Rare Porsche 550A Spyder Sells For $3.7 Million In Italy

A 1957 Porsche 550A Spyder by Wendler sold for an eye-popping $3.7 million last week at RM Sotheby’s Villa Erba auction.

The 550A Spyder was the German car manufacturer’s very first purpose-built race car.

It is underpinned by a steel-tube spaceframe and powered by a 135 hp engine. Which sounds, and is, puny, but then the 550A Spyder weighs a mere 530 kg (1168 lbs), so , for the time, its performance was more than adequate.

This particular example is chassis number 0121 and was the 15th of just 40 units ever built. It was originally sold to a racing driver in Denmark in March 1957 and immediately put to work where it claimed victories at races that April, June, and August.

Also Read: 1958 Porsche 550A Spyder Races From Podium To Auction Block

British racing driver John Manussis purchased the small racer in late 1958 while living in Kenya where the car was imported. After four years of ownership, the 550A passed into the hands of a couple in Tanzania before being sold to a dealer in Nairobi who painted it blue and entered it in a number of local events. An Italian collector purchased the car in 1978 and owned it for 31 years and competed in the Mille Miglia several times with it.

The 550A Spyder underwent a comprehensive four-year restoration between 2012 and 2016 and has only covered 100 km (62 miles) since being brought back to its original condition. It remains to be seen if the new owner intends on entering any historic events or not, but it would be fascinating to see it return to racing.