Dan Blocker actually drove a Perry D 550 replica which is built on a full size VW bug chassis.
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Aw, to heck with government statistics.
We are what we drive, right?
If we've gotten fatter, taller, or smarter, that would have shown up in the kind of cars we buy. We don't buy cars we can't fit into. Not in 1956. Not in 2023.
So, what's happened to middle America's daily drive since the 1950s? Here are some numbers for a '56 Chebby station wagon and a 2023 Ford station wagon (which we no longer call a 'station wagon' because, well, focus groups.) But yeah, it's a station wagon.
And let's not get distracted by how much better the styling is in one of the examples. Stay focused on the numbers, please.
The numbers clearly show we've gotten taller and substantially wider, too, apparently. And we'll not mention what's happened to our avoirdupois:
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Wider is a definite yes 
I am surprised no one has used a Porsche 986 Boxster as a platform for a replica 550. They are cheap and already mid engine. If anyone wants to try one, I have two low mileage 986s and I would gladly sacrifice one. Probably the 97 black base. 
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@Cartod posted:I am surprised no one has used a Porsche 986 Boxster as a platform for a replica 550. They are cheap and already mid engine. If anyone wants to try one, I have two low mileage 986s and I would gladly sacrifice one. Probably the 97 black base.
I like the silver one:
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The 1955 Porsche 550 RS Spyder nominally measures 61 inches in width, 142 inches in length, 40 inches high (with six inches ground clearance) and has a wheelbase of 83 inches.
A Beck/TR/Vintage Spyder is 61.5 inches wide, 146 inches long, 38 inches high (with 5.3 inches nominal ground clearance) and has a wheelbase of 84.70 inches.
Room in the Spyder replica is limited by the shape of the firewall. If it's flat (like mine and most old-school versions), your tallest driver is going to be about 6-1, 6-2. This young man is 6 foot. Dumbass forgot to set the seat back.
If a late model Beck or Vintage has the now-standard 2-inch relief in the firewall, it's possible to get a 6'5" man comfortably ensconced in the driver's seat. But.
Said man would have to be built close to old time proportions.*
Friends, our fitment problem is less to do with height than with width. Girth. Mass. This is especially true with the seats that came with my Spyder. Others are reportedly somewhat less constraining, but none, to my knowledge, are proportioned to the Average American Middle-Aged Man, who is now obese.
Spyders require their drivers to perform something like a "dip" in getting in. You put your right foot in, then place your hands on the top of the driver's seat behind your back, and hold your body up with your arms like a gymnast on a pommel horse, and swing your left leg in over the sill. I doubt a third of American 60-year-olds can perform this maneuver at all—let alone joyfully, regularly, as a matter of habit.
Remember, these cars were designed for 30-year-old professional athletes.
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*And he would have to be sanguine about certain other realities, such as the relative height of the windshield compared to his forehead.
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@edsnova posted:Said man would have to be built close to old time proportions.*
Friends, our fitment problem is less to do with height than with width. Girth. Mass. This is especially true with the seats that came with my Spyder. Others are reportedly somewhat less constraining, but none, to my knowledge, are proportioned to the Average American Middle-Aged Man, who is now obese.
You (of course) read the part where Dan Blocker was 6'4 and weighed 300 lbs, right?
Dan was born in 1928, which would have made him 27 years old when the 550 RS Spyder was a new car. I doubt he would have fit either.
The men of my childhood hewed a lot more closely to Hoss than Little Joe, although the bulk of them looked a bit more like Adam (Pernell Roberts- 6 ft, about a buck 80) than Hoss. "Average" in my world was 6 ft, 200 lb +/-. As height increased, so did weight (in scale), about 10 to 15 lbs per inch. My grandfather (a farmer born in 1913) was 6'2" and weighed about 210.
Malnourished European flyweights of the 50s (for whom the Spyder was designed) were not the norm among tradesmen and farmers in American flyover country in the 1960s.
@Cartod posted:I am surprised no one has used a Porsche 986 Boxster as a platform for a replica 550. They are cheap and already mid engine. If anyone wants to try one, I have two low mileage 986s and I would gladly sacrifice one. Probably the 97 black base.
@Cartod @Alan Merklin calling Alan for a nice build. 👍
Talk about thread drift. By the time Greg gets this thing build, which I’m afraid will take some time, it’ll be 30 pages long. Drift is what we do.
Funny. This was recently posted by Emory Motorsports. Current car they are building. Looks a lot like the Grey Black I’ll be painting my car.
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Dude.
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I'm relatively confident that wasn't the shop that painted my car.
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@calmotion posted:@Cartod @Alan Merklin calling Alan for a nice build. 👍
I’m watching one of his builds now. The guy is incredible. The brakes and suspension second to none.
I think it would be a fitting tribute to a tired old 986 boxster, seeing as how the 550 is what porsche used to design it. Not to mention it’s the car that saved Porsche from bankruptcy.
@Sacto Mitch posted:.I'm relatively confident that wasn't the shop that painted my car.
That car was sprayed with a money hose, dried off, and sprayed again. It might have even been through the money wash 3 times.
I would imagine Mr. Emory is not trying to hit a price point in the mid $20Ks with that car.
With the paint, maybe.
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It doesn't look like paint at all.
More like a single water drop that, for an instant, assumed the shape of a 356.
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They always look like liquid metal with enough clear coat on them....
@550 Phil posted:
Funny. This was recently posted by Emory Motorsports. Current car they are building. Looks a lot like the Grey Black I’ll be painting my car.
The color is Aventurine Green.