At the Ralph Lauren car exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which opens to non-members on March 6, a plaque next to a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder contains the following:
“In September 1955 legendary actor James Dean … crashed his new 550 Spyder and was killed. This tragic event immortalized the Porsche name and transformed a relatively small company into a very big business.”
So… if it worked for Porsche with James Dean, how come it didn’t work for Piper when JFK, Jr. crashed his Saratoga? If anything you’d expect the truck-like family man’s 6-seater Saratoga to have fared better than the rear-engined Porsche, which was notorious for hard-to-handle oversteer.
[Don’t rush down to the MFA to see this exhibit. There are much more interesting car collections at a lot of the U.S.’s car museums, including the one 30 miles west in Stow, Massachusetts at the Collings Foundation.]
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: “I knew John-John, and he was no James Dean.” Dean was killed when an oncoming car turned left across his lane; oversteer was not a factor, though speed and the setting sun behind Dean might have been. The other driver claimed he didn’t see the Porsche. Sounds like a typical motorcycle fatality, doesn’t it?
There’s at least one reason to go: the Bugatti Atlantic coupe. mmmmmmmm. 30s Bugattis.