52 replies to this topic

[King Nigel]

Hi there !

As you know, James Dean was more than just a racing fan and speed lover, he also drove at a few events in 1954 and 1955. It's hard to find all his racing results so I thought maybe one of you could help me and give me details of the races he competed in.
Thank you in advance for all your reply.

[Kuwashima]

Hmmmm....I would love to know some information about this too...

[FEV]

I know he did "several" races at Palm Beach in 1954 and/or 1955, but that's all....

[cabianca]

James Dean entered three race meetings with a Porsche Speedster which ran in the under-1500 Production Class. All were in California in 1955.
Palm Springs 27 March 1955
Bakersfield 1 May 1955
Santa Barbara 29 May 1955
He was wild, but fast, actually winning a preliminary race at Palm Springs.
On 21 September he traded his Speedster for a Porsche 550 Spyder at John von Neumann's Competition Motors in Los Angeles.
On 30 September he was killed in a highway accident while driving his 550 Spyder to a race in Salinas California. An old man named (believe it or not) Mr. Turnipseed misjudged Dean's speed because he was going so fast and pulled out in front of Dean who was unable to stop. Dean had received a speeding ticket earlier that day.

[Vitesse2]

Err, Cabianca, that should be Turnupspeed ... similarly unbelievable though!

[Wolf]

Recently, there was a docu on local TV about James Dean, mainly focusing on his racing and early demise... there was some (I wouldn't venture to say a lot) of the race footage. Maybe it would be wothwile looking it up, only if I could remember the title... Just thought you might want to know about the existence (if not the title) of such TV-show. But, if the name matters that much, I could bugger someone to have it checked up.

[armchair expert]

Didn't James Dean have a passenger that day? I vaguely recall that he had a Porsche test driver accompany him. This guy was apparently also involved in a later accident. And the 550 Spyder has a story to be told as well.
Curse, my feeble brain! I cannot remember any details.

[rdrcr]

I remember a show on the Discovery Channel that indicated James Dean probably never saw the other car due to a mirage effect from the highway. It was quite a while ago so I might have the cars switched as far has who couldn't see who, but I'm pretty sure it was Dean who couldn't see the other car. They used a computer to reconstruct the roads and conditions at the time of the crash. They concluded that it was a freak kind of thing that caused the accident. Not really anyone's fault.

I did some searching on the web regarding this issue.

The first thing I noticed is that lots of James Dean fans have lots of different stories about the incident. In some stories Rolf Wutherich, his mechanic dies in the wreck, in one report he has only minor injuries, in most hew suffers a broken jaw and leg but lives and many years later (1981) dies in a car wreck in Germany. In one account the driver of the other car is never identified by the police for fear of retaliation by Dean fans, in another account it was a farmer driving a truck, but in most accounts he's identified as Donald Turnupseed a Cal Poly student driving home for the weekend. Turnupseed's car is usually reported to be a Ford, often a Ford Tudor, one said a '46, others said a '50. In some accounts Dean didn't see Turnupseed, in others he did. In some accounts Turnupseed didn't see Dean, in others he did. In some accounts the collision was head-on, in most it was a glancing blow. In one account Dean was wearing a seatbelt, in most he was not. By all most all accounts he died on September 30th 1955.

So after sifting through all of the conflicting, unofficial, Nth hand information I could find on the web, here's what I came up with.

Did Dean See Turnupseed's Car?

Several accounts report that Dean did see Turnupseed's car, and said to Wutherich something like "That guy has to stop!" This is in several of the accounts I found, and seems to have been something Wutherich reported after the accident. So I believe that
Dean did see Turnupseed's car in plenty of time, but didn't expect it to turn in front of him.

Did Turnupseed See Dean's Car?

Most accounts also report that Turnupseed tried to stop, and skidded 30 feet. Unfortunately, it seems as if he was already in
Dean's lane when he was skidding (too bad ABS wasn't around then). So it seems that Turnupseed did see Dean's car, at least in the last couple of seconds.

Who Was At Fault?

The police blamed Dean because he was going a reported 85-100 mph. But it's pretty clear that Turnupseed was making a left turn in front of Dean.

