eben wrote:Strange that James Dean used Champion plugs. Maybe bosch wasn't making them at that stage.
...also I think if Dean didn't die in that car-crash he would have died the next day from lung cancer.... count the amount of pics of him with ciggies.
In those day drugs was not available
Yes and don’t forget he was even better with the bottle
The 550 is also sometimes refered to as the James Dean Porsche
I don’t know why but I was actually quite interested with the dudes life style but I must say he was a real drop out and in todays life he would have been a druggie and (in my opinion) a real piece of shit. He was a rebel and bad example for young people,and maybe that’s why the young people liked him.
I read a research article compiled by a transport faculty at one or other university in the 80 s on his accident. The findings were that his accident was not as bizare as people want to make it out. –normal car accident at relative slow speed--
Ultimate 550(from history.com) On this day in 1955, movie star James Dean dies at age 24 in a car crash on a California highway. Dean was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed "Little Bastard," headed to a car race in Salinas, California, with his mechanic Rolf Wuetherich, when they were involved in a head-on collision with a car driven by a 23-year-old college student named Donald Turnaspeed. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:59 p.m. Wuetherich, who was thrown from the car, survived the accident and Turnaspeed escaped with minor injuries. No charges were ever filed against him.
James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana. He studied drama at the University of California, Los Angeles, before moving to New York City, where he appeared in plays and TV shows and took classes at the Actors Studio with legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg.
Dean rose to stardom in 1955 with his role as Cal Trask in East of Eden. Dean's performance in the film, based on the John Steinbeck novel, earned him a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. It was the first time in Oscar history that an actor was nominated after his death. The young actor's next film was "Rebel Without a Cause," also released in 1955, in which he played a rebellious teen named Jim Stark. The film, which co-starred Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, turned Dean into the poster boy for disaffected youth and cool. Dean’s final film "Giant," released in 1956 after his death, was an epic tale of a Texas cattle rancher and his family. Dean starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson and was nominated posthumously for a second Oscar for his performance as Jett Rink.
Dean's success as an actor enabled him to pursue his passion for racing cars and motorcycles. Despite his short life and brief acting career, he endures as a Hollywood icon. He is buried at Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, where fans continue to flock to his grave every year. People also pay tribute to Dean at a memorial located near the accident site in Cholame, California. (end).
I think his fame is mainly based on his early death while his acting career and the developing moving making industry left a lasting impression with people.
And if you are still reading two sites for 550 fans PLUS a lot of good a/c info
http://www.spyderclub.com &
http://www.spyderowners.com 
