- We're in Atlanta, right now.
Take about an hour to get there, is what my GPS says.
About 25 years ago. (laughs loudly)
I'll see you little while.
(car engine roars)
(driving rock music)
That's David Sosebee, who used to be a NASCAR driver.
He's a second generation racer,
his father was Gober Sosebee,
used to race modified cars on the beach in Daytona.
And I bought a gold Darrell Waltrip stock car from him
25 years ago, and so we're gonna go back
to see if he's got anything left,
'cause he had a whole yard full of interesting stuff.
I hope some of it's still there.
A wagon.
I've got a soft spot in my heart for wagons.
So, I wonder if this house is connected with this car.
"Honest Charlie's Speed Shop" decal on it,
so I would say, I think it's a '54.
So, that would have been the last year of
a six-cylinder chevy as your only option.
The year after that, '55, they came out with
a 265 cubic inch V8, the small box chevy,
which really changed the automotive world
and the racing world.
Lot of rust bottom of the tailgate,
lower rocker panels, bottom part of the door,
that would be a serious restoration.
As I remember, they call these metal Woodies,
and so most of them,
when they came from the factory
they were...
(window motor churning)
Wood grained,
they were hand wood-grained
by people at the factory to simulate wood,
but it was actually metal.
But as I remember, they had wood on the inside.
So, all this stuff inside here, I believe, was wood,
but I might be wrong by a year or two on that.
It says "upholstered in Tijuana, OK used cars."
I'm gonna go knock on that door over there, I think.
Hopefully they don't have a shotgun or a dog.
(window motor churning)
(key clinks in lock)
Cover me.
(cars roar from highway)
(door slamming)
Well, nobody's home.
A neat car, I mean,
how often do you see one of those?
I'd say, we did see one in North Carolina that time
we were there recently,
but that was a 53, it's a 54.
Pretty rare car,
but you'd have to be a heck of a metal worker
to make sense of that car.
You'd have to be bending, and welding, and banging,
and all over that car.
But, if you had that talent, you could have a rare car,
whether you'd restore it or make a hot rod out of it.
(car engine roars)
I've been to this guy's house before,
a quarter of a century ago.
My fear is that, y'know, you can see
how kind of damp it is here,
that maybe if anything is still sitting outside
it could be kind of ruined,
but we'll see together.
(window wipers ticking)
This is the place?
Haven't seen you in a while!
(engine revs)
Where, right here?
We found it. (laughs)
So, this is David Sosebee.
If you're an old time stock car enthusiast,
historian kind of person,
you'd maybe remember his name.
Maybe you can google him.
(driving rock music)
I'm a kind of a Ford guy,
and if this is what David tells me it is,
this is one of the rarest cars
we've had on our program.
So, the last time I saw this guy,
was probably a quarter of a century ago,
when I came to your home here.
Your dad, your mom were here,
and I brought from you an old
Darrell Waltrip Buick Lesabre.
- That's correct.
- It was the old Mountain Dew car.
- Yep, the car I'd got from Junior Johnson.
- Got it from Junior Johnson.
And I had that until just a couple years ago,
and I never did anything with it, sold it.
But, David and his father, Gober,
are stock car legends in this area.
- [TV Announcer] Hundreds of stock car racing fans
from all over the nation, gathered for the
Grand National circuit 160-mile championship race
for stock model automobiles.
- And I remember your father pointed over a cliff,
and said, "I was gonna build a super speedway right there."
- That's correct.
- And the bank was gonna be,
the bank and the grandstands will be built
right into the hillside.
- That's correct.
- What a brilliant idea.
- That was in 1946.
He thought about it after the war,
and in '47 her started grading,
he got a whole straigthaway doing it.
He'd been at one mile, after at Lakewood
with such long straightaways, he was gonna
shorten the straightaways and make more curve in it.
And he was gonna bank it a little bit more,
and it was gonna be right here.
So, instead of being Darlington,
it'd be Dawsonville, if that had a happened.
- Is that right?
