Porsche Type 550 A Spyder & Herrmann - winners 1954 Carrera PanAmericana

Description: This rare photograph came originally from Porsche. It was taken during the the 1954 edition of the Carrera PanAmericana road race! On the left hand side of the photo, we see the WINNER of the 1,600cc Small-Sports Class , the magnificent Hans Herrmann, sitting behind the steering wheel of his equally magnificent number 55 Porsche Type 550 A Spyder. This image was taken on November 23, 1954. Hans Herrmann finished the race in a time of 19:32:33:000. This means an amazingly quick average speed of no less then 97.678,31 mph (157.198 km/h)! And he not only finished first in the 1,600cc Small-Sports Class, he also achieved an incredible third place overall , behind two five litre Ferraris 375 models, driven by Maglioli and Hill / Ginther. An incredible performance! It is an absolutely gorgeous image which was taken during the 5TH AND FINAL edition of one of the most famous roadraces ever: the Carrera Pan Americana, which was ridden in Mexico. We have more images available of Hermann in the Porsche Type 550 A Spyder during the Carrera PanAmericana. The photographed Porsche Type 550 A Spyder of Hans Herrmann was very similar to the 550 that Porsche prepared for the 24 hour race of Le Mans in 1953. The highly tuned engine was almost the same. However, because of the dusty and hot Carrera PanAmericana racing circumstances, the Solex carburetors of the photographed 550 were equipped with air filters and an auxiliary oil tank was fitted as well for extra cooling. Porsche was so very successful in the extremely heavy Carrera PanAmericana that they named quite a few of their cars after the famous race. The following Porsche’s have been called Carrera (which stands for “race” in the Spanish language): Porsche 356 , Porsche 904 , Porsche 911 (1963 - 1989) , Porsche 964 (1989 - 1993) , Porsche 993 (1993 - 1998) , Porsche 996 (1998 - 2004) , Porsche 997 (2004 - present) , Porsche 924 and off course the Porsche Carrera GT . The Porsche Type 550 A Spyder was inspired by the smaller Porsche Type 356 Spyder which was created and raced by Walter Glöckler in 1951. The Porsche factory specifically designed to build the 550 Spyder in car racing. The 550 was designed as a very low and aerodynamically efficient car. It was so low that former German Formula One racer Hans Herrmann drove it under closed railroad crossing gates during the 1954 Mille Miglia. The 550 became known as Spyder or RS , and gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio. Its successor from 1957 onwards, the Porsche 718, was even more successful, scoring points in Formula One as late as 1963. A descendant of the Porsche 550 is generally considered to be the Porsche Boxster S 550 Spyder; the Spyder name was effectively resurrected with the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype. Interestingly, the 550 is amongst the most frequently reproduced classic automobiles, like the Shelby Cobra and Lotus Seven. Several companies have sprung up in the last 25 years, some of which build near-exact replicas from the ground up, including spaceframes built to exacting specs from Porsche blueprints. Some of the companies that make replicas are Boulder Speedster, Chuck Beck Motorsports, Automotive Legends, Chamonix do Brasil, Thunder Ranch, and Vintage Spyders. The Carrera PanAmericana was raced from 1950 through 1954. It was held on open roads in Mexico that ran from a southern Mexican west-coast city towards Texas. The race was formed to celebrate the competition of the Panamerican Highway. It was a multi-staged race across the country that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship. The race saw entrants from factory teams, privateers, and amateurs. On average, only one-third of the entrants were able to finish the race. The first cars to run the race had top speeds of around 100 mph. By 1954, the cars were easily running at 170 mph. The vehicles were not adequately designed to protect the drivers at speeds this great. Being run on open roads meant that many areas of the course could not be managed; live stock, people, obstacles, and a number of other scenarios could make their ways into the road and cause disaster. The decision to cancel the race in 1954 was sad, but necessary. Many people agree that the Carrera Pan Americana race was one of the most grueling road race ever conceived. The race was open to stock production vehicles. A few marque's took advantage of this difficult course to prove their vehicles stamina and toughness, Porsche was one of them! Professor Ferdinand Porsche initially started the company called "Dr. ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931, with main offices at Königstrasse in the center of Stuttgart. The company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting, and did not initially build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, a "Volkswagen" in German. The first Porsche, the Porsche 64, was developed in 1939 using many components from the Volkswagen Beetle. After World War II, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car because he could not find an existing car that he would be interested in buying. The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria and had aluminum bodywork: the modern Porsche company was born. The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production was begun. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. Porsche commissioned Zuffenhausen-based company Reutter Carosseri, which had previously collaborated with Porsche on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. Porsche constructed an assembly plant across the street from Reutter Carosseri; that assembly plant is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road certified in 1948. Not long afterwards, on January 30, 1951, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke. In post-war Germany parts were generally in short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle including its engine, gearbox, and suspension. The 356, however, had several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production and many VW parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts. The last 356s were powered by entirely Porsche-designed engines. The sleek bodywork was designed by Erwin Komenda who also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs have, from the beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but producing automobiles that are very well balanced. In 1964, after some success in motor-racing, namely with the Porsche Type 550 Spyder, the company launched the Porsche 911 another air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, this time with a 6-cylinder "boxer" engine. The team to lay out the body shell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda who led the body design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made changes to the design not being approved by him. Company leader Ferry Porsche took his son's drawings to neighbouring body shell manufacturer Reuter bringing the design to the 1963 state. Reuter's workshop was later acquired by Porsche (so-called Werk II). Afterward Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today known as Keiper-Recaro. Hans Herrmann used to not only drive Formula One races, he also established a magnificent name as a Sports car racing driver. He origins from Stuttgart, Germany. In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on August 2, 1953. