I play golf some Monday afternoons with John Sheff and Bruce Beagley and Bruce, who lives nearby, occasionally arrives in one of his very cool vintage Sports Cars.
Porsche 550 Spyder, 1955
In June he arrived in this vintage replica 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder made by Beck Development.
According to Wikipedia, “The Porsche 550 was a racing sports car produced by Porsche from 1953 to 1956. In that time only 90 Porsche 550s were produced, …. The Porsche 550 is a mid-engine car with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine.”
It sounds great, sits low, and moves very fast… way ahead of its time in 1955 and inclusive of many engineering features now common today.
Unfortunately, this is the car that James Dean drove to his death in October, 1955 in California
Austin Healey Sprite Mark 1, 1958
On August 3rd, another Monday, Bruce showed up in an Austin Healey Sprite Mark 1 from 1958.
According to Wikipedia, ” [It] was produced in the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1971. … It was intended to be a low-cost model that “a chap could keep in his bike shed”, yet be the successor to the sporting versions of the pre-war Austin Seven. The Sprite was designed by the Donald Healey Motor Company, with production being undertaken at the MG factory at Abingdon. It first went on sale at a price of £669, using a tuned version of the Austin A-Series engine and as many other components from existing cars as possible to keep costs down.”
That price of £669 comes out to be about $2,575 in 2020 US Dollars!
| Year | Pounds | US Dollars | |
| 1958 | £ 100.00 | ||
| 2020* | £ 1,964.00 | $ 2,572.84 | |
| * | 1.31 | $ to £ in 2020 |
The whole front end lifts up to access the engine, which, Bruce explains, was used on all types of British Motor Company cars, such as the Mini, and for boats! Someone told him the blue manifold color was usually reserved for boats. Bruce says if this is the case the low level usage from a boat may be why he has enjoyed such long , trouble free service from the engine.
The dash shows choke and start knobs along with, just above the key insert in the center, one toggle left or right switch for the directional signals!
A fun car to drive and hear:
Here's What I Found 