6 Porsche Urban Legends and Internet Stories
Believe only half of what you see, and none of what you see on the internet.
We've all heard the old joke about the drunk handyman who is asked to paint the front porch, and after the work is done, he comes inside and says, "that ain't no Porsche, it's a Ferrari." Or seen the post online about the low mileage Porsche (like the one above) with just a little water damage that can be picked up for a steal. Let's poke around the webs and see what the latest fake Porsche rumors and news stories online are.
1. The Legend of the $50 Porsche
Surely we have all heard the story of the car for sale ad with the absurdly low price. The buyer goes and looks at it, agrees to buy it, then after the paperwork is finalized asks why it is so inexpensive. The punch line is typically something like "My husband ran off with his secretary and told me to sell his car and send him the money." A little poking around online and you'll discover this story has been told and retold, with the first print version of it appearing in 1948 in England. Most recently an Australian site called RevengeSales staged a stunt with a 2010 Porsche 911 Carrera listed on their site for just $20k. It has made it to TV and movies in both an episode of Alice in 1983, and The First Wives Club movie. The car was even replaced with a record collection and made it into High Fidelity. You can read more versions of it and learn more history over on Snopes.
2. Buy One Get One Free Porsche
This one makes the rounds on email forwarders every year or so, sent to your inbox by your more gullible friends and relations. Perhaps that is the bright side of this being an election year? Less fake email stories about anything except the two candidates! The story, originally from a supposed humor site in New Zealand, is that a poorly thought out promotional coupon at a new California dealership resulted in 18 cars being given away for free. Never happened, but it sure would be nice. The whole story is on Snopes: Porsche Buy One Get One.
3. The Porsche and the Poor Dog
Last October, this post lit up the pages of social media all over the south. You could almost hear the pitchforks being sharpened and smell the torches of dog loving, Porsche haters through your computer. There never was any real explanation of what happened, but let this be a lesson about rushing to deliver internet justice. You can bet the owner of that black Boxster had his day ruined, at the very least. Read the story of the Porsche driver who actually tried to help the poor dog.
4. Cheating Bastard or Marketing Genius?
Occasionally you do hear about a woman taking revenge on a man's car Carrie Underwood style, by keying something into the paint job. However, this Porsche 911 is not an example of that. This car has been carefully customized to appear to have been abused as a marketing gimmick for a Car Care Express, a body shop in Salford, UK. Seeing the picture does remind one of how difficult it is to keep a wife, a Porsche, and a mistress content and in good humor, though.
5. Massive Barn Find in Portugal
Remember these pictures of over 100 dusty old European cars in a barn? The rumor spread around via email and Facebook would have you believe an American was lucky enough to find all these cars stashed in the barn of a newly acquired house in Portugal. Luckily, Sports Car Market writer Tom Cotter is still a real journalist and tracked the pictures back to a Miata club in Norway, and a photographer who took the pictures. Turns out they really are near Lisbon, and they are not for sale, at least not yet. They are the result of a used car dealer collecting interesting cars he received in trade over the years, including at least two Porsche 356. You can read Tom's reporting and a partial inventory here: Portuguese Barn Find Fact or Fiction?
6. The Curse of James Dean's 550 Spyder
A whole book can be written about the legends surrounding the crash and supposed curse of James Dean's 550 Spyder. First, there is the curse legend, supposedly killing the subsequent buyers of the motor and other parts out of the wrecked car. Then there are the stories of mechanics getting injured or nearly killed in odd ways while working on the wreck, or with parts of it. You can read more about the curse here: Curse of James Dean's Car.
Then there is the mystery of where the actual wreckage of the car is. Car customizer George Barris claimed ownership of the wreck until the day he died, having bought it and sent it on tours as a cautionary tail. Except the car vanished from the back of a locked truck en-route from Florida in 1958, never to be seen again. Until in 2015, shortly before the death of George Barris, when a man in Washington State came forward and claimed to know where it was.
According to Shawn Reilly of Watcom County, WA his dad was hired to wall up the wreckage inside a building in 1958. Though he was only six at the time, Shawn went along to the job. A car museum has offered a $1 million dollar bounty, when the actual car is found. A legal fight is in process right now to determine who the wreckage would belong to if it is found, with both the estate of George Barris, and one of the other old owners claiming it. Not even Snopes or Wikipedia has the whole story on this one, so you have to turn to Fox News for the latest: Who Owns James Dean's Porsche?
If you have more information on this, or want to talk about any other Porsche urban legends, you can right here in the Rennlist forum.
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