We all know the story of James Dean and his tragic death sixty years ago.
I had a memorable chance to hear first hand a few of the events that occurred on the way to his race. The following story was told to me by Bruce Kessler in 2009 over lunch as he was passing through Seattle. If you have never heard of Bruce Kessler look him up and you will find he is a fascinating gentleman who excelled at three very disparate occupations throughout his life; racing cars, producing the Monkees TV show, world class skeet shooter and world class yacht designer. Not bad for a man who tells me he had trouble in school.
During the financial downturn I acquired a 300SL from a famous owner in Switzerland. This car was one of the 29 alloy bodied cars offered by Mercedes to race car drivers and celebrities.
In 1955 Lance Reventlow, the only offspring of famous Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton was looking to get a competitive edge on the So Cal race competition.
This was before he created the Scarab Company. He already owned a 300SL and was looking for racing parts. He went to see the 300SL dealer in San Francisco who took him inside where a stable of new 300sl's were parked in a row. The dealer, whose name I will not list because I have heard so many variations on the proper spelling, handed Reventlow and Kessler a magnet and said go look at the aluminum one. When Reventlow asked how he would know which one was aluminum the dealer said "Its the one this doesn't stick to". As background, all 1954-1957 300SL coupes have alloy (aluminum and magnesium) doors, hood and trunk. of the 1315 cars, 29 also had all alloy bodies.
Reventlow and Kessler acquired the allow gullwing. The car was never registered in Reventlow's name and came with a dedicated Mercedes mechanic. The weight difference was not extreme, about 100 lbs, but the race cam made a difference. (side note; in 2009 I reached 130 mph on the road between Sedona and the Grand canyon and the car just hummed along beautifully and became more stable with speed).
Reventlow was a car fanatic but unlike Dean knew his driving abilities were limited. Bruce Kessler began racing cars as a teenager, came from a wealthy Beverly Hills family and was fearless as a driver. His own experience as a Porsche driver includes breaking loose a Porsche on the Nurburgring and doing a 360, continuing on and qualifying with the low time that day. Reventlow hired Kessler to drive for him. Reventlow painted two 300sl the same and raced them interchangeably. It was almost impossible to tell which one was 100 lbs lighter. The sport camshaft was available on either car. They were fast and won a few races. Kessler was disqualified after a win at one race for getting too excited and taking his helmet off on the warm down lap.
On the fateful day of James Dean's demise he did indeed stop at Blackwell's Corner. A very well written book on the 29 alloy gullwings available at a steep price through Pelican Press ( no relation to Pelican Parts) describes his visit at Blackwell's corner to take a look at Reventlow's fancy 300SL. Dean loved the power of the gullwing and planned to buy one. A direct fuel injected 3 liter placing 240 horsepower was a fascinating car for the mid 50's especially under 3000 pounds.The book goes on to describe this as "the car that killed Dean" I think that's a little much but it is true that if he had not stopped the likelihood of plowing into Mr. Turnipseed would have passed.
This is a portion of the story as told to me over lunch in 2009 by Bruce Kessler.
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