Adding even more interest now in hindsight to that car, a 1978 Dodge Magnum Wheelstander hand built in a garage from fiberglass by Bill Golden. The car had a Star Wars themed tribute paint job on it with a Jedi type character painted on the hood with a sword (instead of light saber). The car was driven a couple of times in and around Memphis but the drivers declined to drive it more at it was “dangerous fast” at the time. Then Rick Mehl also drove it a couple times, and then one day just dropped off the transport and car in Maverick’s yard. (have a great interview on tape you can use) Well at that same time a fan and area resident of Mavericks started pestering him about “how much for your car” questions like all fans do at events but this one has a twist… Bill never wanted to sell the car but thought if he threw out a ridiculous purchase price to the “pest” that would end this harassment he was getting.Well guess what, the next weekend the guy showed up wanting the car with cash-in-hand. So Maverick not wanting to sell, but not wanting to go back on his word, sold the car (without motor) to Jim Crumpton. Jim had just retired from the Air Force and wanted to use the car to promote his beloved Air Force but never got funding so the car disappeared from sight and mind by 1980. Well later my best friend Kevin Stovall married Lisa Crumpton (who had no recollection of the car) and years later Jim passed away. I helped them rummage through his belongings in barns, storage buildings and more as he had lived from the courtesy of friends over the years and had little funds. We discovered the car by mistake under a tarp behind a storage shed, so I brought it back and purchased it promising to restore it in honor of Jim, and to preserve a piece of NHRA history. The car had been on a magazine cover (no one remembers the name) but I have a partial pics from the magazine (but no identifying marks) and Maverick has no photos or information on the car except the little he can remember.

No luck in finding the past drivers to see if they have any photos. I did contact Mavericks nephew and he is supposed (his mother, Mavericks daughter) to have photos and even video of the car, but holding it hostage as he wants to be the permanent driver of the car even before it runs. So no photos, no restoration of the body. Basically that is the short version of that part of the story. I have photos of the car repainted in Air Force versions when Jim wanted the military to sponsor the car but nothing prior to that that shows any detail.

Now for part two, trying to restore the car and looking for photos, parts and donations to get this done. When I got the car I had a very successful computer business, but since have crushed legs and not had income for three years. Car is literally rotting away and had limited time left to restore/rebuild the fiberglass body. The engine though is like new and never even fired. But it is missing some key parts thanks to some unknown individuals. Had to get a court order to get the car from the property it was located on, and from the day I saw it, and the day we arrived with trailer, the supercharger and some body parts ‘disappeared’. Been trying to raise funding to restore the car and even created a non-profit to do that, saveadragster.org (site is down currently) and tried to create a page on a site similar to kickstarter (gofundme.com) with not even one single donation in 120 days. I just created a flickr site to hold photos of the car’s history as best I know it at the present.

Unfortunately while writing this I learned all the original photos were lost on myspace when they upgraded their design. So there are a few things I need to locate again including the original concept sketches, poster sent to Dodge seeking sponsorship for original car, and some original photos while painting the car with Maverick and the actual artist/painter mentioned in the article.

So for the most part this car has been a forgotten piece of exhibition car history and since it only made a couple of passes, there are very few photos of it, or the tracks have long since closed and the photographers moved on or destroyed negatives, like the newspapers did when I tried to request copies of the photos. I checked the NHRA museum and they didn’t even know of the car, so they had no information on it.