Porsche 550 Spyder, Silver

Porsche introduced the 550 Spyder at the 1953 Paris Auto Show, a small, low open car built for racing. Its engine was the Type 547, known as the Fuhrmann engine after Ernst Fuhrmann, an air-cooled, all-aluminium 1.5-litre flat-four with two overhead camshafts on each bank, giving 110 PS at 6,200 rpm in its first form. Only 90 were made between 1953 and 1956. The 550 took class wins at Le Mans and in the Carrera Panamericana in 1953, Hans Herrmann won the under 1,500 cc sports category of the 1954 Carrera Panamericana in one, and in 1956 the 550A gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car race, the Targa Florio.

This one is silver, with a blue stripe edged in yellow over each rear wing, Spyder script on the front wings and Porsche lettering under the crest on the bonnet. The headlamps have yellow lenses, with two small round lamps set low beneath them, and the steel wheels are chromed with vented rims. A low wrap-around screen fronts the open cockpit and its pale steering wheel, a strap holds down the rear deck, and twin grilles are set into the tail. It is shown on a black gloss plinth, raised on posts, and built at 1:18.