Johnny Dark Woodill Wildfire #2: Artistry by Dan Palatnik

Hi Gang…

More and more we are using Dan Palatnik’s renderings to “light the way” for our restorations of handcrafted American sports cars.  In addition, these renderings showcase each car in a beautiful presentation the way the cars were meant to be appreciated.  We could not do this without the talents of Dan Palatnik. Thanks Dan for your inspired help 🙂

Click Here To View Recent Story On Dan Palatnik’s Artistry For Undiscovered Classics

Recently I wrote about one of the cars we have in restoration at JR’s Speed Shop in Venice, Florida. It’s none other than the #2 Woodill Wildfire used in the movie Johnny Dark. If you’re not familiar with the movie, check out the 3 minute Johnny Dark (1954) Movie Trailer below:

Johnny Dark Wildfire #2

We found this car several years ago in Sacramento, California and good friend Dennis Gerdes led the adventure on saving, retrieving and transporting the car to our headquarters in Tampa, Florida.  Recently, Jack Farr took over ownership of this car and restoration has begun in earnest.  Click on the link below to learn more about Jack Farr’s Johnny Dark Wildfire – history and restoration:

Click  Here  To  Learn  More  About  The  1954  Movie  Johnny  Dark

Click  Here  To  Learn  More  About  the  Johnny  Dark  Wildfire  #2  (Black)

Vintage Photos of the Johnny Dark Wildfire #2 (Black)

Here are some of the photos of this car we have available from 1953 and 1954:

Dan Palatnik Renderings

Recently, Dan Palatnik completed his work on the renderings for Johnny Dark Wildfire #2.  Let’s check out some of his artistry below:

Summary:

The restoration is progressing nicely with the Wildfire at JR’s Speed Shop so stay tuned for more updates.  Should be fun.  And….I’m excited to say that Dan Palatnik is working on finishing the renderings of the Wildfire Red race car for Johnny Dark.  That will be fun to release too.

So I’ll warn Dan through this article and see if he reads down to this statement.  Dan…there were a total of 9 cars in the 1954 movie Johnny Dark:

1. Woodill Wildfire (Red)
2. Woodill Wildfire (Black) – completed
3. Glasspar G2 – we could create from existing renderings
4. Victress S1A – completed
5. Grantham Stardust
6. Tatum Special
7. Bowman Special
8. Kurtis Sports Car
9. Irwin Lancer

So there are 6 new cars and 1 modified car for a total 7 new renderings to complete for the movie.  I hope you haven’t fainted yet 🙂   And Dan….if we want to be creative, we could do a rendering of the Kaiser Darrin that promoted the movie throughout the country.  Here are some photos:

Who knows….maybe if I haven’t scared Dan away, we’ll have a cool “Cars of Johnny Dark” poster available in the next year or so.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and remember…

The adventure continues here at Undiscovered Classics.

Geoff