Old show car found and back to its original owner!

old show car found and back to its original designer and builder! cool story

Not sure if this had been on here yet but i found it on bringatrailer.com

The guy who originally built and designed this car has a shop in the detroit area. i have been there a few times. its a sweet old show car. he recently bought the car back from being in hiding for so many years.

From the ebay ad. . .

This spectacular aluminum bodied, Pontiac drivetrain (Vivant) show/race car built by Mr.Herb Adams, the famed Pontiac engineer who created the Trans Am, the GTO Judge and the Super Duty 455 V-8 has resurfaced. This custom sports car was designed and built by Mr. Adams in conjunction with the assistance of 3 English Master-Craftsmen that had previously worked for Rolls Royce in the body fabricating division. They hand-crafted the aluminum body, installed 1958 370 cubic inch Pontiac engineered race motor, 4 speed transmission and numerous early to mid 60's Corvette components. This particular motor was one of several hand built by the Pontiac engineering dept. that once testing was completed was to be destroyed, but somehow this one escaped through the cracks! Once the car was completed, Mr. Adams showed John DeLorean the car and hence named the car the "Vivant". Mr. DeLorean had been referred to as a "bon vivant" in many articles meaning a person having cultivated, refined, and sociable taste. Mr. Adams felt the name was appropriate for his master-piece and I am sure Mr. DeLorean would agree.The "Vivant" was shown at one of the first Autorama car shows at Cobo Hall, Detroit Michigan around 1966-68. In October of 1968 this very car was featured for sale in Hot Rod magazine. It was sold and disappeared for the next 35 yrs or so until it was discovered in a barn in early 2000. We took the car to show Mr. Adams his (as he put it) "Old Girlfriend". Mr. Adams was pleased to see the Vivant again. He explained the process in building this magnificent vehicle and filled us in on the mysteries and mystic of this car that represents part of Automotive History as we know it today! The car is complete, only missing the carburetor and air cleaner, but it does need a complete restoration. Someone started stripping the original paint which only added to our excitement seeing the razor straight aluminum body panels and all of the great craftsmanship that went into it.The car still has the original 8 lug Pontiac wheels, Goodyear tires and still has some of the original paint as pictured in the 1968 Hot Rod magazine ad. The rear fins were designed to resemble the mid 50's famous Alfa Romeo "Bat Wing" Aerodynamic Coupes by Bertone.This spectacular one-of-kind car would make a great addition to any collection.

this was the listing on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230433749757&viewitem=#v4-34

original article
http://bringatrailer.com/2010/02/07/ghia-ish-1965-adams-pontiac-aluminum-special/


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What a beautiful car, I'm glad she's still with us.

 

Kool deal

 

Very Sweet!

 

Oh Shit!

Just when I was sat down and comfortable, You have to give me some inspiration.

Cool as!

 

cool story and cool car. Look at the bidding....it went from 69,000 to 175,000!!!! less then 1 minute later....

 

inside looks like a boat... cool. a boatmobile

 

Typical E-Bay shell game by the owner and his croonies.

 

Amazing! arriving at a conclusion without the use of any facts whatsoever.
It could be just two rich guys bidding on a car on Ebay.
But I have no facts either, so we both could be right.

 

typical example of a bunch of knuckleheads bidding a car up before the end of the auction. any serious buyer bids in the last few seconds.

croonies??? what, they were singing? I don't get it.

 

I agree with this one. Any bidding before the last minute is wasted and just drives up the price. A lot of people hate sniping, but that is how the game is played and if you want to win, learn the game.

 

That is cool all get out. I sure hope he does restore it and drives it around town.

 

Thanks, been following this find since last year I guess. What a cool car. Slim

 

Unless that guy's a bidder, it's not going back to Herb Adams.

 

Yeah it went back to Herb.
just got the update about 15 minutes ago. he has most of it put back together. he had quite a bit of work to do, and parts to find. he was just over at my buddies house two days ago. i guess hot rod mag is doing a story on the whole build. ill see if i can get some pics

 

I don't know, sniping at $175,000.00 would be a risky business.
As far as the last jump in price, the guy that had the bid at $69,900.00 had to have a bid of something a little less that $175,000.00 or the winning bidder would have gotten the car at $70,000.00 or so.
Bottom line is that the guy that was willing to give the most money got it.
Larry T