Wing car urban legends

[Ghoste]

Someone made a post in another thread that got me to thinking, doesn't every locale have a wingcar urban legend?
Ours goes something like this...
In a nearby small(er) town, a local rich kid got a Superbird from dad new in 1970.  There are a couple of versions of the story but both end up the same.  One version has the kid getting in so much trouble with the car that his dad took a backhow and dug a big hole in their backyard where he proceeded to bury the Superbird.  Another version goes that the kid wrapped the 'bird around a utility pole at 150mph and the remains (of the car, somehow the kid survived this miraculous speed) are buried in the backyard.  The storyteller will invariably have the car as being a Six Pack or Hemi.
The real story, which I determined after MUCH investigation, was quite different.
Our local Plymouth dealer never sold a Superbird.  The dealers son, however, did get the parts department to order a Superbird wing which he then placed on his own car, a late 60's Satellite.  He thinks it was a 68 but he isn't 100% on that.
Anyway, he eventually sold the car in the aforementioned small town and the next owner was in an accident with the car.  The backyard burial has yet to be confirmed but it sounds plausible.  The new owners father owned a small service station at the edge of town and had a small compound for wrecks behind it where he occasionally buried the more useless cars (apparently).
The legend is a cooler story and it has become local lore and is much more believed than the truth.
Anyone else have a good wingcar urban legend?

[andy74]

cool story,i wish i had something to add,but all the bs urban legend stuff i hear around here is about a ZL1 69 camaro,that some jerk wrecked in around 71 or so

[JimShine]

The local legend is there is a guy in Bridgeton Maine that has a orange Hemi Superbird. He supposedly bought it new from Bessey Motors and has since only driven the thing one or two weekends a year. Otherwise it sits in the garage.

Other variations are it is bright green, it is a 440 6 pack and not a Hemi, the guy lives in Naples, it is never driven just started occasionally.

I have never seen the car and people active in Mopars around here have never seen it either. I think it is just a junkyard urban legend. Ya know, someone goes telling tall tales to the junkyard owner, who goes on to tell the story with variances to people coming to his yard looking for old Mopar parts. They then go on and tell their freinds that are into Mopars the same story with some changes..on and on.

[RallyeMike]

There was a red one that sat on the street with flat tires and the horz stabilizer missing for years. This was in an older, urban area of Seattle near downtown. It was a hilly area with limited parking, so few of the small houses had driveways, and everyone pretty much was forced to park anywhere they could find a spot on the narrow street. So how do you find the owner to make an offer?

Well, the car was plastered with those plastic sticky labels that you shoot out of a gun. I don't recall the specifics, but I mean the ashtray was labled "ashtray". The Glovebox was labeled "Glove Box", a Bible quote on the dash, etc. All over the car. Checking the mailboxes, there was house where the address was placed on it with the same damn labeler ! I knocked on the door and older black lady missing quite a few teeth answered. She was nice as could be, but said the car was definitely not for sale at any price. We talked about the car for 5 minutes or so - she said they were the original owners and planned to never part with the car.

I gave up and moved onto other cars and projects and always wondered what became of the car. Maybe 7 or 8 years later I did see the car again in it's same condition behind a Dodge Dealership in North Seattle, so someone did finally save it.   

[hemigeno]

The local Urban Legend that comes to mind is the one about a Daytona around St. Louis somewhere that was stored away for so long that a tree grew up in front of the doors.  Turns out that this one was 100% true - it is Dr. Bill Hoehn's car, and I've become fairly acquainted with him and the car's story.  There's a writeup of the car and more details about the story at:

http://www.wwnboa.com/specfeatbh.htm

[69_500]

Not any urban legends for wing cars around these areas. However there wasn't ever a shortage of wing cars in this area that I can recall. For a while in the 80's I'd say the east side of Indianpolis was pretty loaded with wing cars.

[Dave22443]

When I was a young boy riding in the back of my Dad's cheby, I actually SAW a winged car driving down the road once!  It true! I swear it! 

The only urban legend about winged cars I can think of is one about Richard Petty.  Supposedly he had a spot behind his shop where he dumped used up race cars.  Then later, when he needed to expand his shop, he just covered them up with a concrete slab and built over them.  Supposedly, there are a number of winged hemi cars burried there.  Don't know if its true or not but it does seem to go along with the "Winged car burried in the back yard" storyline.  At least with Richard Petty, I find it "Plausible" as the Myth Busters would say.

[hotrod98]

Not only plausible, but true. You have to remember that they were used up chassis and body parts. They removed just about everything that was re-usable. I'm sure there were more than a few parts buried that we could have found a way of repairing and re-using though.

[Ghoste]

I just saw a photo (can't think of whether it was on here or in one of the current Mopar mags) of the banged up nose cone of Pete Hamilton's Super Bird.  One of the west coast collectors (Machado??), I believe, scooped it out of the Petty ravine before it was dozed over.

[Old Moparz]

A friend of mine who grew up in this area, had told me there was a local guy who owned several Mopars, one of which was a wing car. I don't recall whether he said it was a Superbird or a Daytona, but it wasn't for sale. Many people had knocked on his door asking about the winged thing with the four flat tires in the driveway, & always got a rude response chasing them off, or the door slammed on them. My friend even had the chance to talk with him at least once & the impression was that none of the Mopars were for sale by Grumpy.

