This is how we make the moonshine.
You know, I'm a car guy.
I always have been.
I collect cars, I love them, and I love them all for different reasons.
Each one of my cars has their own story.
I like tinkering with them.
I like working on them.
But more than that, I like driving them.
The little red one here.
This is a 1966 Shelby Cobra replica.
It's super, super fast.
It does have original 427 engine in it with two four barrel carburetors.
It's a rocket ship. It only weighs £2,200.
So it's not a toy, but it is a toy.
You know, as long as I'm able to get in this car, I'm going to drive it and I'm going to
enjoy it.
I didn't get it to look at it.
I got it to drive.
I love driving fast.
I like the acceleration.
You can feel the power in this car.
When it takes off, it hunkers down, it goes.
You got to be on your toes.
It will kill you.
You know.
Moonshiners back in the day, they would have loved to have this car just to play with deep
in their soul. They were speed junkies.
Honestly, I think that the moonshiner trippers back in the day, they wanted to be
chased just to show off their cars and show off their driving skills.
When they weren't running liquor, they started on the weekends gathering up and and
pasture fields and stuff and racing their cars.
They were responsible for modern racing.
You know, a lot of moonshiners went into racing their cars.
Junior Johnson probably being the most famous woman of them all, making a living
hauling liquor from point A to point B, Who knew it was going to turn into the sport that
it is today?
It's just going to lay its heritage and its conception directly at the roots of the
moonshiner. Race fans and moonshine fans are one and the same.
It's all about going fast.
And this car, it's happy when it's going fast and I'm happy when it's going fast.
So I love it.
This is a totally different car than the cobra.
It's a 1954 Buick Century.
This car was actually a wonderful moonshining car back in the day.
It had the biggest engine that Buick produced, very powerful engine.
Big back seats would hold a lot of liquor.
Look at these little flippers.
You never see workmanship like this on a car again.
See how that goes out the way as the door opens When you shut the door.
That flipper closes back up.
The seats fold forward up.
Out of your way. They had handrails on them, even the windows.
Look how they go down inside the car.
I mean, how cool is that?
They had these cars figured out.
This is what cars were meant to be.
But the most amazing thing about this car, it starts like a golf cart.
You turn the switch on and you mash the gas all the way to the floor and that engages the
starter. And that's as cool as it gets.
This car holds a real special place in our family.
This was my wife, Sally's.
Her grandfather bought this car new in 1954.
They sold the car in 1991, and it went to Ohio.
Well, fast forward to 2006.
I was in Ohio at the Goodguys car show in Columbus.
I saw this car.
So I went up and talked to the gentleman that had it, and he indeed knew the history
of it. And I struck a deal to buy the car.
It won't ever leave home again.
Now, this car would have been an excellent, excellent moonshine tripper car because the
trunk is big. It will hold a lot of liquor.
It's very fast.
But this being a family looking oriented car, it would draw less attention to itself
than the hot rods back in the day.
This car had everything that a moonshiner wanted.
But also as time progressed, moonshiners got smarter, revenuers got smarter.
It's just a matter of cat and mouse.
Back in the day, they would actually put oil down on the highway if the revenuers or the
law started chasing them, they had a lever they could pull to spill oil out on the
highway. So Digger and I, we rigged up and pulled up unit for this particular car.
Look around in there and see if there's some way that we can strap that tank down.
When you trim in wire tires, you can't see a thing.
Looks good. Hey, baby man, all I got to do is bar this switch up into the battery.
Can you go back there and see if the pump's running?
Now we're on.
Good. We're golden.
Yes. We weren't going to hold any liquor in this car.
We just did it for historical value to see if we could get a look here, see if we can
get anything.
There it is.
See it? Yeah. We didn't have any oil.
We dumped iced tea out on the road just to make it look like oil.
Well, we could see it.
It's laying it down.
Love it. And in fact, that dump system is still on this car today.
This car has all the capabilities that anyone would need to haul moonshine liquor
in. The only car that would replace this one, I think, is the quintessential moonshine
car of all time.
One everybody wanted everybody had to have would have to be 40 Ford Coupe.
And I'm going to show you one of them.
This is the quintessential moonshine car of all time, 1940 Ford Coupe.
In 1940, when this car was made, it was an instant classic, very good engine, very
powerful engine. But the main thing that moonshiners loved them for.
Uh oh, look at their 1939 40 Ford Coupe would hold 22 cases of moonshine.
If you did run out of space in the trunk and these old business coupes, look how cool this
is. You could probably put six cases of liquor just behind this seat.
Everything about these cars is cool.
There's 40 Ford.
When I get in it and I crank it up, I feel like I'm headed down Thunder Road with my own
load of electric.
The 1940.
Ford is one of the most iconic cars ever made and sold for the base sticker price of
$850. It was designed by the legendary Eugene Gregory, who also created the Lincoln
Continental. Due to its extra large trunk and powerful V8 engine, the 40 Ford became
the vehicle of choice for bootleggers, who often drove the same car at dirt track racing
competitions. Its dominance on the backroads of America and on the track led Ford to
produce nearly 600,000 of them.
It was just every moonshiners goal to acquire a 40 Ford coupe.
There's been untold thousands of gallons of moonshine, liquor bootleg.
And one of these you know, it wasn't a matter of trying to hide it in this car.
They just loaded it down and filled it full, took off with it wherever they were going.
Very powerful motor.
It's a fast car, but it's time progressed with the invention of two way radios.
It didn't matter how fast a car you had, you could not outrun a radio signal to the next
car waiting down the road for you.
You know, that's when the creativity of camouflage came into play.
Digger and myself, we've employed a lot of camouflage methods ourself.
One of the better ones that we ever did was when Digger showed up with his hearse.
Really?
Plenty of cargo room.
Oh, hell.
No. What?
I said. Well, what the hell?
We're putting liquor inside a casket.
Are you kidding me?
Wouldn't you? You're my favorite turd.
Oh, hell.
He brought me a funeral suit, too.
We looked like two funeral directors.
A lot of frigging work.
Try to peddle a jar of liquor.
Any damn. I sure do feel strange dressed up.
You know, even though I wasn't a big fan of the hearse because of my superstition.
It was a wonderful idea.
We did it a long time, but I hated every second of it.
Moonshining is one thing, but the heart of any moonshiner was being able to deliver his
liquor, get it into the hands of the customers.
And honestly, I don't think that any vehicle in the history of the world or moonshining
has delivered more liquor than 1944 coupes.
That's why I love this car.
This car is living, breathing history.
If I could go back, I can see me coming around these curves, going as fast as I could
go and hauling a load of moonshine.
Liquor. Don't guess it's too late to do that.
Hell, you never know.
We might make a run in a day or two in a 40 Ford coupe.