The "Black Ghost" scam
- Thread starter Corbic
- Start date
Cliff notes?
Black Ghost is a hoax. Stock car, outlandish story. Or so I gather.
Yawn!
"Black Ghost is stock car sold by a marketing hype guy by making an outlandish bullshit story that everyone is going along with to make money. Car likely sold for $1M at auction to MGM studies to hype the soon to be released movie".
Yes, using collectors cars to scam $Millions in fraud and rewrite history is boring. Sorry, thought this was a car forum.
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I don’t know what the supposedly fraudulent claim about the car that is now being made (I haven’t watched but the first few minutes of the video), but the son has never misrepresented the car, to my knowledge. A couple of years ago he told Hagerty’s that his dad ticked all the boxes on the order form, and that it was bone stock (for sure a low 14 - high 13s car). No claim to my knowledge that it was a “true street racer.” As for thrashing his picks maybe he did. Picked wisely, took the hit, then adiosed. The “ghost” part was obviously because he was cop and couldn’t pull over, pop the hood, and bench race. Here’s what I remember from a couple of years ago:
www.hagerty.com
Like I said, I don’t know what the purported current misrepresentation is, but the story as told in the above article is just a good old street racing story that might make the car worth a bundle to the right buyer … who would not have to be a sucker to want that particular car.
Black Ghost: The mysterious 1970 Challenger that dominated Detroit street racing - Hagerty Media
The Historic Vehicle Association tells the incredible story of the rare muscle car that dominated Detroit street racing in the early ’70s ... and vanished.
www.hagerty.com
Like I said, I don’t know what the purported current misrepresentation is, but the story as told in the above article is just a good old street racing story that might make the car worth a bundle to the right buyer … who would not have to be a sucker to want that particular car.
I watched the full vid. The author is correct in stating the story isn’t true. The title of the link you posted actually says “dominated Detroit street racing” when it was an actual 13 sec bone stock car.I don’t know what the supposedly fraudulent claim about the car that is now being made (I haven’t watched but the first few minutes of the video), but the son has never misrepresented the car, to my knowledge. A couple of years ago he told Hagerty’s that his dad ticked all the boxes on the order form, and that it was bone stock (for sure a low 14 - high 13s car). No claim to my knowledge that it was a “true street racer.” As for thrashing his picks maybe he did. Picked wisely, took the hit, then adiosed. The “ghost” part was obviously because he was cop and couldn’t pull over, pop the hood, and bench race. Here’s what I remember from a couple of years ago:
Black Ghost: The mysterious 1970 Challenger that dominated Detroit street racing - Hagerty Media
The Historic Vehicle Association tells the incredible story of the rare muscle car that dominated Detroit street racing in the early ’70s ... and vanished.
Like I said, I don’t know what the purported current misrepresentation is, but the story as told in the above article is just a good old street racing story that might make the car worth a bundle to the right buyer … who would not have to be a sucker to want that particular car.
The author in the video claims there were 9 & 10 sec heavily modded Mopars roaming the Detroit streets in the same time frame. His point is, it didn’t dominate jack, unless it was another bone stock competitor.
The hype doesn’t match the facts & surely didn’t justify a million dollar sale.
Cool story, just not a true one.
I think maybe people are talking past each other. Like I said, I don’t know if the dad or son is quoted in the video or, if they are, what they said - true or false. But despite the title of the article I linked, or the author’s puffery, neither the father nor the son were quoted in the article as saying the car was beating 9 and 10s cars. In fact, one quote was simply that “Qualls’ car is one of just 23 Hemi four-speed R/T SE Challengers sold in the model’s debut year, and it is possibly the only car ever built with these performance and trim options” - which by itself would raise its value.
The article quotes a frequent passenger saying, “It was beating everything—Vettes, Chevelle 396, 375 … those were nothing for this car … This car was the king of the street in those days.” But I don’t read that to be either the dad or son speaking; and based on his description of “everything,” particularly the kinds of cars he did not describe, it wasn’t someone who would know what 9 and 10s cars were - like someone embedded in Woodward’s bare knuckle street scene of the time.
