In continuation of the Porsche Unseen Project, the German sports car maker continues showing us vehicles that never made it to the production line. This one stems from Volkswagen AG Chief of Design Walter de Silva.
Called Porsche 55One, the design study emerged in 2008 upon personal request of VW CEO Ferdinand Piech. Walter de Silva developed it together with the Porsche design department, even though Porsche never hired him as a full-time employee. As such, de Silva had only worked with Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen brands before.
The 55One was his take on the smallest and most affordable Porsche car. He drew inspiration from the legendary 550 Spyder, landing the concept with a metallic fuel cap, gill-like slits, and an exhaust pipe in the rear middle. He even nicknamed it The Little Bastard, referencing the infamous alias of the 550 Spyder racer that claimed the life of James Byron Dean back in 1955.
The car has a rather minimalistic interior featuring body-matching plastic paneling, cloth loops for door handles, and no infotainment screen.
Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen engineers helped design the technical part of the project. The 55One received a transversely mounted Audi TT four-cylinder that slotted in behind the seats. Volkswagen ended up building its 2009 Blue Sport roadster based on this study. It wrapped up the project three years after that, but Porsche resurrected it again in 2019 with its Vision Spyder Concept (watch the video for an overview).