Porsche 550 is a sports car from the 1950s and its very famous for killing James Dean. It was light, fast and agile, but it handled like a frog. Still, it is one of the most remarkable cars in Porsche’s history, which is why a French firm called Vintech decided to come up with a modern interpretation of it as a tribute to the Little Bastard. The car is being readied for its debut at the Quail Motorsport, Pebble Beach Concours.

Vintech’s P550 is not a Spyder like Dean’s car, but a hard top, which makes the whole thing look very close to its ancestor — the Beetle. Apart from the retro body though – which by the way is made entirely out of carbon fibre – it’s a pretty modern car. The original 1.5 liter engine has given its place to a new 3.0 liter boxer with nearly 300 horsepower, while the weight remains the same 550 kg, hence the name of the car.

So on paper the car should be incredibly fast, but since it’s a one-off tribute it doesn’t really matter. Mind you, as is the case with these one-offs, they will probably make more if they find customers willing to write a big check.

We’ll have more details on the P550 at Pebble Beach, so stay tuned.