Re the Joe Borrtz Bonneville Special: What did the Detroit Historical Society sell it to him for?

I thought a few years ago at the Barrett Jackson auction I saw a rough Bonneville Special, looked like dragged out of a junkyard. Then I heard there were two of them. Did Bortz buy the nicer one or the rough one? Does anybody know what he paid for it? It must have been a public auction or at least a publically advertised car as the Historical Association can't be selling cars privately? I thought it was interesting he sold off some Ferraris to buy it, I wonder which models , as some have gone way up in value since he sold them if they were '50s or '60s Ferraris.

The Bonneville Special by the way is green, has gullwing doors, a plexiglass roof, and a straight eight.

i have a snap shot picture of the 54 pontiac bonneville special #1 car in a auto museum, the picture was taken in the 1970's, the picture was given to me, and the person didn't know what museum, or where it was. next thing in the 1980's, i read that joe bortz had bought the #1 car, in 1990, while attending the pontiac oakland club international's annual convention, i took almost 60 pictures of the #1 car, still, by this time, there was no knowledge of a #2 car (green), joe has a son named mark, who helped his dad with the car collection, one day mark gets a phone call from a man who wants to sell joe the 54 pontiac bonneville special, mark tells the caller, that they already have the bonneville special, the caller insist that he owns the bonneville special, so mark tells the caller to take and send pictures of what he has, lo and behold, pictures of the unknown #2 car comes in the mail. so joe does buy the #2 car, but later sells the #2 car, and later the #2 car gets a complete restoration. later the #2 car get sold at auction for 2.8 million dollars. joe still owns the #1 car. the color picture is the restored #2 car, when it was owned by the caller, it had been repainted white. the black & white picture shows the #1 car in front of the pontiac engineering building in pontiac, mich. the #1 car is still unrestored and original, i know joe will keep it that way.

charles l coker

1953 pontiac tech advisor

tech advisor coordinator

pontiac oakland club int'l

I thought a few years ago at the Barrett Jackson auction I saw a rough Bonneville Special, looked like dragged out of a junkyard. Then I heard there were two of them. Did Bortz buy the nicer one or the rough one? Does anybody know what he paid for it? It must have been a public auction or at least a publically advertised car as the Historical Association can't be selling cars privately? I thought it was interesting he sold off some Ferraris to buy it, I wonder which models , as some have gone way up in value since he sold them if they were '50s or '60s Ferraris.

The Bonneville Special by the way is green, has gullwing doors, a plexiglass roof, and a straight eight.

bonneville #1 is a bronze color, #2 is green. the doors are not gullwing, just the windows above the doors.

The emerald green car was used as the west coast GM Motorama car. My dad and I saw it a the Pan Pacific Auditorium in 1954.

Thanks to the first respondent; that is the kind of story I like to hear (was it in a magazine or were you told it in person?) because it illustrates one of the key lessons of barn finders, which is:Do not be a know-it-all and shut off someone trying to impart a fact to you that sounds improbable. Mark Bortz responded correctly and they were able to get the car. I am curious how the guy with car no.2 got it--maybe he bought it from GM? Or maybe was given the car by Earl (he gave cars away such as a Cadillac LeMans to Marie "The Body" MacDonald)). And what Bortz paid would be good to know, vague is OK ;such as saying "under 25K" etc. Also I thought I saw a decrepit Bonneville Motorama car at the Barrett-Jackson a few years ago but don't remember the color? Does anyone else know which of the two that was? Finally, I still call cars with windows that flip up gullwings as some of the '52 MB 300SL race cars had those same windows which didn't include part of the metal below and were called gullwings

Thanks to the first respondent; that is the kind of story I like to hear (was it in a magazine or were you told it in person?) because it illustrates one of the key lessons of barn finders, which is:Do not be a know-it-all and shut off someone trying to impart a fact to you that sounds improbable. Mark Bortz responded correctly and they were able to get the car. I am curious how the guy with car no.2 got it--maybe he bought it from GM? Or maybe was given the car by Earl (he gave cars away such as a Cadillac LeMans to Marie "The Body" MacDonald)). And what Bortz paid would be good to know, vague is OK ;such as saying "under 25K" etc. Also I thought I saw a decrepit Bonneville Motorama car at the Barrett-Jackson a few years ago but don't remember the color? Does anyone else know which of the two that was? Finally, I still call cars with windows that flip up gullwings as some of the '52 MB 300SL race cars had those same windows which didn't include part of the metal below and were called gullwings

i know joe bortz by means of having phone call and internet conversations with him, i read the story of mark and the bonneville special #2 seller from a magazine interview of joe bortz several years back. how i remember the seller getting the ownership of the #2 car was a pontiac dealership was storing the car for pontiac, and the guy was able to get the dealership to sell him the #2 car. the guy put turn signals on it, painted the car white, and drove the car quite a bit. i have no way of knowing what joe paid for either car, but i believe that joe paid several hundred thousands for the #1 car.

charles l. coker

1953 pontiac tech advisor

tech advisor coordinator

poci

1954 bonneville special nut