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 10 championship points. In Sports car racing, he also scored the first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche in 1970, on a Porsche 917. The racing career of Herrmann, who is a baker by trade, spans from cooperation with pre-war legends like Alfred Neubauer to the beginning of the dominance of Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He took part in now legendary road races like Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana and is one of the few remaining witnesses of this era. Hans im Glück (lucky John) escaped from several spectacular incidents or accidents. Herrmann had a remarkable Mille Miglia race in 1954, when the gates of a railroad crossing were lowered in the last moment before the fast train to Rome passed. Driving a very low Porsche 550 Spyder, Herrmann decided it was too late for a brake attempt anyway, knocked on the back of the helmet of his navigator Herbert Linge to make him duck, and they barely passed below the gates and before the train, to the surprise of the spectators. From 1954 to 1955, he was part of the Mercedes-Benz factory team, as a junior driver behind Juan Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling, Hermann Lang and later Stirling Moss. When the Silver Arrows came back for the 1954 French Grand Prix to score a 1-2 win, Herrmann drove the fastest lap but had to retire. A podium finish at the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix was his best result in that year as he had to use older versions of the Mercedes-Benz W196, or the least reliable car. In the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix his team mates Kling and Moss had to abandon early due to the extremely hot conditions on the southern hemisphere in January. Herrmann was called in to share his car with them for a 4th place finish, giving one point each. Fangio won with two laps more. Hans was quick in the 1955 Mille Miglia with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, comparably or even faster than Moss, but was less lucky than in 1954, as he had to abandon the race. A crash in practise for the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix put Herrmann out for the ill-fated 1955 season, even though a comeback in the Targa Florio was intended. The next years saw Herrmann racing for many marques, in F1 for Cooper, Maserati an BRM. In Berlin's AVUS during the 1959 German Grand Prix the brakes of his BRM failed, he crashed in a spectacular way, being thrown out of the car and sliding along the track with the car somersaulting in the air. With different versions of the Porsche 718 being used as a sportscar and as Formula Two, Herrmann scored some wins for Porsche, mainly both the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring and Targa Florio. When it was turned into a Formula One in 1961 due to the rule changes, the results in F1 were disappointing. Herrmann finished 15th (last) in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, which was one of only two races in F1 history to have no retirements. He left Porsche at the beginning of the 1962 season feeling that he as a local from Stuttgart was No Prophet In His Own Land compared to Californian Dan Gurney and 1959 GP-winner Jo Bonnier from Sweden. Gurney scored two F1 wins with the new Porsche 804, but Porsche retired from F1 anyway at the end of 1962. With the small cars of the Italian Abarth marque Herrmann spent 1962 to 1965 driving in minor races and hillclimbing events. He only took outright wins in lesser sports car racing events, such as at AVUS or the 500 km Nürburgring. The Abarths were hard to beat in their classes from 850cc to 1600cc, though. Being the only pro in a small team Hermann learned a lot about testing and developing, which helped him later. However, being dissatisfied with the preparation of his car for the 1965 Schauinsland practice, Hans went home to witness the birth of his son, Dino. At the end of the year he left Abarth for good to return to the manufacturer closer to his home. In 1966 he returned to Porsche for a comeback in the World Sportscar Championship, as Porsche started a serious effort there. Following several podium finishes with the still underpowered 2 Liter Porsche 906 and later models, he won the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona in a 907 as well as the Sebring 12 Hours again, now together with Swiss Jo Siffert. The overall win of the 1000km Nürburgring always eluded him, even though Herrmann had taken part in each of these races at the Nürburgring since they were introduced in 1953, and had finished second three times in a row from 1968 to 1970, behind team mates Jo Siffert and/or Vic Elford. Herrmann missed the win in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Porsche 908 by only 120 Meters, but it was he who finally scored the long-awaited first overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours for Porsche in 1970. He was assigned to Porsche Salzburg, the Austria-based factory-backed team owned by the Porsche family, which mainly entered cars painted red and white, the Austrian colors. In heavy rain, he and his team mate Richard Attwood survived with their Porsche 917K #23 as the best of only 7 finishers. Half jokingly, he had promised to his wife before the Le Mans race that he would retire in case of a win there. Having witnessed fatal accidents of colleagues too many times, eg. before the 1969 German Grand Prix when his team mate and neighbor Gerhard Mitter died, the 42 year old announced his retirement on TV, after having driven the winning car in a parade through Stuttgart from the factory to the town hall. To get out of his contract with Porsche Salzburg, Herrmann had to recommend a replacement driver to Luise Piech. Using his contacts, Herrmann built a successful company for automotive supplies. He was kidnapped once in the 1990s and kept in a car trunk for many hours before escaping. Hans, eg. at age 75 at the 2003 Solitude revival, still drives his old race cars at meetings, displaying as no other that he has never lossed his magnificent and amazing driving skills! You can always contact us for more Porsche and other automotive photos! This is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of Porsche ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance to own this photo. It has a nice large format of ca. 8" x 10" (ca. 20 x 30 cm). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing. Shipping costs will only be $ 10.00 regardless of how many photos you buy. For 5 or more photos, shipping is free! All our photos are modern photos that are traditionally made from what we believe are the original negatives and are copyright protected. (Note: A. Herl, Inc. does not appear on photo, for ebay purposes only)No copyright expressed or implied. Sold as collectable item only. We are clearing out our archives that we have gathered from various sources.All items always sent well protected in PVC clear files and board backed envelopes. They make the perfect gift and are perfectly suited for framing. They will look gorgeous unframed and will be a true asset nicely framed with a border. They are a gorgeous and great asset in every home, workshop, workplace, restaurant, bar or club! First come - first served. And you can always contact us for your requests. Please ask any questions before the auction ends.

Price: 9.95 USD

Location: Utr.

End Time: 2025-01-20T07:41:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 10 USD