Woodill Wildfire

Last updated
Woodill Wildfire
Woodill Wildfire (1955) 1X7A7941.jpg
Overview
Manufacturer Woodill Motors
Production 300 produced
Designer Bill Tritt
Body and chassis
Class Sports Car
Body style 2-door 2-seater
Powertrain
Engine Willys 120 mph (193 km/h) top speed

The Woodill Wildfire was an American sports car built by Dodge and Willys dealer Blanchard Robert "Woody" Woodill from 1952 to 1958 in Downey, California. The Wildfire used a Glasspar fiberglass body and is credited with being the first complete fiberglass car available with approximately 15 produced and another 285 sold as kits. [1] A child's version of the vehicle called the Brushfire was also available. [2]

Dodge is an American brand of automobile manufactured by FCA US LLC, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles currently include performance cars, though for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above Plymouth.

Willys company

Willys was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company best known for its design and production of military Jeeps (MBs) and civilian versions (CJs) during the 20th century.

Downey, California City in California

Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, 13 mi (21 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program. It is also the home of the oldest still operational McDonald's restaurant in the world. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 111,779.

Contents

In September 2012 a Woodill Wildfire was featured on the Discovery Channel TV show Fast N' Loud . According to the show, theirs was one of only nine factory-built Wildfires still known to exist. [3] The show's host sold the car to a collector for $100,500. Payment for the car consisted of ten $10,000 stacks of $100 bills and a 1934 $500 bill, the latter of which in itself is worth more than its face value.

Discovery Channel American basic cable and satellite television channel

Discovery Channel is an American pay television television network and flagship channel owned by Discovery, Inc., a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. As of June 2012, Discovery Channel is the third most widely distributed subscription channel in the United States, behind TBS and The Weather Channel; it is available in 409 million households worldwide, through its U.S. flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally.

Fast N' Loud is a reality styled Discovery Channel TV show featuring Richard Rawlings and his crew from the Dallas, Texas-based Gas Monkey Garage as they search for tired and run-down cars, and restore them for profit. Fast N' Loud is unique in the reality genre, since the episodes sometimes incorporate a skit into the theme of the episode.

Large denominations of United States currency greater than $100 were circulated by the United States Treasury until 1969. Since then, U.S. dollar banknotes have only been issued in seven denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

See also

Related Research Articles

Ford Galaxie car model

The Ford Galaxie is a full-sized car that was built in the United States of America by Ford for model years 1959 through to 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford's full-size range from 1958 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race. For 1962, all full-size Fords wore the Galaxie badge, with "500" and "500/XL" denoting the higher series. The Galaxie 500/LTD was introduced for 1965 followed by the Galaxie 500 7-Litre for 1966. The Galaxie 500 prefix was dropped from the LTD in 1966, and from the XL in 1967; however the basic series structuring levels were maintained. The "regular" Galaxie 500 continued below the LTD as Ford's mid-level full-size model from 1965 until its demise at the end of the 1974 model year.

Carroll Shelby racecar driver

Carroll Hall Shelby was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified during the late 1960s and early 2000s. He established Shelby American Inc. in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles, as well as Carroll Shelby Licensing in 1988 which grew into Carroll Shelby International.

Puma (car manufacturer) automobile manufacturer in Brazil

Puma is a sports car manufacturer based in South Africa. Puma was originally based in Brazil where it built cars, from 1964 until roughly 1995, and trucks, from 1978 to 1999. The company then re-opened in South Africa in 2013 under the name of Puma Automobiles. Puma Automobiles manufactures the Puma 52 and the Puma GT 2.4 Lumimari.

Enzo Ferrari (automobile) Italian flagship sports car

The Enzo Ferrari is a 12 cylinder mid-engine sports car named after the company's founder, Enzo Ferrari. It was developed in 2002 using Formula One technology, such as a carbon-fibre body, F1-style electrohydraulic shift transmission, and carbon fibre-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) ceramic composite disc brakes. Also used are technologies not allowed in F1 such as active aerodynamics and traction control. The Enzo Ferrari generates substantial amounts of downforce which is achieved by the front underbody flaps, the small adjustable rear spoiler and the rear diffuser working in conjunction, 3,363 N is generated at 200 km/h (124 mph) 7,602 N is attained at 299 km/h (186 mph) before decreasing to 5,738 N at top speed.

