Ok, for starters, here's the original documentary on the car and the story of "GQ":
A few observations, if I may:
- Yes, that documentary shows his son as a Producer of the doc - but far from the only one.
- In all the stories on this cars' history, nobody mentions that the original owner was not the one
telling any tall tales or bragging on the car. In fact, that would have been against his nature by
all accounts.
Instead, friends and family tell the stories...
- Everyone keeps trying to compare the car to other, well known actual street beasts of Detroit
of the time - but here's what I think:
Detroit's a big damn city obviously and I bet in those days there were dozens of street racing scenes happening
around it - so it's entirely possible GQ never even saw the Silver Bullet or any of the other famous ones,
leave alone heard about them.
My better guess is that he and his best friend would sneak out on the occasional warm Friday night....
and since the racing usually was an informal, what's next to you at the next light sort of thing - he probably
did whip up on the average street car more often than not, especially with those 4.10's.
I'd further surmise he didn't do it often (because of cop job, remember) and he had inside info on when
and where the cops would be trying to crack down on street racing on a given weekend, so he'd pick and
choose his fights, too.
Makes sense, no?
I think the REAL history of the car is wonderful enough without embellishing it. I also think the son succumbed
to the money involved because as much as he was proud of his dad, it's obvious the dude is not a car guy and
got sucked into selling it.
It's the lure of easy money. It has a strong appeal...
Was the car worth registering as a national historic whatever whatchamacallit? No.
Was it worth almost $1Million at auction? Again, hell no it wasn't....
Is it a truly unique survivor car with a great story? Hell yes it is.
