INDIANAPOLIS — “Jimmy, in my view, always looked like he belonged in a Porsche or, in fact, anything with four wheels.” – Lew Bracker in his book “Jimmy & Me”
In June 1954, Lew Bracker was invited by composer and friend Lenny Rosenman to have lunch at Warner Bros studio, where Rosenman introduced him to James Dean. Though Dean grew up in Fairmount, Indiana, and Bracker in California, they became fast friends who shared automotive adventures as chronicled in Bracker’s 2013 book, “Jimmy & Me.”
When they met, Dean drove a 1953 MG-TD sports car because the studio wouldn’t let him ride the motorcycles he enjoyed. Dean also enjoyed racing and became enamored with Porsches, taking delivery of a new 356 Super 1500 in February 1955. While Dean was a Porsche fan, it took his friend a little longer to appreciate them.
“Jimmy’s Porsche had so little effect on me that I traded my Oldsmobile for a Buick Century Convertible,” Bracker said on the phone. “Owning one of these strange things didn’t even enter my mind.”
Dean’s enthusiasm eventually swayed him. While Jimmy was in Texas filming "Giant," Bracker cruised L.A. thinking about driving a Porsche through local canyons in ways his large Buick could never handle. In June 1955, he visited Europa Motors in Studio City, California, and bought a Porsche 356 Speedster 1500. When Dean next saw Bracker, he slyly asked, “What did you do?”
One of their favorite places to cruise was Mulholland Drive, above Hollywood – a road known for its sharp curves along steep canyons. Despite the Porsche's capable performance, Dean and Bracker restrained themselves.
“We were very respectful of being on city streets,” Bracker said. “Jimmy always said the most dangerous part of a race weekend was driving to and from the track. People thought we were crazy on Mulholland, but we didn’t go all-out or take up both lanes around a blind curve. We didn’t want to tempt fate”
Fate would, however, be met when a little silver Porsche changed the course of both their lives.
“I called Jimmy, and my opening was, ‘Guess what I saw in the window at Competition Motors,'” Bracker said.
“What?” asked Dean.
“A brand new Spyder.”
“Oh.”
“I got the distinct feeling he wanted off the phone,” Bracker said. “I didn’t hear from him until the next day when he drove up in the Spyder.”
The simple mid-engine Spyder inspired today’s Boxster. Bracker quickly cut a deal to trade his Speedster 1500 for Jimmy’s ex-Super Speedster. The race was on.
Despite objections from his studio, Dean had successfully driven in a road race at Palm Springs, but a second at Bakersfield put his car into the hay bales. His third race at Santa Barbara destroyed the Porsche’s engine. It was an inauspicious start, but one full of ambition and love for the sport.
With Dean’s pit-side encouragement, Bracker raced at Santa Barbara in September 1955. He placed second at Palm Springs in December 1955 using his friend’s former Porsche and helmet. Bracker competed until 1957 and is recognized as a significant driver in Porsche’s racing development.
Given his record, one wonders how Dean was as race driver.
“Jimmy drove like Sterling Moss, who was tough on the machinery,” Bracker said. “Jimmy wanted to finish first - hopefully with a car under him. I patterned my driving after Juan Manuel Fangio, who was smooth and easy on the machinery.”
In 1955, Dean purchased a Ford station wagon to pull his Porsche to races. Along the way to a race in Salinas, California on September 30, 1955, Dean rolled the Spyder off its trailer at a fuel stop and was joined in the passenger seat by fellow Porsche enthusiast Rolf Wütherich.
The very low-slung Spyder was a mid-engine racecar that never should have been on the road – a fact that became apparent when several miles down the road, a driver failed to see the Porsche at an intersection and hit Dean’s car on the driver’s side. In the days before reinforced crash cells and airbags, it was a horrendous accident. Dean died at the scene; Rolf endured a long recovery.
Bracker was not with Dean on that day, choosing to stay in L.A., but discusses the accident in his book.
“People have asked me over the years, ‘If you had gone to Salinas with Jimmy, could you have or would you have tried to prevent Jimmy from taking the Spyder off of the trailer?'”
Bracker would have and another thing is for sure: They would have at the very least argued long enough for Dean’s car to have crossed the intersection after the Ford had passed.
For those who think James Dean enjoyed tempting fate, Bracker sees it differently.
“He did not have a death wish. He had a life wish. We had plans for a Porsche/VW dealer. We thought we had time,” Bracker said.
In May 1956, Bracker bought a new Porsche 356 1600 Speedster and drove it to Fairmount to spend time with the Winslows, Dean’s paternal relatives. The family’s farmhouse is just down the road from Dean’s final resting place and near the garage where Jimmy hung out with his Indian motorcycle years before.
While in Indiana, Bracker needed an oil change, but Porsches were so rare that Indianapolis didn’t yet have a dealer. So, Bracker drove to the same motorcycle shop where Jimmy hung out years before.
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