James Dean and the Porsche 356 Speedster: Love at First Sight

James Dean was associated with two iconic Porsche cars during his brief but spectacular life. The second was a newly purchased 550 Spyder in which he crashed and died on September 30, 1955. But his first Porsche was a 1955 Speedster—a car he used to compete in Southern California’s emerging sports car racing scene, and that raised the German automaker’s profile with enthusiast drivers in the United States.