Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

For those who couldn't care less how their 356 left the factory!
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Jack Walter
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Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#1 Post by Jack Walter »

The Dean Jeffries Porsche is on display at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles as part of the celebration of 75 Years of Porsche. It will be there for a year.
The exhibit opened April 15, 2023.
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And this photo recently surfaced of some movie star fondling the left front dust cover
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Steve Proctor
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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#2 Post by Steve Proctor »

Visited Dean' shop in Burbank with Jeff Gamble a year or so before he died (Dean, not Jeff!!) He still had a couple of his customs in the shop, as well and an open Ford GT. He was quite the character with a thousand stories. Anyone know if he had heirs or where his cars went?
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Last edited by Steve Proctor on Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jack Walter
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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#3 Post by Jack Walter »

His son Kevin is up in the Sacramento area and has the Mantaray and the flamed Ford in a little private museum at his home. They sold the GT40 to Dana Mecum and he un-Deaned it and put it back to stock configuration. I saw that car at Pebble Beach in 2016.
I think Dana sold it at Kissimmee a couple of years ago.
Ex-Dean Jeffries GT40.jpg
I was fortunate enough to visit Dean in his shop a couple of times when Lockheed would send me out to Palmdale to help sort out some issues with parts they were supplying for the F-22 - first stop after picking up the rental would be Dean's shop, then the In-N-Out down the street.
Dean was usually working on the GT40 when I stopped by.

here is Dean at Amelia Island in 2009 signing a copy of Tom Cotters book about him under a picture of the car.
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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#4 Post by Steve Proctor »

Cool pix!! Glad to hear those cars were preserved and were in good hands. The Manta Ray, flamed Ford and GT40 were there when we visited. I can't remember the story on the GT40, maybe the open version? Do you recall why that configuration would have been built?
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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#5 Post by Jack Walter »

Ford built 3 or 4 of them for a particular reason (Sebring?) and Dean saw them in one of the Ford warehouses when he was doing some work for Ford. He built a special show car for Ford on a Falcon base called the Python.
He asked his contact at Ford if he could buy one and they just gave him one - told him to take any of the spares he needed too. His buddy AJ Foyt gave him a couple of the 4-cam Ford Indy engines as well so Dean removed the pushrod V-8 and inserted the Indy car engine.
He was happily working on it when I stopped by. His son also has the original Kyote dune buggy that Dean and Mike Nesmith of the Monkees raced at Baja.
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Deans Kyote.jpg

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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#6 Post by Steve Proctor »

Wow, great story, Jack!! Some fine donations from Ford and AJ. That reflects the respect they have for him. Great you were able to have that connection for so long as the owner of that special car.
Last edited by Steve Proctor on Sun Apr 23, 2023 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dean Jeffries Porsche is at the Petersen for the 75th

#7 Post by Jack Walter »

Here is a picture from my first visit to Dean's shop - he was telling me that you always have the person standing behind the car in photos because its the car that's important.
I'd disagree with him on that particular point - he was the star in that garage.
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And this was outside - the Landmaster form the movie Damnation Alley with Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard - Dean built this from scratch and got the inspiration from an article he read about a gun carriage that was a Lockheed prototype.
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