Seinfeld -- in a replica Spyder!

The curved cowl and width of the car are a dead giveaway. 

There's that! And the fact he sold his Spyder last year for 5+ million dollars.

Apparently he is a thrifty guy who understands owning a replica.  Who built it?

Saw video of the Spyder he sold.

It's real and it's spectacular.

Troy Sloan posted:

Apparently he is a thrifty guy who understands owning a replica.  Who built it?

I believe this is a Beck -- but I'm not sure. At the end of the day, they're all Becks, really 

Perhaps it's because Seinfeld himself stated it's a real 550 in the thread. 550-041

I've attached photos of 550-041 from the Historics in Monterey. 

-Kevin

Sorry for the delayed response. I'm just wiping the egg off of my face 

Looks like Kevin is right. Wow. the rear clam is total correct. I was fooled!

Thanks Kevin for the info!

@arajani absolutely no egg to be wiped off.

You had me convinced.  I saw this come across my Instagram yesterday and after I read your post was convinced Seinfeld was lying; hence the reason I went looking for some photos of the car  

Although it appears as though the Spyder at the Historics had a roll bar.  Unless Jerry removed it, wouldn't we see it from the angle of the photo?  His head wouldn't completely cover it up, would it?

I would not put it past anyone (including Seinfeld) to drive a replica.  

Rumor has it that he has one -- but you're very right that the spyder shown above it 0041! 

Elaine would be proud of you, Mitch! 

I think it's a repli-Jerry, not the real guy.  You see how his teeth are a little off?

SF-Speedster posted:

@arajani absolutely no egg to be wiped off.

You had me convinced.  I saw this come across my Instagram yesterday and after I read your post was convinced Seinfeld was lying; hence the reason I went looking for some photos of the car  

Although it appears as though the Spyder at the Historics had a roll bar.  Unless Jerry removed it, wouldn't we see it from the angle of the photo?  His head wouldn't completely cover it up, would it?

I would not put it past anyone (including Seinfeld) to drive a replica.  

 His head wouldn't completely cover it up, would it?

The head of most Hollywood types are swelled up and big enough to cover a lot of things so I'm guessing it would. LOL

holy crap!  is that what spiders are going for?  of just #41 Jerry-owned spiders?

Three-mil and up for real Spyders. And up.

So it turns out Seinfeld had TWO of them. The one he sold was a little newer. Number 41 is interesting in that it has no brake cooling vents. Number 0040 does. But 0042 doesn't (and had a pushrod engine last checked). But number 0043 had the air vents again. 

0041's rear clam also has what appears to be unique bracing along the inner fender. I have not seen that on any other Spyder I've got pics of. And I've been scouring the web for shots of the inside of the clam. 

For those of you who don't remember why you bought a replica instead....Mecum will auction a perfectly restored original one at Monterrey   …….for ??????

My wife gets so mad when I watch Mecum.  She asks 'How can you sit through this?...'  I just love watching quality cars cross the block. Sue me.

Well this is car ****....it is a 550A Spyder that belongs to Porsche collector Steve Terrien of Issaquah Wa…….close to where Porsche Collector Bill Gates lives in Medina .... I guess if you want to sell a multi million dollar car at a auction, this is the place to do it...

@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

...

Although it appears as though the Spyder at the Historics had a roll bar.  Unless Jerry removed it, wouldn't we see it from the angle of the photo?  His head wouldn't completely cover it up, would it?

...

Here is a pic showing the Roll bar body plugs

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What is it with these 550 people and their removable roll bars?

I don't think they know what a roll bar is for.

They know how to have a roll bar, they just don't know how to use a roll bar, and with a roll bar, the using is the most important part.

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Hahahahaha! Nice!

@edsnova ?

Have you come across why Seinfeld sold chassis 550-0060 blue car, but kept this one?

Umm.........

So how do you know that this is not a replica Seinfeld?

I mean, we all supposedly have doppelgängers, somewhere, right?