A company called "Failure Analysis", now known as Exponent, did a computer reconstruction of the accident several years ago. hat's the sort of stuff they specialize in. They concluded that Dean was not speeding at the time of the accident. They don't have much info online, but what they have is at http://www.fail.com/...cases/dean.html

My take on it is that Dean was speeding. Another driver (John R. White) reported that Dean had passed him at about 85mph just before the accident. However, Turnupseed did turn in front of Dean. I suspect that the small size of Dean's car made Turnupseed think it was farther away, and Dean was moving faster that Turnupseed thought. So Turnupseed thought he had plenty of time to make the turn. When he realized he didn't, he panic-braked and skidded straight toward the oncoming Porsche. Dean *almost* managed to avoid Turnupseed's Ford Tudor, but was struck a glancing blow, which was enough to knock the 1500 pound Spyder out of control. Dean and Wutherich didn't use the seatblets that were in the car. Wutherich was thrown clear and survived (I'm surprised I've never heard this accident cited by people who think not wearing a seat belt will save their lives). Dean stayed in the car, but suffered fatal head and neck injuries, probably from hitting the dash/windshield/hood.

I don't know the details of Exponent's claim that Dean wasn't speeding, but that sort of thing is their expertise, so I'd tend
to have some respect for their finding. But if they say he was below the speed limit at the time of the accident, and he saw the
Ford starting to turn in front of him, he probably had time to brake and lose some speed. So I suspect he was well above the
speed limit when Turnupseed started his turn.

Bottom line: Turnupseed misjudged the time he had, or didn't see Dean until he had already committed to the turn. Had Dean not been speeding, there would probably have not been a collision. The jury blamed Dean.

There's a picture at http://www.eaglesk.f...uk/jd/life4.htm


Sorry I couldn't come up with more of his racing history.

[MattFoster]

Maybe some of the more distinguished members of TNF might have seen him race and give us their personal impressions of Dean the racer.

[Darren]

Quote

Originally posted by Wolf
...I could bugger someone to have it checked up.

Don, what sort of forum are you running? Sounds positively Roman...;)

Sorry Wolf for taking advantage of a small, but significant, difference in English usage. On the whole, it's ok if you bug me; buggering me is illegal in certain parts of the world.

[Wolf]

Point taken, Darren (actually I was not aware of that meaning of the word). And my appologies to people whom I intended to bugger...;)

[Kuwashima]

Quote

I could bugger someone to have it checked up.

Don, what sort of forum are you running? Sounds positively Roman.

At any rate, enough of that. An small tidbit: the current DVD edition of "Rebel Without a Cause" (a Dean movie, for those of you cinema-rily challenged) features a press interview done with Dean. Now, in the movie, 'Rebel', there is an illegal road racing scene, and it was the filmmakers' 'duty' to make sure all the impressionable teenagers out there (to whom the movie was targeted) knew that this was dangerous and wrong.

At any rate, they interviewed Dean, who looked totally unhappy to be there and 100% uninterested, and, in answering the very leading questions from the interviewer, he said that he races cars, but only on proper tracks. He said that on the road he is hugely cautious and drives quite slowly at all times - becuase public roads can be very dangerous. At any rate, today you can see the whole thing was total BS (to coin a phrase), and tragically, the guy loses his life just a few months later in a high-speed accident.

At any rate, considering events shortly after it, the interview is priceless - testimony to the way the world often works, sadly.

[MattFoster]

Quote

Originally posted by Wolf


Point taken, Darren (actually I was not aware of that meaning of the word). And my appologies to people whom I intended to bugger...;)

Your forgiven Wolf!

[cabianca]

Clarification
1. The mechanic (Weutherich) was injured in the Dean crash and died years later in another crash, in Germany. As mentioned above, 1981 was the year.

2. After the fatal accident, the Dean 550 was used for a "driver's education" display and taken around the country. During these travels, it was stolen and has never turned up.

3. The three race weekends I mentioned in my previous post (Palm Springs, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara) are the sum total of Dean's circuit racing career. He only raced his 356 Speedster. He never raced his 550.

