I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I think many of us in this absurd profession of automotive journalism tend to look up to Hunter S. Thompson as a sort of, I don’t know, spirit guide, or something. I mean, I know I do, at least. This is in part because the actual job Thompson was assigned to do in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was the job of a motor journalist: covering the Mint 400 off-road race. Of course, everything went off the rails in a pretty spectacular manner, which is what makes the book so fantastic.
It’s Hunter S. Thompson that I think about when I’m at some press event, remembering his reminder that you’re there to cover the story; sometimes that story is not why the car company or whomever flew you out there to cover, but that’s just how it goes. Sometimes it’s worth following in his Gonzo Journalism footsteps, having a voice, taking those pills you found on the hotel carpet, doing some ether, whatever. He also was the writer that made me appreciate the use of italics, which I now adore.
I’m telling you all of this because a Christie’s auction has started for one of Hunter S. Thompson’s own personal cars, and that same car was used in the 1998 movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing. It’s the 1973 Chevy Caprice Classic convertible known as the Great Red Shark. You can see it here in all its glory, barreling through Bat Country:
Hell of a machine, that Great Red Shark. In the book it’s a rental car, memorably described as being “the only fire-apple-red shark convertible between Butte and Tijuana” and the protagonists are described as
“Two good old boys in a fire-apple red convertible. Stoned. Ripped. Twisted. Good people.”
There’s one really good detailed scene of driving the Shark and Thompson getting pulled over by CHP that I’d like to share with you here; it’s pretty good-sized passage, but I think it’s worth it, if you’ll indulge me:
“About five miles back I had a brush with the CHP. Not stopped or pulled over: nothing routine. I always drive properly. A bit fast, perhaps, but always with consummate skill and a natural feel for the road that even cops recognize. No cop was ever born who isn’t a sucker for a finely-executed hi-speed Controlled Drift all the way around one of those cloverleaf freeway interchanges.
Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him … and then he will start apologizing, begging for mercy.
This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. The thing to do – when you’re running along about 100 or so and you suddenly find a red-flashing CHP-tracker on your tail – what you want to do then is accelerate. Never pull over with the first siren-howl. Mash it down and make the bastard chase you at speeds up to 120 all the way to the next exit. He will follow. But he won’t know what to make of your blinker-signal that says you’re about to turn right.
This is to let him know you’re looking for a proper place to pull off and talk … keep signaling and hope for an off-ramp, one of those uphill side-loops with a sign saying “Max Speed 25” … and the trick, at this point, is to suddenly leave the freeway and take him into the chute at no less than 100 miles an hour.
He will lock his brakes about the same time you lock yours, but it will take him a moment to realize that he’s about to make a 180-degree turn at this speed … but you will be ready for it, braced for the Gs and the fast heel-toe work, and with any luck at all you will have come to a complete stop off the road at the top of the turn and be standing beside your automobile by the time he catches up.
He will not be reasonable at first … but no matter. Let him calm down. He will want the first word. Let him have it. His brain will be in a turmoil: he may begin jabbering, or even pull his gun. Let him unwind; keep smiling. The idea is to show him that you were always in total control of yourself and your vehicle – while he lost control of everything.”
This is, of course, terrible advice, and I sort of suspect that any of it actually happened, at least not quite like that, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fantastic to read.
Okay, back to the auction: this 1973 Caprice convertible was given to Hunter S. back in 1990 by Jim and Artie Mitchell, a pair of brothers who ran the San Francisco strip club and pornography business from 1969 to 1991, the year after they gifted the car to Thompson, and the year that Jim shot his brother, killing him.
The Shark has a white top and interior upholstery, and looks to be in pretty good shape, considering all of the things this car must have seen. It’s not a perfect, concurs-restored car, but looks like a good-condition machine that one could actually use and enjoy. Thompson had it until his death in 2005, and, as I mentioned, it was used in the 1998 movie, so it likely has some Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro sweat soaked into those vinyl seats.
The auction description also notes the presence of a “black box” with:
“… ‘Gonzo Fist’ containing Jacques Marie Mage Los Angeles Aviator Sunglasses, two Jimmy Buffett cassette tapes, one Allman Brothers cassette tape, various documents concerning Holley Carburetor Model 4011, and user manual for Sony EXR-10⁄14 FM/AM Cassette Car Stereo…”
Jimmy Buffet tapes? Really? Somehow I never pegged Thompson for a Parrothead.
Christie’s estimates the car will sell for between $100-$150,000. Considering the pedigree of the car, the lingering knowledge of the fantastically depraved things that must have happened in it, and the likely considerable drug residues embedded into the carpets and trunk liner, I think that sounds like a pretty fair price.