@americanworkmule unfortunately not; Jerry Seinfeld is not among my celebrity contacts. For future reference, my brushes with fame so far are as follows:

Mowed David Letterman's lawn once in the late 1980s (big yard, many shrubberies; couldn't tell you what town it was now).

I used to work with Dan Patrick's wife & could probably scare up their number again if given an hour (nice people).

With friends, while shooting a video for a high school project, I once ran into Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the grocery store in Westport. (No).

I was in a drum and bugle corps that played behind former President Gerald Ford (there was an Incident).

I appeared on Live With Regis and Kathy Lee and also danced on stage at the exhortation of Richard Simmons (this was apparently normal on that show in those years).

I met Jimmy Carter very briefly at a charity raffle in Crested Butte.

Got close enough to punch Newt Gingrich in the face at the GOP National Convention in Houston, 1992 (but, alas).

Did a thing with Bob Woodward one time and gave him a hard time (I think there's a picture somewhere).

I know David Simon well enough to ask him for help contacting Baltimore folk. He's a PIA but at heart good people & he did me a solid a few weeks ago when I needed the cell number of a 20-years-ago police commissioner Simon put in one of his productions.

@edsnova posted:

@americanworkmule unfortunately not; Jerry Seinfeld is not among my celebrity contacts. For future reference, my brushes with fame so far are as follows:

Mowed David Letterman's lawn once in the late 1980s (big yard, many shrubberies; couldn't tell you what town it was now).

I used to work with Dan Patrick's wife & could probably scare up their number again if given an hour (nice people).

With friends, while shooting a video for a high school project, I once ran into Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the grocery store in Westport. (No).

I was in a drum and bugle corps that played behind former President Gerald Ford (there was an Incident).

I appeared on Live With Regis and Kathy Lee and also danced on stage at the exhortation of Richard Simmons (this was apparently normal on that show in those years).

I met Jimmy Carter very briefly at a charity raffle in Crested Butte.

Got close enough to punch Newt Gingrich in the face at the GOP National Convention in Houston, 1992 (but, alas).

Did a thing with Bob Woodward one time and gave him a hard time (I think there's a picture somewhere).

I know David Simon well enough to ask him for help contacting Baltimore folk. He's a PIA but at heart good people & he did me a solid a few weeks ago when I needed the cell number of a 20-years-ago police commissioner Simon put in one of his productions.

Wow. Now there's a diverse array of celebrity encounters. Here are mine:

- Met Jacque Cousteau at the 3rd International Hyperbaric Conference at Duke around 1960. I was impressed.

- Was close enough to punch George Wallace at a presidential campaign rally. I didn't, but I did get tear gassed (not the last time it happened).

- Gave Thomas Reardon, the developer of Microsoft Internet Explorer, his first real job when he was 17, and mentored him for a number of years

- Met Alan Kay, who invented the Smalltalk programming language at PARC and who introduced object-oriented programming to the world

- Met Queen Noor of Jordan after she spoke at a conference. Smart, nice lady.

- Played 18 holes of golf with Barney Martin, the actor who played Seinfeld's father. He won.

- Had lunch with Stewart Brand, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog. He was cooler than a polar bear's toes and knew Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite authors.

- Had lunch with Admiral Poindexter, Reagan's National Security Advisor and Director of DARPA's Information Awareness Office. He had a fun, grandfatherly vibe, but a lot scarier.

- Had dinner sitting 2 feet away from Paul McCartney. I didn't disturb him.

- Congratulated Emma Watson on her matriculation to Brown University. Nothing magical.

- Had dinner with Kate Burton, the actress who played Meredith Gray's mother (Gray's Anatomy). Nice, very intelligent and funny lady.

Met Brad Pitt (or was it Mitch Toll?) when he spoke at a Brown graduation ceremony. No real impressions.

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@Michael Pickett posted:

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...Met Brad Pitt (or was it Mitch Toll?) when he spoke at a Brown graduation ceremony. No real impressions.

It must have been Brad Pitt, then.

