None other than the renowned Italian designer Walter de’Silva has released three photos of a Porsche that never reached the production stage. The 550th should have been a modern interpretation of the legendary Porsche 550 Spyder.
In November last year, Porsche showed a series of photos of no fewer than 15 never released models. This resulted in interesting viewing food, but the 550One, which was never launched on the market today, is making its belated public debut on the digital shelves, is also worth a moment of attention. Top designer Walter de’Silva, Head of Design at the Volkswagen Group between 2007 and 2015, gives us a look at a modern interpretation of the legendary 550 Spyder produced between 1953 and 1956.
Porsche
The 550One, designed in 2008 by De’Silva and his design team, commissioned by the then Volkswagen Group guru Ferdinand Piëch, is, like the Boxster, an open two-seater with the engine behind the front seats. With its oval eyes and fairly flat nose, it is typically a Porsche model. The design of the lighting at the rear is striking. Here no horizontally oriented light units as on the then current 911, and to a lesser extent on the back of the Boxster, but narrow vertical ones. At the bottom of the buttocks a centrally placed exhaust end piece and on top of the aft deck a historically responsible cooling slots. The interior is relatively simple. The doors have virtually no door panels and are equipped with a simple pull loop. Equally striking is the gear lever and the aluminum part through which the lever has to be moved. This seems straight from the first Audi R8.
Porsche 550 Spyder (original)
According to the Italian Quattroruote, the 550One is to some extent linked to the Audi E-tron Concept that shone in Detroit in 2010. The Volkswagen Bluesport Concept, which debuted a year earlier, is also part of these conceptual triplets. The 550One would not have made it to production because Porsche would rather focus its attention on the development of a little brother of the Cayenne, which we of course know today as the Macan.