Johnny Dark Restoration Book - The Black Woodill Wildfire

51 Cowdin continued, “ A few years ago, I received an exciting phone call from Geoff; he now had strong reason to believe that I might own Tony Curtis ’ Idaho Special Wildfire. In addition to my car and the Johnny Dark car sharing the exact same dash, my car had plugged holes in the fiberglass body that matched the mounting locations for the Idaho Special ’ s racing windshield. Geoff also provided me with a movie still showing the Johnny Dark Wildfire lying on its side, which revealed the details of the undercarriage. When I moved the car to Colorado in September of 2014, I jacked the car up for the very first time and with great excitement crawled underneath. Lo and behold, every detail of the chassis and related construction matched my car to the studio photos from 1954.” With more research, Cowdin has been able to document that his Woodill Wildfire was entered in the 1st Annual Santa Barbara Road Race on September 5 - 6, 1953, with B. R. Woodill listed as Entrant and H. Haile Chace listed as Driver. Cowdin has been collecting parts and literature for his Wildfire for approximately 20 years. With the recent discov- ery that his car is Tony Curtis ’ Idaho Special, he is now fully motivated to begin a full restoration returning the car back to its famous movie/racing configuration. Cowdin said, “ I am very excited about the prospects of showing the restored car at the top concours in the na- tion. My goal is to honor the early pioneer- ing fiberglass constructors and pay them the proper respect they deserve. ” Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh divorced in 1962 and by then his film career was on the decline. He was married to a total of six women but, by the best research avail- able, it appears that there was only ever one Woodill Wildfire in his life … Car #11, the Idaho Special.