[Joe Fan]

What is really odd about the James Dean death, was the fact that Masten Gregory's brother Riddelle was badly injured from a crash on the same exact day (Sept 30, 1955) while he was on his way to Salinas to compete in the same race. However, Riddelle was coming from Northern California (San Francisco) while Dean was coming from the south. Riddelle was real lucky to survive the crash as the left lobe of his brain was exposed from severe contact with the steering wheel/dashboard. And the crash wasn't his fault either, he got hit by a car trying to pass another and was almost hit head on. This crash pretty much ended Riddelle's race career. At the time, Riddelle was one of the top SCCA drivers in the Midwest.

[cabianca]

The Salinas weekend was a bad one for US road racing. Besides the Dean and Riddelle Gregory crashes, Phil Hill was called in during practice. When he came to the pit, he was told that his brother-in-law, racer Don Parkinson, married to Phil's sister Helen, had committed suicide. Hill left immediately for Los Angeles and was a DNS. Bad Karma that weekend for sure.

[King Nigel]

Ok, so we have it. Jimmy Dean entered 3 races :
Palm Springs 27 March 1955
Bakersfield 1 May 1955
Santa Barbara 29 May 1955

But does anybody can give us the whole results and eventually send pictures ? That would be:up: ! Thank you.

[FEV]

His results in this races and short comments can be found here :
http://www.jamesdean...cing/races.html

[rdrcr]

Thanks FEV...

I also understand that the Dean 550 (stolen or otherwise) was parted out and that the various parts were on cars that also crashed... anyone else hear of these bizarre stories?

[Wolf]

IIRC, that docu mentioned that police exhibited wreckage of Dean's car as a part of safety awareness programme, but w/o engine & gearbox. The use of those parts in racing cars, should, according to the urban legend, have brought misfortune to owners of the cars... But, IAMNM, that was based on few minor racing incidents, so one cannot speak of curse.;) As for parts from the stolen car, I seriously doubt that anyone could've identified them (with any credibility) as Dean's, and that they were more likely to find themselves in hands of collectors-Dean's fans than in hands of other racers...

[Lutz]

Hi,
the facts are, that car customizer George Barris bought the car after the accident. Barris was the guy who painted the No "130" and the name "little Bastard" onto the car before the accident.



Fact is also, that Troy McHenry died on 22 October 1956 during a automobile race at the Pomona Fairground near Los Angeles. He was driving a Porsche Spyder.

The legend says, that Barris sold the engine of the Dean Spyder to McHenry, but afaIk there is no proof for this.

The legend also says, that a man named William Eschrid was seriously hurt when his Porsche had an accident because the gearbox locked up. The gearbox was sold to him by Barris and it was taken from the Dean Porsche. No proof for this part of the legend is known to me.

The legend continues like this:
Two tires from the wreck were sold to an unknown man, who had an accident shortly after because both tires failed. (Who would buy tires from a car that had such a bad accident? Didn´t these tires have to fail ift the story is true?) Again, no proof.

Several more legends exist about people getting hurt, even when just touching the wreck, some stories contradict themselves.

My opinion, supposed the stories are true: McHenry died in a racing incident which is not related to the engine. Fatal accidents could have happened (and did happen) to many others those days.
The gearbox failure that caused the other accident could have been caused by a damage that occured in the accident that Dean had. The car was badly damaged, I would not have trusted in any part taken from the wreck.

[King Nigel]

Well thanx for the picture Lutz ;)
now does anybody knows the final classificatiosn of those races (not only to menstion Jimmy Dean) :
Palm Springs 27 March 1955
Bakersfield 1 May 1955
Santa Barbara 29 May 1955

What about the pictures ? The "Little Bastard" did not compete in those races, what about the right car ?

thanks again for the help.

[David McKinney]

Dean raced in the Modified race at least some of these meetings, and presumably ran in the Production races as well. Results of both, as far as I have them:

Palm Springs 27/3
FP
1 Ed Parker (Porsche)

FM
1 Ken Miles (MG R-2)
2 Cy Yedor (MG R-1)
3 James Dean (Porsche Speedster)

Bakersfield 1/5
FP
1 James Dean (Porsche Speedster)

FM
1 John von Neumann (Porsche 550)
2 George Beavis (Offenhauser Special)
3 William Eschrich (Offenhauser Special)

Santa Barbara 29/5
FP
result not known

FM
1 Ken Miles (MG R-2)
2 Cy Yedor (MG R-1)

Best I can do, sorry.

