with square cam covers (as opposed to peanut-shaped).  He bolted it to an engine stand, bolted the "stinger" exhaust to the heads, and pointed it out the open door of the garage.  He then dropped the oil discharge and intake hoses that connected the engine to the dry-sump tank into a Rubbermaid pan on the floor, filled with fresh Castrol R.  He then touched the alligator clips from a 12-volt battery to the starter solenoid. "Whump!"  The engine settled into a clattering, whirring, 1000 r.p.m. idle.  Then the warm-up: he ran the engine up to 3000-4000 r.p.m. a few times, and then began blipping it to 5000+.  It was night-time, so each time he closed the throttles on the big Weber carbs, the engine backfired through the stinger exhaust with a pop!-pop!-pop!, sending spears of blue-and-yellow flame into the night air.  It was in these 5 minutes or so that I became a Porschephile.

The Typ 547 roller-crank engine (with the peanut-shaped cam covers), as installed in an early 550 Spyder.   This torquey engine helped the 550 dominate the 1.5 liter racing class for years.  Its main "issue" was the 4 cams driven by shafts and bevel gears from a layshaft in the crankcase.  Valve timing was critical and hard to set, and could and should be set individually for each valve.  Not a problem for factory-assembled engines, but a tear-down/rebuild had to be done by a 547-trained mechanic or carefully and patiently by a knowledgable owner.  The very existence of this engine is a"for want of a nail..." story: the original Porsche 356 crankcase was not big enough for 1.5 liters unless a built-up roller crank was used to clear the walls.  Later, Porsche cast revised cases and could take the engine up to 2.0 liters with shell bearings. 

To wrap up my 550-141 stories:

My former employer tells about when Interstate 90 was about to be opened.  One evening, he took 141 to the U.S. 91 interchange and drove it balls-out to the OH 306 interchange (about 4 miles).  I have no idea if he achieved 136 m.p.h. going uphill.  But "the guys at the dealership (about a mile away) could hear me."  When I hear a sportbike cranking it in the distance on a summer evening, I sometimes think of 141.

He once picked me up at my parents' house on another summer evening and drove me back to the dealership.  Over bumpy country roads.  Try that in your modern 1.5 liter racing sports car with a front splitter.  He was busted for "whatever we can find" by the local cop on the return run.  The officer hadn't seen 141 coming up the steep hill on the way to my place, but he sure heard it cresting the top at 4000 r.p.m. on the way to the rev limit.  The engine was blipped as the cop looked for citation potential.  After 2-3 minutes, my employer said "I haven't got time for this now, follow me to the dealership if you want to ticket me."  I have always wanted to have this kind of chutzpah in a traffic bust--and never have.

Then it was time to shake down the car before the September 1963 race at Mid-Ohio.  My employer, his service manager, his office manager, and I piled into his 1958 Pontiac Bonneville tow car and took the Spyder down to Nelsons Ledges.  He did a few laps to satisfy himself that everything was working properly and that nothing leaked.  Then we each got 2-3 glorious laps as passengers.

Nelsons Ledges, 2.0 miles around.  Leaving the pits (top), you are easily doing 90 m.p.h. into Turn 1 (top right) in a 550 Spyder.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I grabbed a frame rail as 550-141 cut in toward the apex, and held on tight for the rest of my ride.  My employer drove at 8/10's in the corners and less than that on the straights.  If you are only used to street cars, you have no idea how much lateral grip old race cars can maintain in turns like the "double carousel" at Nelsons Ledges.

As I've posted previously, all props to 550-141's current owner for a painstaking 25-year restoration.  He could have given up.  He could have cut corners.  He didn't.  550-141 has a period-correct "new" rebuilt Typ 547 engine, assembled from the best parts that came in the boxes, done by the acknowledged expert on this side of the Atlantic.

550-141 was, at best, a basket-case when acquired by its current owner in 1984.  To appreciate what you are looking at,  consider that the rebuild time on a Typ 547 engine is 120 hours at "expert" shop rates.  Or that the entire body had to be reconstructed (although the original deck lid still existed).  On a budget, over 27 years.  The owner did some of the work himself.  Some people make fun of Porsche fanatics.  I don't.  This car was brought back from the dead at a point where it was at risk for becoming a parts car for other Spyders .  So when contemplating the distinctions between restored/re-created/cloned/tributed, we need not elevate our blood pressure.  It is enough that 550-141 arose from ashes.

I cannot close this post without a bow to the owner of 550-141 when I knew it.  He is among the most expert Porsche pushers in the world.  As he tells it, he was captivated by a picture of the Typ 356 as a student at M.I.T. around 1950.  He's still carrying the flame.  He has seen 186 m.p.h. in his 917, and drove it fast as recently as 2007, before acquiescing to his spouse's wish that he retire from demo runs.  Back in the day, he was known as "Mr. Alfa Romeo."  That is an automotive life well and fully lived.

The former owner of 550-141, hauling the mail at age 77, in his Porsche 917.