1957 Porsche 550 Spyder Replica

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When I selected this car I knew nothing about the original 550’s. I liked the kit because it was mid engine, low center of gravity and light. Auto Classics International produced the kit. For a kit that had been in production for a while it had it share of problems.

The car used the early swing axle VW transmission. There was an option for front and rear independent syspension. Steel tube trailing arms and coil over shocks were supplied. One of the first things I found was the rear suspension trailing arms were too short. With all of the adjustment used on the rod ends at the trail arm pivot point there was still too much rear toe in. When I called the owner of the company he told me this was normal. I didn’t buy that one and lengthened the arms 1-inch. When I did get it running that turned out to be the right decision. The rear was then easy to set for any throttle steer characteristic I wanted, from a little throttle steer with a push by closing the throttle to really hanging the back out.

The kit is supplied with the body mounted on the frame. This process was done with rivets and lots of fiberglass. I understood that it was too complicated to be left to the average builder. Apparently it was also too complicated for them. Now with the rear suspension installed I found the body was installed on the frame crooked. The body was off centered on the frame at the rear wheel centerline by 5/16-inch. This may not seem like much but it makes a 5/8-inch difference between the rear wheels. This made one side hang out to where the fender well lip would have hit the tire. The other side the tire was tucked well  into the fender well. The body was on the frame correctly in the front. Cutting the body loose from the frame seemed like it would be too hard. I ended up cutting the engine and transmission mounts off and moving them over.

The last point was the convertible top, the main reason I selected this kit. The Beck Spyder doesn’t offer a top and I didn’t need a fair weather car. The top on the ACI kit was a $500 dollar add-on, and it didn’t fit. With the top frame installed the top was about 1 ½ inch from touching the body. This time I called I found out the owner of ACI had skipped town leaving the company behind! Eventually someone else took over the company. The new operators weren’t interested in my problem with the top. I cut the frame down and removed the seat tracks to maximize headroom. As it worked out trying to get into the car with the top on and the small door open reminded me a pictures I had seen of Chuck Yeager getting into the X1. Also the top used snaps on the rear deck. At speed the snaps would let go and the top would fold over on top of me. I ended up replacing the snaps with a twist-lock version. If anyone is interesting in building one of these take a close look at the Beck.

Both the ACI and Beck kits aren’t setup to easily isolate the hot air coming out of the engine from the cold air going in. That part I never did do. The sheet metal work needed was a bit much for me. I did add an oil cooler to the nose. ACI had told me not to do this because a cold engine with no high oil pressure bypass would blow the cooler lines. Apparently they had never heard of an oil thermostat. The thermostat allowed the cold oil to return right back to the engine without having to be pushed through the lines all the way to the nose and back.

Once I tossed out the manual the rest went together well. It turned out to be a fun little car. Total weight with 1/2 tank of gas was 1135 pounds. 67% weight on the back and a CG almost on the ground. It is the only car I have ever consistently slid under power and still easily pointed. The stock front VW suspension didn’t allow for adjustments but there were a lot of setups in the rear. It was always sensitive to throttle in a turn. It would turn with a nice hard side loading but given much throttle the rear would step out. Not once did it ever feel like it would spin though.

The car was very low. The top of the windshield was belt buckle high to me. There is a train track crossing to go through to get to and from where I work. It used to be that regularly the crossing gate would be down without a train coming. Usually when heading home people would get tired of waiting for the gate to go back up and start going around it. I found one day that the Spyder would fit under the gate. Here in Tucson there are a lot of high ridding 4X4s I never did get used to looking over at a stop light and coming face to face with a locking hub. Those trucks would worry me. The car would just be a speed bump to them.

The engine was a 1776 with Ingle 110 Cam and dual 2 barrel Webers (36mm). Transmission was stock ratio 1967 with 4.12 ring and pinion. I actually wanted a 3.88 gear set, it was no problem to rev out the engine in 4^th gear.

After a cold winter and a rainy summer I got tired if seeing the car just sitting in the driveway and sold it. Kind of miss it now, the weather has been great this year.

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