Johnny Dark Restoration Book - The Black Woodill Wildfire

54 Yesterday we covered the history of the most famous one used in all race scenes in the movie. This leaves the second and third cars in the movie to review today. Let ’ s have at it. Johnny Dark Wildfire #2: There ’ s about 3 minutes of the Johnny Dark Wildfire #2 shown in the movie. This is the car that was origi- nally “ built ” early in the movie, has a black exterior and a red bench seat. What makes this car a bit more interesting is that it is shown being tested on the proving grounds of “ Fielding Motors ” – which is actually the Packard Proving Grounds near Detroit, Michigan. So this car must have traveled from Los Angeles, California to Detroit, Michigan. I wonder if it drove cross - country or was trailered? The more famous racing version shown later in the movie (Johnny Dark Wildfire #1) stayed in California for all racing scenes shot with other cars for the second race. This same car (the red racing Wildfire) was also used for studio close - up shots of the actors. Here ’ s the 3 minutes of the film showing this car being built, being tested, and on its way to becoming (as the storyline goes) the Johnny Dark Wildfire or the “ Idaho Potato .” You may notice that in one of the scenes the Wildfire looks like it is “ gray ” and not “ glossy black. ” Fiberglass friend Erich Schultz who works within the movie industry shares that they would have waxed down the glossy black to reduce the reflective quality of the paint for the scenes shot on set. This seems to be the case with the scenes in the movie here. So far, all of the still photography and movie film “ at speed ” shows the front, side, and rear of the car in good detail. Here are studio photo stills of this car in the movie: