Porsche in the US: Sixty years and a dead movie star

Talking of design classics, here's a Porsche Spyder. This is one of the cars owned by Steve McQueen, and also the one James Dean killed himself in, but we won't hold that against it.

My attention was first drawn to this car years ago, in a photo of Steve McQueen. Only the back of the car was visible in the shot, with McQueen sitting on it. But that was enough to send me off on a mission to track down the make and model.

It didn't take long, to be honest. The Spyder is a legend in car building. That is all down to Ferdinand Porsche and his decision to expand into the US market, because Europe didn't have enough money to buy his cars after the war.

After the first Porsche rolled onto the docks at New York in 1950 it was only a matter of time before a Hollywood movie star killed himself in one.

Then Steve McQueen got himself one.

And it's testament to Porsche that the Spyder is still turning heads 60 years after Porsche first set its wheels down in the US.

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