So when you say the story is “just not a true one,” you can’t mean what the dad or son were quoted as saying in the Hagerty’s article from Dec. 2020. If one of them is quoted in the video as claiming a bone stock highly optioned car was in fact beating 9 and 10s modified cars then not only would that be clearly false, but anyone with six or seven figures to give for the car would likely know it’s false. So, again, unless the video ascribes such an overinflated claim to dad or son, I think the “hype” is on third parties. And the core story and car itself make it unusually valuable .. in a market where, IIRC, a Plumb Crazy convertible hemi Challenger brought way more … like $4M.
I'm born & raised in Michigan. My brother and his friends were cruising the streets in his '68 Road Runner and then his '70 Cuda back when the Black Ghost was allegedly prowling the streets. So I asked him about it and whether he knew of the car/driver back then. My brother stated he knew of the car, but never came across it personally when he was cruising Woodward and the other areas frequented by other street racers.
Keep in mind that cars weren't heavily modded back then. Most street racers were running around with nothing more than a set of headers and some carb jetting. Not like there was a bunch of 10-second cars prowling the streets back in the late 60's & early 70's.
U.M.
Keep in mind that cars weren't heavily modded back then. Most street racers were running around with nothing more than a set of headers and some carb jetting. Not like there was a bunch of 10-second cars prowling the streets back in the late 60's & early 70's.
U.M.
Just relaying what my brother told me. Whether this car is the "Black Ghost" or not is debatable. However according to my bro there was a hemi car running around Detroit the locals referred to as the Black Ghost.
On a different but related note... Can someone tell me what kind of times an average Joe was running in his "street car" back in 1970? I know the factory "Pro-Stock" NHRA guys like Grumpy Jenkins were BARELY in the high 9's back then and that's on a prepped track with sticky tires and all the high-tech mods for the day.
So while today a 14-second hemi car does sound slow, all things are relative.
U.M.
Here's a couple bonus pics of my brother's RR & Cuda from back then.
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Nice! Does he still owen either of them?
No... He also had a 71 Challenger and a '72 Cuda. He had a brand new MOPAR Muscle car almost every year when he was young. He was a big MOPAR fan back then and I know he's kickin' himself in the ass for not keeping at least one of them. Hindsight is 20/20.
U.M.
My brother actually talked my Dad into getting this MOPAR. A 1970 Chrysler New Yorker with a 440 TNT! Talk about a land yacht! Story goes some dude ordered it all tricked out and when it arrived at the dealer the guy didn't like it. My Dad happened to be at the right place at the right time.
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Yeah like you said hindsight is 20/20. Still cool to have owned those cars. Land yacht for sure!
Back in the 80's and to some degree the 90's muscle cars were still cheap and overlooked. I bought a clean 72 Chevelle (nonSS) for $3000 in 94 that I still have.
I'm in the process of "collecting" a few cool vehicles to pass on to my grandsons when I finally bite it here in the near future. I need something else to pass down to them... So far they get a C6ZO6 and a CR500. I need to find a clean old muscle car I can pass along.
U.M.
Thats cool! You're off to a good start. I want a C6Z06, that rear end view is one of the best. What are you thinking for the muscle car? So many to choose from, as a kid the 69 Camaro was my favorite. Chevy had so many cool bodies back then.I'm in the process of "collecting" a few cool vehicles to pass on to my grandsons when I finally bite it here in the near future. I need something else to pass down to them... So far they get a C6ZO6 and a CR500. I need to find a clean old muscle car I can pass along.
U.M.
Good lord - passing on a CR500 to the grandsons. Preparing them for manhood.I'm in the process of "collecting" a few cool vehicles to pass on to my grandsons when I finally bite it here in the near future. I need something else to pass down to them... So far they get a C6ZO6 and a CR500. I need to find a clean old muscle car I can pass along.
U.M.
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