The Werks cars were designed with only one purpose – to win races for Porsche. The light, agile body enabled the 550 to be competitive against the larger V8s of the Italian marques on the track. With the prototype 550s, Porsche documented a number of different configurations to the body, windscreen and cockpit area to aid greater aerodynamics. For track racing, they found the combination of a single screen driver windscreen along with a custom made aluminium tonneau cover over the passenger side created the least wind resistance.

This was screwed into the dash area at the front and brackets were fitted above the passenger seat to ensure it was secure at high speed. As many of the ‘customer’ spyders were destined for the track, most were fitted with the tonneau on delivery as opposed to the flimsy canvas roof designed for it. Interestingly, the 550A utilised a canvas tonneau secured by clip fasteners.