Few cars have had more racing success and are more legendary than the Porsche 550 Spyder. From the model’s first competitive outing (at the time it was known simply as Type 550) in May of 1953, Porsche immediately knew it had a winner. In a torrential rainstorm, Helmut Gloeckler piloted 550-01 to the 1,500-cc-class win of the Nürburgring’s Eifelrennen. Inspired by the new car’s instant success, Porsche readied two Type 550s for the Le Mans 24 Hours which was only two weeks away. This second outing turned out to be even better than the first. The team of Paul Frere and Richard von Frankenberg won the 1500-cc class in 550-02 with Gloeckler and Hans Herrmann right behind them in 550-01. From here, international victories began to pile up.
It should, therefore, be no surprise that customers began to line up for the winning Porsche 550 Spyder. All told, approximately 90 550s were constructed (many of them for U.S. customers) with approximately 15 of these being works cars. And they were winners worldwide.
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