[SteveB2]

Along came a Spyder; sat down beside her;
something, something something to eternity
James Dean

CAn someone fill in the garbled lyrics? Just recently I made the Spyder connection. I haven't heard the song in awhile though.

[Lutz]

Here is a picture of the Porsche 356 speedster, which he raced:



more can be found at www.jamesdean.com

[King Nigel]

C'mon guys !

[Jim Thurman]

I'm glad this came up, over the years there have been so many different (wrong) locations given for the accident site. It happened at the small town of Cholame (locals pronounce it "Cho-Lamb"), where California State Highways 46 & 41. The intersection has been re-located since then. It's still an odd junction. I passed through the new junction in September of 1973 without even realizing how close it was to the site. Years later I stopped off at the monument (which was built in 1977 I believe).

In the past, in print, I read that Dean's accident happened at Bakersfield, Visalia, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Porterville, Salinas...you name it, all wrong. He passed through Bakersfield and was on his way to Salinas, but the others, I have no idea how they came up.

One racing bit I can add, all those courses Dean raced on were airport courses. Bakersfield was actually Minter Field, about 20 miles North.

Here's a URL for a site with some good info:

http://our.tentativetimes.net/cholame/

A search using Dean and Cholame should turn up a lot more.


Jim Thurman

[Jim Thurman]

I should have added to get out your U.S. atlases or California maps. If it's not a larger scale one, you probably won't find Cholame on it

Cholame is a post office/store/cafe. That's it.

For those looking, just follow State Highway 46 East of Paso Robles. On a smaller scale map, you might have Shafter and Paso Robles. Cholame is between those two points.

That's about the best I can do for those with small maps. You might try an online map service like Mapquest to pinpoint it better.


Jim Thurman

[maxpapis]

I don't really know too much more about Jimmy's racing career than what has already been discussed here, but I saw this quote on Jamesdean.com. Nothing could be closer to the truth.

"I'm Jimmy's cousin and I grew up with Jimmy on our farm in Fairmount, Indiana.
....When he went away to New York to be an actor, we had no way of knowing how much he would affect the world. To the world, James Dean is loved and revered as an American Icon - to me, he's just "Jimmy."

...Marcus Winslow

I know the Winslow family and to them he (James Dean) is just Jimmy. I think the family is still surprised by the fame that Jimmy has retained over the years. Every now and then a fan will show up at the Winslow house to see where Jimmy grew up. Marcus just shakes his head and walks away.

[King Nigel]

: Well now we know the races, where can we find the official results ? And pictures of the tracks and cars ?

Come on, give me some help

[dmj]

I watched same TV show Wolf mentioned (for once Croatian TV proved it could be useful ), and I remember Dean had an MG (TC or TD) before Porsches. I seem to remember that he used MG in some minor events too, but probably those fan sites would mention it if it is true. But I'm still curious - does anyone knows about it. I don't know how many sprints or local, maybe even unofficial races were held back then in California?

[King Nigel]

More details ?

[King Nigel]

Does anybody have some newspaper articles from those races ? Any iother documents ?

[King Nigel]

Thought it was time to comeback with this topic. Does anybody have doxuments or anecdotes about Dean's short racing career ?

[Doug Nye]

On the morning of the day he died James Dean stopped by a garage at which other cars due to run at that meeting were being finish-prepared. He asked if anybody would run in convoy for a bit of fun on the way there. The work wasn't ready - so they turned down the suggestion - and he and Wutherich continued alone. A couple of hours after the accident the second car came by - in time to see the mess still being cleared away - and police measuring up the scene.

As a general aside, several of the guys who ran against Dean thought he was flaky in the extreme - and a number were convinced he was queer - long before the word 'gay' was appropriated to that state of mind.

DCN

[MarkWill]

Sir Alex Guiness claims to have had a sort of "psychic vision" that James Dean was going to die in his Porsche. He wrote that he went to a pasta restaurant and there were no tables available, so he and his wife made to leave when James Dean (as it turned out) who was eating alone at one table jumped up and invited them to eat with him. After the meal James Dean took him to see the car, and Alex Guiness "came over all funny" and in an ominous voice predicted a bad end for James Dean. IMHO if I had been James Dean, and kind enough to share a table with some strangers, the last thing I would expect them to do was declare my imminent death - a strange way to end a meal.