If only I had the money. Selah.
Oh wow. In junior high school & high school I was kinda obsessed with HST and read everything by him that I could lay my hands on and I also avidly followed Uncle Duke in the comic strip Doonesbury. I even copied some of Ralph Steadman’s illustrations onto the front covers of my school notebooks and binders. And I had a high quality and really robust plastic dealership model, I think it was scale 1:24, of a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix hardtop coupe in a lovely dark green color that a family friend, whose family owned Pontiac dealerships, gave me in childhood; I sawed the top off, wrapped the top in white cloth with wires underneath to simulate the ribs, and glued the top back on after I had painted the interior in white and the exterior of the car in several coats of fire-engine red. I knew it wasn’t the correct model but it was close enough and it was fun turning it into the Great Red Shark. I still have it somewhere though it’s been a good few years since I last saw it but it held up extremely well over the years through my childhood *and* my own kids’ childhoods. (When I come across it again I’ll have to find out who manufactured it; to this day it’s still the best quality plastic scale model car I’ve ever encountered. Yeah, I kinda regret mutilating that model, lol.)
As I grew older, though, I completely cooled on HST once I came to realize just how deeply problematic he was IRL especially with women and his love of hunting animals for sport, ugh. I actually tossed my copies of his books in the recycling bin. I do know people including a lawyer (!!) who still quote entire lines from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, though. I just don’t participate.
A good friend from college worked for several years as a bartender in a biker bar in California in the 1990s and said that some of the clientele still occasionally referenced HST’s 1967 book Hell’s Angels: the Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs especially since some of them were actually acquainted with some of the people HST rode with; my friend said that the general consensus was that HST well and truly deserved the stomping that he got when he was kicked out of the gang he was riding with and that he was extremely lucky not to have suffered worse, lol.
It’ll be interesting to see how much this particular car goes for at auction and who ends up buying it, especially with its connection to Johnny Depp who’s also deeply problematic IRL… One wonders whatever happened to the ersatz Great Red Shark, a 1965 Pontiac 2+2, that makes an appearance in the 1980 Bill Murray film Where the Buffalo Roam: https://imcdb.org/i415144.jpg
I wouldn’t be shocked if Johnny Depp ends up buying this thing. I’m actually surprised he doesn’t already own it
Let me get this straight – Jim was so embarrassed of shooting a porno of his brother Artie that he died?
Auction should include a send-off from a uniformed Gary Busey and a handful of land-crab bibs from the Majestic Diner
Thompson and Buffett were good friends.
I suppose a screen used car with big stars even if it’s not a cult classic commands at least that much. I know an old lady with an identical car she bought new and likes that movie because her car is in it.
The detailers typically take care of certain residues. I know they used to fight to clean a certain mayor of DC’s cars.
I’ll bet on humid days the seats reek of spilled Wild Turkey, Chivas and pot. It’s like a 70s hipster air freshener.
Now THAT is a crazy torpedo that I’d ride as far as it goes.
Any mention of ether always makes me think of a Doonesbury comic strip from the early ’80s, appropriately enough connected to the strip’s HST stand-in, Uncle Duke. At the time, he was missing and presumed dead after parachuting into Iran to try to free the American hostages; one of his lackeys, Zeke, had capitalized on his apparent death by writing a sensational tell-all book about Duke, and was promoting it on the talk show circuit. Anyway, the punchline of this particular strip is that Zeke is on the Dinah Shore show (Chevrolet connection!), doing a “cooking” demonstration with a bunch of bottles of booze and pills and a blender, saying, “Then he would add two tablespoons of ether…” while, just off-panel, Dinah says, “Mmm! It sounds wonderful!”
So anytime someone refers to ether, I have Dinah Shore in my head saying, “Mmm! It sounds wonderful!”
I always enjoyed how HST absolutely HATED Uncle Duke.
OMG!!! Not the Great White Shark but the OG red land yacht! It also makes me think of PJ O’Rourke’s line about the fastest car being a rental car. Selah!
Does it have a bullet hole anywhere?
My favorite bit in that PJO’R rant is the part about “…no other car can be put into reverse at a greater rate of forward speed than a rental.” Always cracks me up.
I assume that if HST never mentioned Shower Spaghetti, it was only because there wasn’t enough space.
Johnny Depp or Bill Murray?
For some reason this passage about ether stuck with me, although I can’t recall if it’s because of the book or the movie:
[paraphrasing]
You’re aware of everything you’re doing, but powerless to do anything about it.
Doesn’t sound like fun, but like most of that book, it’s a lot of fun to read about.
Thanks Torch, what a nice way to send us all into the weekend!
Being a rag top fan, and lover of all cars, no matter how large or small, I’d buy that!