Photo: Bring a Trailer/SwiftMotoring
There’s a market for celebrity memorabilia and a smaller niche for more macabre stuff related to showbiz. Small as it is, it still generates plenty of profit because humanity will forever be fascinated with death and whatever comes after it.
It’s no surprise then that the sole surviving part of Little Bastard, the Porsche 550 Spyder James Dean was killed in on September 30, 1955, sold at auction for a pretty penny. Neither is it surprising that the same part, the transaxle, is going on display at The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The transaxle emerged on Bring a Trailer late last month, with the seller claiming ownership since 2020 and presenting it on a metal frame for display purposes. The myth around the 550 Spyder is that it was “cursed,” since actor and racer James Dean, forever the symbol of youthful rebellion and disillusionment, died in it just weeks after buying it. After the crash, parts from the Porsche were repurposed, and the receiving vehicles too were involved in a string of accidents—one of them fatal.
Of course, to assume that a car, or anything else for that matter, can be “cursed” and cause injury or death on its own is ridiculous. Or not, depending on who you ask. Because Zak Bagans, star of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures and the owner of The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, definitely believes these things are real.
He is the one who ended up buying the transaxle for $382,000 after placing six bids on the platform. In one comment, he says the piece will go on display at the museum in Nevada because he wants “everybody” to see it. Porsche purists did not take the announcement too kindly, saying they would have preferred to see the iconic 550 Spyder rebuilt with whatever original parts could be flushed out.
Speaking to TMZ, Bagans says he has no doubt the transaxle is “cursed,” much like the car was. Since the transaxle is the only known piece to still exist from Little Bastard (the body itself has been lost since the ‘60s, when George Barris reported it stolen from a shipping container), it is very likely it still carries the “curse” that killed Dean.
Even if it’s not, it will be worth its weight in gold—in tickets to the museum.
The transaxle emerged on Bring a Trailer late last month, with the seller claiming ownership since 2020 and presenting it on a metal frame for display purposes. The myth around the 550 Spyder is that it was “cursed,” since actor and racer James Dean, forever the symbol of youthful rebellion and disillusionment, died in it just weeks after buying it. After the crash, parts from the Porsche were repurposed, and the receiving vehicles too were involved in a string of accidents—one of them fatal.
Of course, to assume that a car, or anything else for that matter, can be “cursed” and cause injury or death on its own is ridiculous. Or not, depending on who you ask. Because Zak Bagans, star of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures and the owner of The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, definitely believes these things are real.
He is the one who ended up buying the transaxle for $382,000 after placing six bids on the platform. In one comment, he says the piece will go on display at the museum in Nevada because he wants “everybody” to see it. Porsche purists did not take the announcement too kindly, saying they would have preferred to see the iconic 550 Spyder rebuilt with whatever original parts could be flushed out.
Speaking to TMZ, Bagans says he has no doubt the transaxle is “cursed,” much like the car was. Since the transaxle is the only known piece to still exist from Little Bastard (the body itself has been lost since the ‘60s, when George Barris reported it stolen from a shipping container), it is very likely it still carries the “curse” that killed Dean.
Even if it’s not, it will be worth its weight in gold—in tickets to the museum.
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