Lost Muscle Cars. Wes Eisenschenk
passed away in March 2008, taking prized information on his Buick with him.
Tony Branson’s stolen 1969 Buick GS is still missing, along with the four-bolt main Buick Engineering block. These prized pieces of Buick history need to be located and recovered so that their story isn’t lost forever. If you have information on the missing Buick and engine, please contact the authorities. The Buick community will be eternally grateful.
By Bradley Broemmer
You can’t talk about the Sonic ’Cuda without also talking about the RTS ’Cuda. Both were built by legendary custom car builder Chuck Miller at his shop in Detroit, Styline Customs. Stylist Harry Bradley designed both cars.
As the years have passed, the lines separating these two cars have blurred dramatically, so much so that some Mopar fans still speculate they were the same car and it was just modified a bit during the course of a couple of years. However, Chuck Miller himself said they were entirely separate cars. The RTS ’Cuda was built and paid for by Plymouth directly and the Sonic ’Cuda was built and paid for by Promotions Inc., the company that ran the International Show Car Association (ISCA) World of Wheels custom car shows.
Miller’s Mods
The Sonic ’Cuda was built first and started life as a 383 Barracuda. It had a flat hood, basic black interior, console automatic, and no-frills basic black-on-black paint. The body modifications on all of Chuck’s cars were done with fabricated steel, including the nose treatment on the grille.
Stance is everything and this fish has it in spades. The ’Cuda made its rounds in the summer of 1974, including a stop in July at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. (Photo Courtesy Mike Galewski)
The Sonic’s engine remained the stone-stock 383 4-barrel the car was born with, but because Cragar was also a sponsor of that car’s build, the company included a complete blower assembly along with a Fueler-style “bug catcher” unit and all the belts and pulleys. Chuck gutted this unit and mounted it atop the stock iron intake, hiding the 4-barrel and linkage underneath it all. It really looked functional, but it was just for looks.
Chuck said, “We hardly modified an engine back then for any of the show cars (other than dressing them up) because they were touring: They had to be dependable and easy to drive. Get ’em up on trailers and move them from town to town.” Chuck explained that he always tried to start with black cars because that way, they had black paint everywhere inside and out and if they didn’t have to modify an interior, black went with everything.
In photos the Sonic looks white with stripes all over, but that car wasn’t white: It was very very light pink. Promotions Inc. opted to make the Sonic ’Cuda into its grand prize giveaway car for the 1973 show season, and it was won by noted custom builder Jerry Pennington, who had won ISCA’s Ridler Award in 1972 with a custom known as The Scorpion. He won that award again in 1973 with a bizarre custom named The Devilish.
Among the many stops for the Sonic ’Cuda on the Rapid Transit System caravan was at the New York Auto Show. An interesting design concept was the wheelie bars hanging through the exhaust ports. (Photo Courtesy Bob Snyder Collection)
Trail of Owners
Along with the Ridler Award in 1973, Pennington was handed the keys to the aging Sonic ’Cuda and became the car’s first real owner. Chuck talked to Pennington’s son and was informed that Jerry actually drove the Sonic ’Cuda for a few months after receiving it in 1973. Pennington then sold it to Treatment Products Limited in Chicago, Illinois, makers of The Treatment Silicone Car Wax. The company used it for promotions at car shows after lettering it “The Treatment.” The company used it as a promotion vehicle across the upper Midwest perhaps as late as 1976 or 1977.
Chuck has heard reports that it eventually ended up as a street rod in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, and maybe even in Oregon. A former worker for Treatment Products called Chuck and informed him the company had stored the ’Cuda in a warehouse for years and it had become quite dilapidated simply from neglect and disuse. The company’s owner eventually sold the car just to get rid of it because of its sad shape, possibly for as little as $800 to $1,500. Even this is word of mouth from a former employee, because the earth seems to have swallowed up the Sonic ’Cuda somewhere around 1977.
Steven Juliano (noted Mopar collector) chased the car for a while just out of curiosity and was informed it was last seen painted black years ago in Lake Orion, Michigan, but nobody has seen it in ages. Because the Sonic ’Cuda began life as a plain-Jane 383 Barracuda, it’s unlikely anyone would’ve restored it back to stock configuration. Presumably, it’s still there in hiding and waiting to be rediscovered.
If you know anything solid about this car, please pass the info along to Chuck; he’d love to know what became of it.
Road Runner Probe: ICAS Giveaway Car
By Wes Eisenschenk
In 1959, custom car builder Robert Larivee and his brother, Marvin, founded Promotions Inc. It was the Larivees’ joint venture into the world of showing cars, which was a very popular hobby throughout the 1950s. In 1962, Promotions Inc. moved from the cozy confines of Michigan to sunny California, where Bob could network with SoCal’s blossoming show car scene.
By 1963, Bob had formed the International Show Car Association (ISCA) in an effort to have better judging for the ever-expanding genre of show cars. One series of shows that Bob created was the International Champion Auto Show (ICAS). These two were and are often confused with each other.
With a character car, you’re allowed to have a little fun. The famous running-bird logo featured on 1969 cars was enlarged and flanked part of the door and fender on both sides of the car. Beautiful women stretched out on the decklid came standard on the Road Runner Probe. (Photo Courtesy Chuck Miller Collection)
The tail section of the 1968 Road Runner Probe featured recessed tail lamps, an aluminum spoiler, and a full-length red stripe. The car wore Turbine Bronze paint from the factory. (Photo Courtesy Chuck Miller Collection)
Envisioned by Gene Baker and constructed by automotive design artist Chuck Miller, the Road Runner Probe was the giveaway car at the International Champion Auto Show. Terry Taylor of McLean, Illinois, was the top builder with his immaculate 1957 Chevy named Fire Chief, and so won the Probe. (Photo Courtesy Chuck Miller Collection)
Prepping the Giveaway Car
During the 1960s, Bob Larivee had developed a working relationship with the auto manufacturers in Detroit. As a grand prize giveaway for winning the ICAS, each year Bob had a car customized as a reward to the top builder. For the 1969/1970 ICAS show circuit, he had worked out a deal with Chrysler to give away a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner.
This Road Runner was shipped to Styline Customs where renowned fabricator Chuck Miller and designer Gene Baker worked on it. This wasn’t the first venture between Promotions Inc. and Styline Customs. Over the years, Bob hired Chuck to work on other custom car projects; the most notable was Red Baron.
Chuck remembered that the car was delivered in white, a color that gave them a blank canvas. With Gene’s