Johnny Dark Movie Book

60 The next 15 years or so, it very well may have. We don't know anything of its history until Tom Sawyer, then a junior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, rented a house that included a car sitting on the back patio in pieces. Tom only wanted the car gone the first time the landlord came around looking for the rent, but in- stead of moving it, the landlord offered to sell it to Tom, describing it as a handbuilt Allard. "I had no idea what it was," Tom said. "I wasn't even into it. It was basically a throwaway, all dried out, its paint so faded you couldn't tell the color. The tires were dry - rotted. But the body was nice. The only part missing was the grille - you could tell it had been smacked in the front." Under the hood, it had a tri - power 1953 Buick 322 - cu.in . nailhead V - 8, exhausted with sidepipes and glasspacks, and backed with a four - speed manual transmission. Regardless, Tom bought it for $300, put it back together, drove it, and took it with him to Salt Lake City after he graduated the following year. Without any history or guidance, he restored it as he saw fit, including a re- spray in red, a custom - built grille and a set of wire wheels. He then used it to promote his business and as a driver until 2009, when he retired and didn't see the sense in hanging on to it anymore. While getting ready to sell it, he became frustrated at the lack of information to back up his old landlord's claim that it was an Allard, so he enlisted the help of Salt Lake City - based collec- tor DeWayne Ashmead to further identify it. "I never had anybody scrutinize it so much," Tom said. A few days later, Ashmead got back to Tom to tell him that his car wasn't an Allard; it was actually the Bohman Special."It's weird to suddenly own a different car after 40 years," Tom said.Since then, Tom has been trying to collect as much information on it as possible in advance of an- other restoration to put it back to the configuration as seen in Johnny Dark. Tom said he'd like to find out how the car made its way from Southern California to Las Vegas in those missing 15 years, and possibly even locate the Bohman Maserati while he's at it, but Chris Bohman didn't leave any such clues before he died in recent years. In the meantime, Tom's just happy enough to finally know what it is he's owned for most of his life.