With demand in the US for the latest 550 spyders, the Porsche factory produced runs of them to be shipped across. 550-0026 was ordered by racing driver John Porter who had previously designed and built the Aardvark which was a small bore little sports racer based on the French Panhard Junior sports car.

With engine # P90016, the white spyder with red darts was complete on 2nd March 1955. Porter raced his spyder on the west coast against competitors like James Dean in his 356 speedster. At one of these meetings, Dean admired Porter’s spyder and discussed at long length the racing attributes of the car, which is thought to be the main influence towards Dean wanting a 550 spyder for himself.

The spyder featured in the February 1957 Road and Track magazine in a road test for the 550 spyder. At most events Porter raced with #169 on his spyder and entered many races at tracks like Riverside, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs up until August 1958.