Car FYI

1956 Ford Thunderbird at the 2009 Canadian International AutoShow (Photo taken by Chris Nagy) Recognized as being one of the most prolific auto brands, Ford Motor Company has produced well over 400 million automobiles entering 2025. Among one of their much-revered models celebrating 70 years since its debut, Ford’s Thunderbird launched as a near-perfect counter to the Chevrolet Corvette. With standard V8 power and added luxuries inside its two-seat 1950s interior, the Thunderbird enjoyed greater sales than its Chevrolet rival with 16,155 cars sold in 1955 making it an instant classic .  Produced between 1955 and 1957, the first generation Ford Thunderbird remains admired for how simply it combines elegance and performance. An attentive fan of the early T-birds will be further captivated by the year-to-year differences of the car. The glorious debut in 1955 was followed by improvements in 1956 and a significant exterior and interior update for 1957. By observing a few key details of...

Photo Credit: Porsche AG untitled Towards the end of May, an online auction was held for a legitimate one-of-a-kind piece of automotive and Hollywood memorabilia. After 10 days and 42 bids, the listing ended with a sum of $382,000 in American money (about $465,000 Canadian) for the transaxle that once resided in a rare Porsche 550 Spyder sports car owned by iconic 1950s actor James Dean and linked to his tragic fatality. Described in length in an article published last month on this website , a four-speed manual transaxle viewed as one of the few documented components connected to the Porsche Dean lost his life driving on September 30 th of 1955 was listed on the vehicle-centered Bring a Trailer. According to the auction listing, the component was stored in a wooden crate for decades and eventually made its way to Massachusetts. Featuring a serial number of 10 046, transaxle was mounted into a steel display stand for exhibition. The seller of the Porsche 550 S...

Photo Credit: Porsche AG untitled More than 65 years after James Dean’s fatal highway crash on U.S. Route 466, a verifiable piece has surfaced of the vehicle involved in the ill-fated Porsche 550 Spyder the 24-year-old actor drove in his last moments of life. Through an online auction being held on Bring A Trailer , buyers with a desire to obtain a rather ghoulish gearbox. The Porsche 550 Spyder was one of the first purpose-built race cars assembled to establish a name of what was once a small sports car located in Stuttgart, Germany. A derivative of Porsche’s 356 production car, the 550 Spyder’s compact, lightweight stature (the 550 was in reference to the vehicle’s weight in kilograms) combined with a mid-mounted 1,500 cc flat-four engine proved almost instantly superior in competition. Entering competition in 1953 by Porsche, the 550 Spyder cemented much of the early on-track success for the brand including a class victory at the 1953 24 Hours of...