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Reply to "Would be really interested on your opinion:"

I consider this car a Rorschach Test for such claims. 

550-0082 engine

550-0082, "completed in March 1956, it was delivered new in Belgium’s racing colour of bright yellow to Ecurie Nationale Belge, ...Without a doubt, the car’s most significant event was the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans, Unfortunately, Dubois and Hacquin were disqualified after pitting to add oil on the 70th lap ...Its final race with Ecurie Nationale Belge was the 1957 Swedish Grand Prix where the car finished 8th in class with Tassin and Ms Hacquin.

 

"From 1958 through the early 1960s, 550-0082 was sold to Jacques Thenaers, who ran it in hill climbs, minor races and rallies. According to a series of letters in the car’s history file, it was rebodied as a coupe by APAL and fitted with a 2.0-litre Carrera engine after being purchased by Edmond Pery from Ecurie Francorchamps around 1965 and subsequently sold to Belgian racing driver Pierre Bonvoisin. In APAL guise it continued to race in Belgium through 1967. Sold to a Mr Michaelis of Embourg, Belgium, in September of 1970, at this time the car had a S-90 engine. Sometime thereafter in his ownership, the car was taken off the road and it remained in storage for roughly two decades. After passing through Philippe Jegher’s of Esneux, Belgium, chassis no. 550-0082 was purchased by Corrado Cupellini of Bergamo, Italy, in March of 1989 missing both its engine and APAL bodywork, before passing to Bruno Ferracin in May of 1995.

"The car was later purchased by Peter Ludwig of Germany in January 2000, and a comprehensive restoration, which included producing new bodywork and sourcing a correct series engine and transaxle, was undertaken by Porsche Zentrum Würzburg in 2000 at a cost of nearly €100.000. Afterwards which the car participated in the 2001 Mille Miglia Storica."

The car is considered by bidders and experts to be as real as any other real one even though it was a "donor car" for a fiberglass kit and retains almost nothing of its original equipment. Engine is long gone. The body it has now was made by the Porsche elves but even I, a rank amateur in 550 detail knowledge, can see several nonstandard things in the above photo, including:

*Voltage regulator mounted in the wrong spot

*Wires misrouted

*Fuel lines incorrectly routed

*Clam catches are incorrect & like nothing the 1950s factory supplied.

I could go on. 

To me, the beauty of this hobby is precisely that it creates the option—if not the imperative—to laugh loudly at the purists' most sacred gospels. Of course 550-0082 is more of a real Porsche than, to cite a random example, BH550-00B1. But is it as "real" as 550-0060, which was never raced but also never re-bodied? 

I love that I don't have to care!

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  • 550-0082 engine
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