Porsche 550 Spyder Replica by Banham

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By the time James Dean fatally smashed his beloved ‘Little Bastard’ into Donald Turnupseed’s 1950 Ford Custom at California's Cholame Junction on Highway 41 on 30th September 1955, the Porsche 550 Spyder was already a legend in its own right.

Winning its very first race at the Nurburgring in May 1953, the 550 went on become a legendary giant slayer, defeating larger and far more powerful cars in race after race from the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana to Sebring and Le Mans. The Stuttgart firm's first bespoke racing car, its iconic status was cemented by the fact that just 90 were built between 1953 and 1956.

This isn't one of them. Instead this is a replica and therefore we are aren’t expecting you to stump up a couple of million quid to take it home, which has to be good news for all those of you who don’t work in banking. Or sit on the judging panel at FIFA. However, it is a tidy and well executed copy of the original Spyder and is based on classic rally-winning Skoda chassis and running gear.

Hell, the all-aluminium 1.2-litre 8-port pushrod engine even puts out 56bhp, which isn’t too far from the 70bhp of the 1.5-litre Volkswagen-derived original. Taken from a scrap 1989 Skoda Favorit with 53,000 miles on the clock, it runs on unleaded fuel and won’t need a team of Teutonic race mechanics to keep it in tune. It is fitted with fabricated inlet and exhaust manifolds mated to a new Skoda exhaust system, while the engine is mated to the original five-speed transaxle with centre shift.

It was built by the vendor using a kit supplied by Banham, a reputable firm who started out in life turning Ferrari 400s and Aston Martin V8s into convertibles in the 1970s. Correctly registered as a Banham 130 and fully road legal (complete with VRO chassis number and Q registration), it passed its IVA in August 2013.

The chassis is a semi monocoque arrangement having been modified from a 1987 Skoda Estelle donor vehicle with 35,000 miles on the clock and has an unstressed fibreglass body. It uses all of the original donor vehicle running gear, including dual circuit servo assisted front disc/rear drum brakes with wishbone front suspension, front anti roll bar and rear trailing radius arm suspension.

During the build the car received the following new parts: shock absorbers; tyres; water pump; battery; rear brake cylinders; radiator; rebuilt starter (new armature, brushes and solenoid); rebuilt front brake calipers with new seals; rebuilt SU carburettor. It has a front mounted 5.5 gallon fuel tank, electric fuel pump and fuel gauge with a low level warning light.

Said to drive well with an MOT to May 2016, the vendor advises that the car would benefit from some paintwork and bodywork tidying but is still very presentable, turns heads wherever it goes and will make an ideal hobby car for its next owner. Just don’t take it on Highway 41, okay? That might be pushing the recreation envelope a little too far…

PS: There is also a hard top and a windscreen included with this car.