An old car magazine from the 1960s shows timing slips with speeds approaching 300 mph. Thompson reportedly joined the 200 mph club as early as 1966. Thompson passed away in 2012, and a friend reported that he was “a University of Southern California-graduate chemical engineer, an owner of a Harley-Davidson franchise and the CEO of a Lincoln-Mercury dealership, an electrical mechanic and a super tuner all in one.” He was said to “never use nitro.” It had an aerodynamic later-period Corvette nose and a 1953 Studebaker chassis, but details beyond that are thin on the ground. So what do we know? Old car magazines show that the car Thompson built was super-quick. It bears the number 400, and a tribute to Chet Herbert’s cams. It’s an other-worldly car, with blue-tinted plexiglass windows and multiple louvers. The car is a total time capsule, with all its period decals, badges and flair. Gooding hasn’t posted much information about this car yet-it’s coming-but the photographs are quite evocative. Now the heavily patinaed coupe, dripping with history, is to be auctioned by Gooding August 18 during Car Week in Monterey. It’s a heavily modified 1953 Studebaker Champion and it regularly set records at over 200 mph on the salt flats in Bonneville. This car is a champion, in more ways than one.
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