Not quite on topic but close (sorry for those that already heard the story). While not the original owner of a special car, I am currently the caretaker of the "Tin Soldier" 69 COPO Camaro.
Plenty of stories around this car, but this past summer I was able to get in touch with the original owners son, Jason. Jason's dad, Ron Terrell was the original owner of Tin Soldier. Jason and I hatched a scheme to sneak the car and his dad to the Camaro Nats in MD. We did a reveal and his dad had not seen the car in nearly 28 years!
You can read about that here:
Link to Thread on the Reveal
The true history of the Tin Soldier was great, as I had been told that Ron worked for Queen City chevy where TS was ordered. Instead, I learned that Ron actually worked for GM in the Norwood plant, and he helped assemble this COPO at every station on the line. There were indeed some "items" that fell on the car along the way too! One item still on the car, is a large water gauge tapped into the intake manifold (which had been changed by Ron along the way over the years). That water gauge was donated by one of Ron's friends in the GM locomotive division.
Ron was not only a well known "Privateer" back in the day, but is still a respected one today. He still races "Tin Soldier II" the 85 Camaro he sold Tin Soldier to buy. His wife told him either the Camaro or his 67 427 vette would have to be sold to get the 85. Ron is a legend in the privateer (non sponsored) drag racing community.
Here's a pic of Ron from last summer in TSII:
Jason and his mom snuck out Ron's old fire suit, helmet and photo album. I brought a scanner and scanned all of the old TS pics and made this vid with the reveal and the pics. My favorite is at the 1:00min mark where Ron was handing his wife his beer as he was staging!
Youtube Vid:
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Stills:
Ron and Wife Early 70
Ron and Wife 2013
Ron Jason and I
Ron and Jason taking Tin Soldier for a spin
Old Pics I scanned:
Anyway, not the original owner, but still a cool original owner story I thought......
Rich