UTG ... "The Black Ghost Challenger Scam"
 

I happened upon this late last night (early this AM lol!). While I'm not a big fan of his channel, this was really interesting. He makes some really good points about this "legend" ... the street-raced stock Challenger with a trailer hitch that couldn't be beaten. If the car was a 'cuda, it would be an amusing "fish tale".

Tony's conclusion sounds right on the money. The kid who inherited his Dad's "street racing legend" hemi Challenger is wayyyy smarter than he comes across in various videos. He is a cinematographer and the facts indicate he crafted a grand-story and managed to hype the car to the status of "legend" in order to gain a movie deal and a million dollar payday when the car sold at Mecum Auction. The auction may have even been a complete fabrication with schill bidding.

https://youtu.be/V2LjOvcnBFU?si=JSQkXo_LDfGoMx3I

Love fantastically restored as well as well preserved & maintained Hemi E body's, but was not impressed with the tale of the black Challenger from when it first surfaced. Hyping rare performance vehicles with dead paint & rust all to try and capture a huge payday... No Thanks.

I never bought into the story about this car. Definitely a big fish tale!

Here is a previous discussion about Uncle Tony's video, in the Woodward Avenue thread over in the Your Best Pontiac Stories thread. https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...st#post6429640

Never heard of the guy/car, and I grew up near Woodward.

So there is at least one "Real" Ghost story, but it is Gray - and it isn't some Mopar "fantasy."
It could be somewhat of a "Tempest" and stir things up :)

Ditto

(I mean, I had never heard of it before all this modern era hubbub).

K

Your comment about "a trailer hitch" reminded me of a couple stories:

1) Dad told me one time he installed a big hitch on the back of our '65 - not for trailering but so he could pack it full of ballast.

An NHRA tech inspector caught it and told him he needed to pull that hitch off. Dad said "I can't take that off - this is my tow car!". (Narrator: It wasn't).

2) Speaking of tow cars: for a brief period dad was racing the '64 GTO (389/tripower 4 speed) and towing it with a '64 Lemans. The Lemans was a mule car we got from the Milford Proving Ground and was equipped with a 421/tripower 4 speed, and was actually a little quicker than the race car.

The interior was identical between the two cars, which dad loved, because he could get out of one and immediately be acclimatized to the other.

Anyway - if anybody started trash talking about the GTO dad would say "Bah - I can beat you with my tow car!"

And he would -

3) '68 GTO with a trailer hitch. A time before pickups and SUVs did all this light hauling and towing. The '68 was a Ram Air automatic and was just a few ticks off the B/SA record of the day.

K

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1706971735

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1706971670

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1706971915

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1706972218

UTG is a clown

Mecum sucks. Another reason why I don’t watch, a buddy had 6 cars he got at milkem, all were junk

I followed this story when it came out, and watched UTG later on. My initial take was to call BS, as the owner of the car was a cop, and the claim was nobody ever saw the car except briefly, at night, winning a race, and vanishing. If that were the case, the car wouldn't have been able to accumulate the 45,000-odd miles on the clock without being seen by many people locally. It's a neat, rare car, but the story is much fabrication, IMO.

I am amazed people bought into the BS. I was blown away what the car sold for. Current owner would probably get 25 cents on the dollar if he tried to resell today. Cool car though....

We used to follow around a group of people that called themselves the top enders club. They mostly ran on the west side of the Detroit area, I 96, and the service drives of I 75. Sometimes French Road outside of the Detroit City airport or St. Aubin by the Chevrolet axle plant. My buddy Kris knew a lot of the faster Mopar racers in the Metro Detroit area and we would go watch the racing. I don't ever remember that car and I haven't heard anyone else say they did either. Most of the cars were pretty serious "street" race cars. My buddy Kris, owned the Silver Bullet from around 1980 until the early to mid 90's. Wangers had his group of drivers and cars and there were some fast Fords like a Mustang II with a big 460 motor. I heard it used to be a Gapp and Roush car. Fun times.

a buddy had 6 cars he got at milkem, all were junk
LOf'ingL!!!

Finally had a chance to watch Barrett Jackson I recorded, miss Steve on ther, but no comparison to milkem auctions. Milkem has no class
The BG was down at AutoRama in a Milkem display. When I told the cute girl ther I’ve never heard of it, she walked away.

I saw this Challenger at the closest gas station to the September 2023 Mecum Dallas auction, maybe a half mile away. Guy just bought it and of course it was running on fumes. After trying to fill the tank, pretty obvious why it was empty.

.........https://media.istockphoto.com/id/639...9LMolIfTOXFhg=


Frank

Do you suppose he is on the phone to Mecum?
The big auctions keep all of the cars on empty. Just enough gas to get across the block. I read someplace that local fire dept. rules are the reason. If you look you can see that they will put a piece of tape over the fuel cap/door to signify that it has passed its 'empty' inspection.

As for the Ghost car. I dont buy into hyperbole and the first time I heard the story I thought it sounded a bit too much. I know nothing about street racing, street racing in Detroit, this uncle tony fellow, the black ghost or its original owner or the person that sold it. BUT I think between someone there is a great big story that was made up to sell an above average car for WAY above average stupid money. Not to mention all of the current reproductions of the new Challengers with the same STUPID moniker selling for above already stupid prices! IF the sale was legit, all I can say is PT Barnum said it the best.

Here’s the car at the Milkem exhibit in Detroit.

At one time he was a writer for HPP in the late 80s and early 90's, so he has some knowledge of Pontiacs. Damn shame he didn't tell folks about that scam of a story before it sold for record money.