In April 1954, after securing the co-starring role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, James Dean purchased a 1955 Triumph Tiger T110 650 cc motorcycle and, later, a used red 1953 MG TD sports car.

His final race with the Speedster was at Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, where he started in the eighteenth position, working his way up to fourth before over-revving his engine and blowing a piston.

In July, Dean put down a deposit on a new Lotus Mark IX sports racer with Jay Chamberlain, a dealer in Burbank.

On September 21, as Dean was finishing Giant, he suddenly traded in his Speedster at Competition Motors for a new, more powerful and faster 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and entered the upcoming Salinas Road Race event scheduled for October 1–2.

He also purchased a new 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon to use for towing the "Little Bastard" to and from the races on an open wheel car trailer.

[5] On September 30, 1955, Dean and his Porsche factory-trained mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, were at Competition Motors in Hollywood preparing the "Little Bastard" for the weekend sports car races at Salinas.

Because the Spyder had not yet been driven enough miles to qualify for the race, Wütherich recommended that Dean drive it to Salinas to accrue more time behind the wheel.

After receiving the citations, Dean and Hickman headed west onto SR 166/SR 33 to avoid Bakersfield's slow 25 mph (40 km/h) downtown district.

However, Dean biographer and expert Warren Beath disagrees with this account, citing Wütherich's inquest deposition stating that they had driven through Bakersfield and turned left on US 466.

[10][11] Its driver, 23-year-old Navy veteran and Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed,[12][13][14] turned left onto SR 41 headed north toward Fresno.

As Turnupseed's Ford crossed the center line, Dean—clearly recognizing the imminent crash—tried to steer the Spyder in a "side-stepping" racing maneuver, but with insufficient time and space, the two cars collided almost head-on.

Witness John Robert White reported that the Spyder smashed into the ground two or three times in cartwheels[15] and landed in a gully beside the shoulder of the road, northwest of the junction.

He was critically injured because his vehicle had absorbed the brunt of the crash, and he suffered a broken neck and massive internal and external injuries.

Roth took photographs of the crash scene later acquired by Seita Ohnishi, a retired Japanese businessman who erected a memorial near the site.

[26] Wütherich, after enduring several complicated surgeries on his hip and femur, returned to West Germany in 1957 with psychological and legal problems.

It featured Dean dressed as Jett Rink talking about how excessive speed on the highway may be more dangerous than racing on the track.

The stylized sculpture is composed of stainless steel around a tree of heaven growing in front of the former Cholame post-office building.

The original Highway 41 and 46 junction where the collision occurred has shifted slightly as the two roadways were realigned over the decades to improve safety.

The story of the "curse" begins before the car itself had been involved in any crash; in his 1985 autobiography Blessings in Disguise, British actor Alec Guinness relates that on his first night in Los Angeles on September 23, 1955, after leaving a restaurant with no table available and starting to look elsewhere,[31] he and his friend Thelma Moss met Dean, who invited them to dine with him at his table at the place that they had just left.

[32] After the fatal crash, Warren Beath, a James Dean archivist and author, attributes the existence of the "curse" to George Barris, the self-described "King of the Kustomizers,"[33] who says he was the first to purchase the wrecked car.

Over the years, Barris described a mysterious series of accidents and car crashes that occurred from 1956 to 1960 involving the "Little Bastard" that resulted in serious injuries to spectators and even a truck driver's death.

The insurance company, through a salvage yard in Burbank, sold the Spyder to Dr. William F. Eschrich, who had competed against Dean in his own sports car at three race events in 1955.

[42] Later in 1956, Barris loaned out the "Little Bastard" to the Los Angeles chapter of the National Safety Council for a local rod and custom car show.

During 1957–1959, the exhibit was toured in various rod and custom car shows, movie theatres, bowling alleys, and highway safety displays throughout California.

For example, a wire service story on March 12, 1959, reported that the "Little Bastard", temporarily stored in a garage at 3158 Hamilton Avenue in Fresno, caught fire "awaiting display as a safety exhibit in a coming sports and custom automobile show".

[44] Raskin believes that Barris's "Little Bastard" side show had lost its fan appeal just as the 1960s pop culture began to focus on "big block" Muscle Cars.

[46] Although the "Little Bastard" remains missing as of 2022, Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, Illinois, claims to have an original piece of Dean's Spyder on display.

It is a small chunk of aluminum, a few square inches in size, that was stolen from an area near the broken windscreen while the Spyder was being stored in the Cholame Garage following the crash.

Raskin originally documented and published all the serial numbers (VINs) for the Spyder (chassis, engine, transmission), as well as for his 356 Super Speedster.