Shelby Mustang high performance variant of the Ford Mustang which was built by Shelby from 1965 to 1968, and from 1969 to 1970 by Ford

The Shelby Mustang is a high performance variant of the Ford Mustang which was built by Shelby American from 1965 to 1968, and from 1969 to 1970 by Ford. Following the introduction of the fifth generation Ford Mustang in 2005, the Shelby nameplate was revived as a new high-performance model, this time designed and built by Ford.

Barrett-Jackson is an American auction company in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company specializes in the auction of classic cars and antique cars, and runs collector events in Scottsdale, Palm Beach, Florida, Uncasville, Connecticut and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Chevrolet Corvette (C4) sports car produced by Chevrolet for the 1984 through 1996 model years

The Chevrolet Corvette (C4) was a sports car produced by Chevrolet from 1984 to 1996. The convertible returned, as did higher performance engines, exemplified by the 375 hp (280 kW) LT5 found in the ZR-1. In early March 1990, the ZR-1 would set a new record for the highest 24 hour-5,000 mile land-speed by going over 175 mph (282 km/h). Prices rose and sales declined, in spite of a completely new chassis, modern sleeker styling, and other improvements to the model. The last C4 was produced on June 20, 1996.

Glasspar G2

The Glasspar G2 was a sports car body first manufactured by Bill Tritt in 1949. It is no longer built today. It was the first production all-fiberglass sports car body built by an American fiberglass manufacturer. A few were built as complete cars but most were offered as a body, or body/chassis kit.

Bill Tritt is an American yacht builder. He began working in Glass-reinforced plastic in 1948. He founded Glasspar Corporation in 1949 due to his keen interest in boats and cars and his belief in fiberglass as a material.

The Glasspar boat-building company was started in 1947 when Bill Tritt began building small fiberglass boat hulls in his Costa Mesa, California fiberglass shop.

Kaiser Darrin car model

The Kaiser Darrin, also known as the Kaiser Darrin 161 or in short as the Darrin, was an American sports car designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin and built by Kaiser Motors for the 1954 model year. Essentially a revamp of Kaiser's Henry J compact, the Kaiser Darrin was one of its designer's final achievements and was noted for being the first American car equipped with a fiberglass body and doors that slid on tracks into the front fender wells. The car was named both for Henry J. Kaiser, head of Kaiser Motors, and Darrin.

Discovery Turbo

Discovery Turbo is a television channel devoted to programming about transport. It is similar to Discovery Velocity and Velocity. It was also briefly available as an on-demand service in the US in the late 2000s.

Glassport Motor Company (GSM) was a South African motor manufacturer based in Cape Town between 1958 and 1964. They produced the Dart and Flamingo sports cars. The name Glass Sport Motors is due to their use of fiberglass. GSM narrowly missed being South Africas first sports car maker, beaten by the GRP Protea. A Dart, Flamingo and Protea can be viewed at the Franschhoek Motor Museum in South Africa.

Bill Thomas Cheetah

The Bill Thomas Cheetah was an American sports car designed and engineered entirely with American components, and built from 1963 to 1966 by Chevrolet performance tuner Bill Thomas. It was developed as a competitor to Carroll Shelby's Cobra.

Discovery Turbo (Asia)

Discovery Turbo was an Asian male-oriented factual television channel devoted to programming about cars, bikes, boats, and planes. The channel was owned by Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific. The channel was recently replaced Discovery Real Time, although the European version continues to broadcast.

DMAX (Asia)

DMAX is an Asian satellite and cable TV channel which provides documentary, factual-entertainment, lifestyle and reality programming for male audiences.

Richard Rawlings American businessman

Richard Rawlings (born March 30, 1969) is an American entrepreneur and media personality. He is the star of the reality television show Fast N' Loud on Discovery Channel. He is also a proprietor of the Gas Monkey Garage as well as both the Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill and Gas Monkey Live music venues in Dallas, Texas.

Aaron Kaufman

Aaron Kaufman is an American television personality and owner of Arclight Fabrication, a Dallas enterprise that supplies aftermarket components for the Ford F-100 pickups.

References

  1. Fendell, Bob (April 1972). "Plastic in Cars: Where They've Been, Where They're Going". Automobile Quarterly. 10 (2): 185–187.
  2. Georgano, G.N. (1970). A History of Sports Cars. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. ISBN   0-17-148024-4.
  3. "Wildfire". Fast n Loud. Discovery Channel. September 24, 2012.