He drove past some time after that, & it was gone. I'm sure Grumpy was transformed to Happy one day when Dopey waved a s**tload of greenbacks in his face.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

in the last 1970's my dad recalls a 17 yr old kid driving around selling firecrackers out of a blue superbird, my dad was only 13 or 14 at the time but clearly remembers the big wing car. This superbird actually was orignally bought by my uncles ex-wifes dad who was a dodge salesman at that time and bought the bird for himself then sold it dirt cheap to that kid.a local mopar fanatic here named marco(good friend of mine and my dads) is good friends with the kid who used to drive it and he recalls it being a hemi car,there is no way to verify that other then seeing the window sticker or some paperwork to seewhere it was sold, but as ive heard he was coming off a bridge here call ''second arrows'' and he wrecked it, but apprently it was bought for a song and is now restored-MATT (no bullshit)

[terrible one]

We have one here:

I havn't heard much, but from what I've heard, a guy has a green 440 6 pack Superbird that he was given from his father, who bought it new, when he passed away. The guy was later sent to jail on drug charges or whatever, but before he went, locked the Superbird inside his house, where it is right now.

I have plans to try and confirm this. People swear you can see it from an outside window.

[hemigeno]

There is another local legend about a Daytona somewhat similar to what terrible one just posted.

I live in Franklin County, which is a fairly rural area despite being close to St. Louis.  Our fair County's very own druglord (yes, we have one here) allegedly bought a Daytona years ago.  Not a restored car, supposedly just a project car, and it was rumored to be in a barn somewhere outside of town.  This guy does own property all over Franklin County, so that part is very plausible.  This is the same guy who threw a DEA agent out of a third-story window after finding out he was a Narc.  Two other business associates went catfishing with this guy's "lieutenant" on the Missouri River late one night and had a boating accident (they never found the two guys' bodies).  A few other sordid tales were also associated with this crew.

He got sent upriver for several years back by the Feds on a racketeering charge, and was released about 6 months ago.  I saw him at a local restaurant right after the first of the year, but I did not have the nerve to ask him if he had a Daytona.  I kept hearing the words "Geno sleeps with the fishes"...

Last fall, the satellite TV dish installer told me about this Daytona rumor after seeing my HemiCharger sitting in my garage - so it must be true!!   

Dave B. did send me a picture of a rusty Daytona project car from the St. Louis area that could have been that car, but I think I'll leave this urban legend alone.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

''Geno sleeps with the fishes'' HAHAH thats priceless , bet u musta been sweating like crazy-MATT

[hemigeno]

''Geno sleeps with the fishes'' HAHAH thats priceless , bet u musta been sweating like crazy-MATT

Nah, I don't sweat just being around the guy.  Since I'm neither a customer of his nor a threat to him, not much for me to worry about.  Going up to him and asking about a car that very few people probably know he has, THAT'S another story.  He might want to find out how I came to know about that car, and he might not believe me if I told him "The satellite TV guy told me!"

[Jim Croce]
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger and
You dont' mess around with {name deleted just in case}
[/Jim Croce]

[Blown70]

Well Heck Geno, Just go up and say rumor has it that you have a daytona.  I have some questions about. 

or do the I have one too......

Tom

[mustanghater]

There was one around here in the early 80's till one of the superbird guys on moparts bought it. I think its the only daytona he owns. Now it just sits in storage across the boarder waiting for restoration.

[Ghoste]

Which border?

[mustanghater]

of PA and OH

[wetfeetmi]

About 2 1/2 years ago I was driving my Daytona clone here in Kalamazoo and stopped at a convenience store to pick up something or another, and this guy comes out and starts chatting me up about wing cars. He claimed that he owned a red bird and invited me to stop in sometime and check it out. He gave me the address and I waited as long as possible before dropping in. He naturally wasn't home, but his young son was. I asked him if they owned a wing car and the 10 year old kid said that they did. He told me it was in the garage, and it was locked up. There was a window and I asked permission to look in. THERE IT WAS! . I dropped back in about 3 days later and caught the guy home. He opened the garage door for me and it was the first time I actually sat inside a real wing car. I tried to feel him out on the availability, and he said he would never sell it. It was his older brothers' and he died in action overseas. It was originally yellow, and was repainted red. It needed a total resoration, but looked fantastic anyway. It was a 440 6 pack 4 speed car. It is in Three Rivers MI. and is still in there garage as of last fall. True story.
I saw my first wing car back when I was a young boy drag racing in front of our rural home in SW Michigan. We had new asphalt and the local boys were trying it out. The bird was orange and lost it's race to a Vette, but I fell in love anyway. Rick

[69_500]

Ah the legends that are told about these cars. I have probably heard more stories about HEMI Cuda's being around here than I have of Wing car folklore.

[Ghoste]

Around here it would be Hemi cars in general but it didn't seem to fit as well in this forum.

[jmanscharger]

The junkyard owner that crushed one...
The guy who knows where there is one is in a barn...
and the one that is definately true
The guy down the road who has one under a tarp and the nosecone in the bedroom of his trailer

[hemigeno]

and the one that is definately true
The guy down the road who has one under a tarp and the nosecone in the bedroom of his trailer

Man, that does sound like Joe Dirt...

[XS29J8]

Other variations are it is bright green, it is a 440 6 pack and not a Hemi, the guy lives in Naples, it is never driven just started occasionally.

That would be Dr. Luedke from Bonita Springs. It's a Petty Blue SuperBird HEMI 4spd. He's the original owner and Hasn't driven it for years but starts it once a week..........

Steve in Naples.......