Saw this today tucked in at the pits. Unfortunately I got to the track after it raced, and won’t be able to see it race tomorrow morning at 9:15am.
Great raw car.
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To heck with rust and dust, that's real patina! 
Thank you Kevin for posting this. It is an amazing car and story. I would love to see it run on the track. Were the bodies of this model made of aluminum?
Super.
Kind of illustrates the true definition "period correctness", doesn't it?
144 should have had an aluminum body from the factory, and I would like to assume it is all still originally there.
- A Spyder, doing what it was made to do.
Due to the multi-tube frame of the 550a, the aluminum body was more easily dented as it was much thinner. Lots more attachment points allowed this. Frame and body were much lighter so performance greatly increased. They went from 12-1300 pounds down to 1100 pounds or so. Plus the motors were putting out more in 1956-7 than in the earlier cars.
Love this original car! The original 550a is my dream car.