Two friendly ghosts

[pwd72s]

A short 7 minute video...porsche content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYewd-LSsw&feature=emb_title

[masraum]

[pwd72s]

Thanks Steve. This gave me the thought that as we drive about we pass many death scenes. I pass one often, where a buddy died in 1964. He wasn't famous, so the only memorial is in my thoughts...

[GH85Carrera]

I see a lot of "Hollywood" in that.

I have been to the site of the crash, and it much busier than that intersection. So they use a fake location "for effect" as the real location would not be a good location. We will never know who was really at fault in that crash. James Dean bet his life the intersection was safe to turn across and he lost that bet.

In any event it is a sad crash, like any loss of life crash.

[ckissick]

I've been to the site dozens of times, since I used to do a geology job near there and we usually went to the nearby hamburger joint in Cholame, just west of the intersection. The video was filmed in the Mojave Desert somewhere. The actual site is quite a bit different. More grassland than desert. It's still a starkly beautiful area and would have looked just fine in the film. But the intersection has been re-designed since the 50s.

Anyway, it was a nice way of looking at the whole situation, Poor Donald Turnipseed had to live with that for a long time.

BTW, how did they get 10.5 gallons into the tank? I could never get more than about 7 gallons in mine. The fuel tank is from a 356 and is angled, so the outlet is above the bottom of the tank. It goes dry at about 8 gallons.

[Eric Hahl]

I know exactly how Donald feels. Not something I would wish on anyone.

[pete3799]

Originally Posted by ckissick

I've been to the site dozens of times, since I used to do a geology job near there and we usually went to the nearby hamburger joint in Cholame, just west of the intersection. The video was filmed in the Mojave Desert somewhere. The actual site is quite a bit different. More grassland than desert. It's still a starkly beautiful area and would have looked just fine in the film. But the intersection has been re-designed since the 50s.

Anyway, it was a nice way of looking at the whole situation, Poor Donald Turnipseed had to live with that for a long time.

BTW, how did they get 10.5 gallons into the tank? I could never get more than about 7 gallons in mine. The fuel tank is from a 356 and is angled, so the outlet is above the bottom of the tank. It goes dry at about 8 gallons.

Must have been a "Hollywood" cigarette he was smoking when he opened the gas cap.
Made me cringe watching that.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by ckissick

But the intersection has been re-designed since the 50s.

Anyway, it was a nice way of looking at the whole situation, Poor Donald Turnipseed had to live with that for a long time.

Pics below from Google Earth. Much more modern appearing than a simple rural state route intersection in the 1950's. Caution lights would have to help at least one of two drivers in the case of sunset blinding.

Enjoyed video. Thanks.

[ckissick]

When you drive a Spyder and someone coming toward you has their left turn blinker on, you always think of James Dean. And you drive very defensively.

[masraum]

Interesting video. It didn't really hit me much.

[herr_oberst]

I was going to post this photo to the garage art thread but I forgot. I'll post it here instead...

[looneybin]

Been past that site many times on my way to the coast
There is also a memorial wall at Blackwell’s Corner, the last stop he made for gas.
There is a famous picture of him there gassing up
It’s at the intersection of hwy 46 and 33 about 30 miles east of the crash site

[KNS]

Strange, curious video.

Who knows what either one of them would have said to one another, odd to put words into the mouths of the deceased.

I drove through the intersection in 1989 or so. It looked different than the vintage photos and it's dramatically different now. The video shows Turnupseed with the sun in his eyes but he was travelling east bound (late in the day) at the time of the accident. The highway isn't even on the same spot anymore. If you look at google images from above you can still make out the old pavement of the original road paralleling just to the south. It a narrow strip of crumbling asphalt today.

[looneybin]

I thought the accident happened in the morning just after sunrise
Sun was in DT’s eyes
JD was on his way to laguna seca for a track day, and DT was going home for the weekend from Cal Poly, where he was an electrical engineering student

[KNS]

^^

Dean left Hollywood a little after 1:00 PM, headed over the Grapevine with a couple of stops along the way (including a speeding ticket). His last stop at Blackwell's Corner was after 5:00 PM I believe.