The Twilight Zone...

I was talking to a customer at the garage where I work and he mentioned that he just got back from a business trip from Detroit. While he was in the motor city, he had a chance to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. "You would've love it", he told me. "Tons of cool vintage cars." However, there was one car in particular that caught his attention - the 1961 Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible that John F. Kennedy was riding in when he met his untimely death. While staring at the gleaming black limo, an aging volunteer struck up a conversation with my customer.  "You know, this car is haunted. Several employees have reported seeing a gray presence right here," he said, pointing to the back passenger side seat. When I heard that, I immediately perked up. Now this was something different - a haunted car?

While I realize "haunted cars" have been the subject of several Hollywood movies and it's nowhere near Halloween, this tidbit of a story lead me on a search for further information. I couldn't find anything different or more substantial than what was already relayed to me in regards to JFK's limo, I did stumble across other bizarre stories.

Ever heard of the 1964 Dodge Polara also known as the “Golden Eagle”? This vehicle makes the 1958 Plymouth Fury known as Christine made famous through literature and film look like child's play, if you believe all the legends. When all was said and done, the vehicle has been reported to have killed more than a dozen people! The Dodge was originally a police car in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, but the vehicle changed hands several times over the course of its life after gaining a notorious reputation. According to legend, three police officers who drove the car killed themselves and their families in bizarre murder-suicides, while another four people were struck by lightning after driving the car. Several people who vandalized the Golden Eagle between the early 1980's through the mid 90's, supposedly died in horrific car crashes. According to the latest information, the Golden Eagle lies in pieces after a church group, who claimed a demon was living in the car, stole it in 2010, chopped it up, and distributed the parts to various junkyards. Even though several of the parts have been recovered since then, it might seem that this spooky Dodge may rest in peace for good.

 Definitely one of the most famous and well-documented cases of Twilight Zone cars, is the Porsche 550 Spyder that was involved in the death of actor James Dean. On his way to a race in Salinas California, Dean lost control of his Porsche and flipped into a gully, killing Dean and severely injuring his passenger. Dean's good friend George Barris took the remains of the Spyder and sold the engine and drivetrain to two doctors who then entered cars carrying the parts in a race in Pomona, California. During the race both crashed horribly, and one of the doctors was killed. Barris eventually began to believe in the curse and gave the car to the California Highway Patrol. They attempted to display Dean's car as a warning to careless drivers, but more bad luck followed. Between storage buildings that burnt down, accidents and deaths while transporting the car, and other strange occurrences, the CHP finally had their fill of the charred, twisted wreckage that was once a Porsche sports car. In an attempt to return the wreckage to Barris, the car apparently vanished mysteriously off the back of a flatbed truck en-route and supposedly hasn't been seen since.

If you're a vintage Oldsmobile fan, one of the best muscle car advertising campaigns of the late 60's, would've left the likes of Rod Serling or Stephen King nodding in approval. If you don't know who Dr. Oldsmobile is, shame on you. One of the best fictional characters ever devised for advertising, the good doctor was around for several years (primarily from 1968-71) "creating" all kinds of high performance experiments in his science lab that would eventually be released to the public. By 1970, he had a dedicated group of cohorts that consisted of Elephant Engine Ernie, Wind Tunnel Waldo, Shifty Sidney, Esses Fernhill, and Hy Spy. The ad featured above is from December 1968 when Olds first started releasing the high performance W-machines. Still timeless after all these years...

Until next time, don't freak out. It can all be explained... I think.
Dave