Hedley Studios, the British outfit formerly known as The Little Car Company, has a habit of taking motorsport royalty and shrinking them down. The Bentley Blower, Ferrari Testa Rossa, and now, in its first proper collaboration with Porsche itself, the 550 Spyder. The result is called the Porsche 550 J, and it’s an 80 percent scale, fully electric homage to the car that gave Porsche its first taste of outright victory. Just 250 will be built, priced from $93,000, which sounds like a lot until you remember that an original 550 Spyder, of which only 90 were ever made, would cost you considerably more.
Power comes from an 11 hp motor and a compact lithium-ion pack tucked behind the seats, mimicking the mid-engined layout of the original, if you squint. That’s good for 40 mph and 30 miles of range, numbers that sound modest until you’re sitting a few inches off the tarmac with nothing but a thin windscreen between you and the world. Want more theatre? The RS pack doubles output to 21 hp, adds drilled discs and adjustable Bilstein dampers, and pushes the top speed to 50mph with 50 miles of range. Not exactly autobahn numbers, but this was never meant for the autobahn.
What makes the 550 J interesting isn’t the spec sheet though, it’s the process. Hedley Studios worked directly with Porsche’s archive in Stuttgart, scanning original cars from the factory museum to recreate the delicate proportions in carbon fiber rather than aluminium. Over 1,300 new components were engineered from scratch, and the chassis borrows its tubular spaceframe layout from the later 550 A, for extra stiffness without the extra weight. Trailing arm suspension, borrowed conceptually from the same era as the Volkswagen Beetle, has been reworked with Bilstein coilovers, Eibach springs and Brembo brakes. Inside, the three-dial dash and Nardi wood-rimmed wheel play it straight, while the old choke lever has been quietly repurposed as a drive mode selector.
Founder Ben Hedley has described the 550 as a giant slayer in its day, tiny and light against far larger rivals, and that’s clearly the emotional target here too. Whether buyers actually take these onto a track or simply park them in a climate-controlled garage as rolling sculpture remains to be seen. Either way, deliveries begin Spring 2027, and the global debut happens at Icons of Porsche in Dubai this November.