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Ronald Reagan - twice. Betty Ford. Matt Gaetz. Valerie Bertinelli, Larry Knechtel (Bread, played the piano on Bridge Over Troubled Water). James Earl Jones, Richard Dreyfuss, OJ Simpson, Steve Martin (numerous times), Walter Matthau, Lou Rawls, James Taylor, Marty Stuart, Linda Ronstadt, Louie Bellson (famous drummer and Pearl Bailey's husband). Admiral Zumwalt, Newt Gingrich, Jane Fonda.

Can't remember the rest but I'm guessing another 15 to 20 "personalities" of note. Mostly actors and musicians.

I once met Ernie Paul.

He was our town’s assistant Fire Chief.

I've had several meetings with the President of the People's Republic of Stanistan.  Unlike Emma Watson, he's pretty magical.

Lou Rawls. What a voice.

@Lane Anderson posted:

I've had several meetings with the President of the People's Republic of Stanistan.  Unlike Emma Watson, he's pretty magical.

Yep, magical... in the manner of Shia Labeouf on SNL

By the way, I'm not on any of their lists of people they have met.

You would be on my list - IF I had met you yet.

At least I've met Wolfgang-from-the-Panhandle.  

Your day will come, PH Bob......

OK, so I’ve met someone famous that I’m willing to talk about.  Actually, Kathy and I both met him, more than once.

We are members of a sort-of timeshare called the Disney Vacation Club and we signed on to a “Members Only” cruise to the Caribbean many years ago, maybe 2004 or so.  We learned the hard way to fly down to Orlando a couple of days early because of winter weather and we stayed at Disney’s “Saratoga Springs Resort” before embarking on the cruise.

We got up early and had a bus pick up late morning so we wandered over to the breakfast buffet for some coffee and goodies.  We got a table and I went over to get us some pastry at the buffet and as I got into line, the guy behind me looked really familiar.  I said hello, asked if he could pass me a plate (I had already walked past them) and we chit-chatted a bit in the line about some of the cute little kids there as we we put together our breakfast plates.  He was tuned in to what little kids were like as they negotiated a grown-up world and commented on a few of them.  It was a nice chat.

I got back to my table and said to Kathy, “You’ll never guess who I was in line with - Art Linkletter”!

”It couldn’t have been him……Isn’t he dead?”

”Nope, he’s right over there” and I waved, he waved back and Kathy’s chin hit the floor.

We stopped by their table as we were leaving and we met his wife, Lois, and found that he was a headliner on the Members Only cruise we were about to take.  We met them several times on the ship, and Art did a stage show where it sat on the stage and talked about how he was Walt Disney’s best friend with many stories about their lives, and had invested a number of millions of dollars in Walt’s dream of Disney Land.  As it launched, Walt asked him what he could ever do to repay him for his support and Art asked for the photograhic film franchise for Disneyland.

In a time before digital pictures, that, alone, made him wealthy many times over.

Wow - how off topic can a thread go! Here is Jerry's 0041 with the engine bay

My only related claim to fame is that Jerry follows me on insta and we have had email conversations about his spyders...

My brush with fame.

@type550 posted:

Wow - how off topic can a thread go!

There are no bounds to how far a topic can drift on this site.  Tis da way.

Small kine brush with fame yesterday in the Safeway parking lot. Guy and his wife admiring the speedster and asking ton of informed questions.

I asked if he was a Porsche owner and he said "yes." He said his name is Herb Hoepner, the inventor of the mechanical timing chain adjuster for the early 911 engines. I told him that I'd held his invention many times. I didn't tell him that I had replaced them with the newer Carrera hydraulic chain adjusters.

Really nice guy who got a big kick out of my PCCA rally badge.

Hey, wait a minute. Seinfeld stole MY number. That's MY race number, 27. LOL!

@type550 posted:

My only related claim to fame is that Jerry follows me on insta and we have had email conversations about his spyders...

Andrew, did Jerry ever mention or hint why he preferred one 550 over the others that he sold?

@type550 posted:

Wow - how off topic can a thread go! Here is Jerry's 0041 with the engine bay

How is that Roll bar detachable?
...I assume it is from other photos showing the body plugs for the roll bar holes.