Happy Halloween from all of us here at AF! Well, it’s also a ‘Freaky Friday’, so how about we delve into something a tad more ‘devilish’ in the automotive realm? Creepy cars…
If you’re a car enthusiast and also a horror movie buff, there’s no way you could not know about ‘Christine’. Based on a Stephen King novel and directed by John Carpenter, it featured a demonic ’58 Plymouth Fury. Starring John Stockwell (who later starred in Top Gun) and Keith Gordon (who kinda disappeared after that) it’s about a possessed car that Gordon buys and lovingly rebuilds, and soon it possesses him too…
The cool thing about ‘Christine’ is that she repairs herself. Inflict as much damage as you want, she’ll be in showroom condition like below the next day… If you’re intrigued you can read more about the movie here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_(1983_film)
But you know, truth is stranger than fiction and next we look at a car that seemed destined for infamy, seeing as how it caused the demise of one of the coolest guys to ever walk the face of the earth, James Dean (below).
It was a well-known fact that Dean was a bit of a speed-freak, he loved fast cars, but it was the beginning of the end when he took delivery of a very rare – one of only 90 made – silver 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, which he christened ‘Little Bastard’. Maybe that’s what pissed the car off, because it was reported that friends of Dean had a very ‘bad feeling’ when they first saw him pull up in it…
Dean and Porsche factory-trained mechanic, Rolf Wütherich (below, left) set-off to compete in a racing event in Salinas, California. Originally Dean had planned to trailer the car to Salinas, but since the Spyder was brand new, they decided to ‘break-in’ the car by driving it there instead. It would be his last drive. Below is reportedly the last ever photo taken of Dean, alive, just before they set off on that ill-fated journey…
At approximately 5.45pm on 30th September 1955, Dean wrecked the 550 Spyder while trying to avoid another car. Misjudging the distance by a fraction, and going too fast, he collided with it almost head-on. The wreckage was horrific.
Now what makes this story scary is that even after the accident – the Spyder was completely totalled as seen in the photo below – as if killing a Hollywood movie star at the height of his career wasn’t enough, parts of the car that were sold continued to bring misfortune to its new owners.
George Barris, a car customizer back in the day, bought the Spyder wreckage for $2,500, and while it was being unloaded at his garage, it slipped off the truck and crushed one of his mechanics, breaking both his legs. Barris also had bad feeling about this car so he sold parts of it to local racers. Two buyers, Troy McHenry and William Eshrid bought parts from the wrecked Spyder.
McHenry, who’d bought the 550 engine and installed it in his race car, was killed in an ensuing race when he went out of control and hit a tree. Eschrid’s car on the other hand, flipped over during a race. Despite serious injuries Eschrid survived and later revealed that his car – equipped with parts from the ill-fated 550 Spyder – ‘simply locked up while going into a corner’.
Even non-racers who came into contact with the Spyder suffered for it. A kid trying to steal its steering wheel badly gashed his arm, a young man who fitted two tyres from the Spyder onto his car was almost killed when both said tyres exploded suddenly while he was driving, within a week of fitting them.
Having had enough, Barris decided to get rid of what was left of ‘the little bastard’ by loaning the wreckage to the California Highway Patrol as part of its tour to promote road-safety. It seems the garage housing the wreck burned to the ground within a few days of taking delivery of the car.
During its display time in Sacramento, California, the car slipped from its display mountings and injured a visitor, breaking his hip. During one of the transport stages, tow-truck driver George Barkus was killed when the car fell on him following an accident.
These eerie mishaps continued into 1960, 5-years after the initial tragedy, and then suddenly it all stopped. After one of the ‘Safety Exhibition’ stages to Miami, Florida, the car was on its way to Los Angeles when it simply disappeared. Till this day the whereabouts of the ‘little bastard’ are unknown. Maybe it did a ‘Christine’, repaired itself and still cruises the highways, looking for Dean, or it’s next owner…or victim (cue demonic, maniacal laughter).
Happy Halloween from all of us here at AF!
[Image sources: Wiki, Tumblr, thethrottle.com, IMDb.com]