Doug, the "gay" stories may be innacurate - it appears that he liked both genders, and he was ambiguous about which type he preferred. This is from a journalist friend who helped do some research on him once.

[Viss1]

Prompted by another thread, I'll share this link. It's the website for Beck Development, the company that manufactures excellent 550 replicas. This link will take you to their history page, in which they claim Dan Gurney was indeed following Dean. Perhaps Mr. Gurney can give us a yes or no on this.
http://www.chuckbeck...james_dean.html
I realize this isn't a primary source, but if nothing else, at least you will appreciate their 550 replica.;)

[jarama]

About Rolf Wutherich, codriver of Eugen Böhringer (Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, 1st in GT class, 2nd o/a, Monte-Carlo Rally '65) and Gunter Klass (Porsche 911, 1st in GT class, Monte-Carlo Rally '66) - whas he the same man sitting beside James Dean when the fatal crash?

Carles.

[indysteve]

Quote

Originally posted by SteveB2
Along came a Spyder; sat down beside her;
something, something something to eternity
James Dean

CAn someone fill in the garbled lyrics? Just recently I made the Spyder connection. I haven't heard the song in awhile though.

While we're reviving this thread, I'll give the lyrics from this section of James Dean by the Eagles:

Little James Dean, up on the screen
Wonderin' who he might be
Along came a Spyder, picked up a rider
And took him down the road to eternity

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

About Rolf Wutherich, codriver of Eugen Böhringer (Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, 1st in GT class, 2nd o/a, Monte-Carlo Rally '65) and Gunter Klass (Porsche 911, 1st in GT class, Monte-Carlo Rally '66) - whas he the same man sitting beside James Dean when the fatal crash?

Yes that was the same Rolf Wütherich. He never recoverd from the crash mentaly. Sad story.
I once crosed his way as a young boy and ran away like the devil came by to catch youg flesh ;)

Grüsse

[DOHC]

Quote

Originally posted by cabianca
On 21 September he traded his Speedster for a Porsche 550 Spyder at John von Neumann's Competition Motors in Los Angeles.

John von Neumann is an unusual name and one of fame. Does anyone know who this particular John von Neumann might be?

[dmj]

His biography can be found in this book: http://home.san.rr.c...cr50s/index.htm Definitely not related to other famous John von Neumann - "our" was a Porsche distributor for SoCal, and a man that introduced Porsche to American market. His family was from Vienna. John von Neumann of computer fame was from Budapest.

[DOHC]

Thanks dmj! :up:

I got curious as I once wrote a bio of the mathematician John von Neumann (of Budapest) for an encyclopedia. And I got worried that I might have missed pointing out that he was a Porsche dealer in his spare time.

[Peter Morley]

The reason that James Dean bought the 550 Spyder from Competition Motors was that he had already bought a Lotus mark 10 which was delayed, and being impatient he went and bought something else - his filming schedule forbid him from racing until the week ending Sept. 30th.

The Lotus was shipped to Dean without engine & gearbox, since he was going to fit a small (around 100ci) Offenhauser in it, but the car was delayed and Dean got impatient and bought the Spyder (trading his 356 in).

He had bought the Lotus via the well known, US based, British race driver Ken Miles who was also connected with von Neumann's Competition Motors garage.

The Lotus arrived in the States shortly after Dean's death and his estate sold the car to John Timanus who raced it for many years.

Eventually the Lotus made its way back from the States to England and since then into my barn in Belgium where the restoration is continuing.......

[cabianca]

Hard to believe this thread is now over five years old. Just to complete it, here is Dean's complete racing record. All in a Porsche Super Speedster

26 March 1955. Palm Springs. Production cars under 1500cc. 1st OA
27 March 1955. Palm Springs. Production & Modified cars under 1500 cc. 3rd OA, 1st in Class

30 April 1955. Bakersfield. Production & Modified Under 1500 cc. 3rd OA, 1st in Class.
1 May 1955. Bakersfield. Production & Modified Under 1500 cc. 9the OA, 2nd in Class

29 May 1955. Santa Barbara. Production & Modified Under 1500 cc. Retired

The 30 April and 29 May races were for "less experienced" drivers. These were not novice races, but were for competitors who had not competed in a certain number of races. I have not been able to discern that number.

The 26-27 March races and the 1 May one were open to all comers.

[metalshapes]

Quote

Originally posted by Lutz
Barris was the guy who painted the No "130" and the name "little Bastard" onto the car before the accident.

Sorry to reply at such an old Post, but George Barris was not the person who Painted that.

Dean Jeffries did ( famous for the Manta Ray, and he also owned a Porsche of his own at some point that he customised )
Jeffries worked for Barris at the time.

As far as the legend goes....
Since Barris is involved, my guess would be its all Smoke & Mirrors.

[thunder427]

Dean Jeffries is the man !!,worked for 'Barris',who was the main show in town in the 60's,part of that 'Hollywood' thing was to be different,Jeffries built some amazing cars in his own right,painted some pretty 'famous' Indy cars (Mickey Thompson Special )has his own restoration shop these days of semi-retirement,also owns the only GT40 convertable in the world,he built it for Ford show circuit,if I remember correctly,But,!!the real story is the Porsche mentioned by 'Metalshapes' it was purchased from Jeffries only to become part of an on going 'FBI' investigation,I believe the car has re-appeared now,stunning looking car,typical Jeffries style,'Form with Function' it's also written that 'Jeffries and 'Dean were 'Hot Rod and Racing Car' buddies...... the 'cool' set !!

[S&M Minis]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up, but the book "James Dean - From Passion for Speed to Immortality" by Philippe Defechereux was published in 2005 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dean's death. I read excerpts published in a magazine (can't remember what mag) that covered his brief racing career. A review of the book can be found at http://www.daltonwatson.com/dean.htm . There are several pictures posted at that link of some relevance to this thread. One, which I've seen published multiple times is a color shot showing Dean with the Spyder at a gas station on the way to the race - the Ford towcar and trailer in the background. Another shows the wreck scene with Turnupseed and Wutherich in the picture. The impact was clearly on the driver's side of the car. There is also a diagram of the intersection where the accident occurred. Click on the individual pictures to enlarge, and all without violating a copyright!

Several years ago I received an e-mail detailing the path of death and destruction incurred by cars inheriting parts from the Dean Spyder. They took it down to individual axle shafts migrating to cars that drivers died in. While I'm sure valuable and rare bits of the drivetrain were re-used on some very serious race cars - which by their very nature put the drivers at higher risk - the story was pure contrived bunk and was immediately deleted.

[Jerome]

Some seperate remarks:

1. I think James Dean was primarily heterosexual, but several biographers mention that he prostituted himself to male customers in his early days. Same old story about young people trying to make it in showbusiness.

2. Jimmy's 'unwillingness' in the aforementioned educational movie was probably caused by something different altogother: James Dean was as nearsighted as a mole. Without glasses on people, furniture, camera's all seemed a big blur to him. Marlon Brando, I believe, once said that James special way of walking and looking in the movies (brooding!) was partly 'created' by his nearsightedness. James acted without glasses, but drove and raced with glasses on (special smoked version).

So that James was so sullen and unwilling in that recording, could also be just that: someone who could hardly see, trying to talk to a blur and trying to walk through a room he didn't know.

3. Turnupseed, the other driver in the accident, was not 'an old man' (the pictures show that) but a man not much older than Jimmy, I believe. He was 23 or 24 at the time of the accident (he was born in 1932).

4. The story of Alex Guiness seems to be genuine.

5. Was it already mentioned that Dean got a speedingticket two hours before the accident? Anyways, the accident has been made much, much to mysterious. Dean drove too fast, and crashed into a much too sturdy other vehicle. If he would have had the luck to crash into a speedster of a youngster, then perhaps... alas, Turnupseed drove a 'sensible' car, a Ford Tudor. Echoe's of the future. Nowadays, the SUV's are much safer for the people in it, and much more dangerous for everyone outside.

[Seebar]

If any of the earliest posters is still interested: the authors of the Michel Vaillant comic books also publish a separate series, called "Dossier Michel Vaillant".

In 1995, they published a book about James Dean. It's done very professionally as far as I can see, digging up original photographs and the vehicle accident report.

Take a look at http://www.michelvaillant.com/ (only in French and Dutch), it's available on http://www.amazon.fr...lant james dean. The French version that is, you'd have to walk into a Flemish book store to get hold of a copy of the Dutch issue.