- And everyone thought he was crazy.
- It was gonna be paved?
- No, dirt. - Dirt, okay.
- Yeah, and hell, this is three years pre-Darlington.
- Wow.
- And he got low on money,
and people thought he was crazy, it'd never happen.
If he'd of finished it, it would have been,
it'd be the first speedway.
It started here, even though they don't,
most people don't understand that.
The backbone was right here in Dawsonville.
- So, Dawsonville is known for, well,
good barbecue.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- NASCAR drivers and moonshine.
- Yeah, well you gotta wash that barbecue
down with something.
(laughing)
Yes.
- So, y'know, last time I was here,
David had a bunch of old stock cars
that I guess you've sold or restored,
and they're in the hall of fame,
but he also, y'know, he's got other cars as well.
And this car...
If this is what I think it is,
it's one of the rarest cars we'll have found
on the Barn Find Hunters series.
So, tell me the story of this '65 Ford Fairlane.
(rock music)
- Dad knew a guy with Ford Motor Company,
y'know, heard him owning my car
and he always liked pretty peppy cars,
he had a '57 Chevrolet with a 283 Power Pack in it,
four-speed, hardtop,
and he'd come in here and said he's gonna
buy him a Ford this time, they'd come out with a 289.
And he said, "Well, they've got one that's highpowered."
And Dad said, "Well, we'll see what we can do."
So, Dad talked to the gentleman,
a man by the name of Mr. Johnson at
Hapeville Ford Motoring Company in Atlanta,
near the airport.
So, we ordered this car for him.
When they started down the line,
they had the serial number,
and back then you could go up here
if you had a serial number and buy a tag.
So, he brought a tag for it,
he brought insurance on it,
and they went down,
and they knew which day it was coming off the line,
and what time, so we went early that evening before.
He went, and went to the gate, and they said,
"What do you do?"
And he said, "I come to pick my car up."
They said, "What do you mean your car?
"This is assembly."
He said, "Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do, get my car."
And he said, "You don't do that, you do the dealer."
And he said, "Oh no, I come to get my car."
He said, "Well, what you got?"
And he said, "That's the tag for it."
And he said, "Sir, you don't understand.
There's been a mistake."
And he said, "You need to call Mr. Johnson."
So, Mr. Johnson came out, met him, took him in,
and it was finishing up down the assembly line,
and when it got to the end of it, they got in it.
Where most people drive it out, they got in it.
They took it over,
and they put six or seven gallon of gas in the new car then,
and they went over and they say, "Fill it up."
So, they filled it up with gas.
So, Mr. Johnson's driving,
they had a little proving ground,
so they went around on the proving ground
a lap or two with it,
show him sort of what it would do.
Pull back up to the gate,
and Mr. Johnson got out,
and they put the tag on and he drove it home.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about it.
It's a 289 high performance, four-speed,
posi traction, dual exhaust, Ford over here.
- [Tom] So, this is a four-speed factory,
with 69,000 miles.
You're saying this is original paint?
- [David] Yes, sir.
- So, it's a black car, with black interior, 4-door,
with 69,000 miles, 289...
Let's see what this,
it's probably right here.
- Yep, that's it.
- 289.
So, it's not a K-Code.
It's an A-Code.
Okay, so I think that means that
it's a four-barrel.
- [David] It is a four-barrel.
- [Tom] It's a four-barrel.
Okay, so that's 225 horsepower.
Isn't that something.
So, he ordered it just like that?
- [David] Yes, sir.
No power steering, no air-condition.
- Manual brakes.
So that's original paint, no kidding.
Does it have dual exhaust?
- [David] Yes, sir.
- [Tom] When was the last time this car was run?
- [David] 'Bout a week ago.
- [Tom] Oh, really?
- We crank it up ever so often.
My brother drived it a little bit,
just to keep everything going and working,
'cause it ruins a car to let sit.
- [Tom] Oh, yeah.
So, I mean, does it have Glasspacks on it?
- [David] No, it's just got the regular
exhaust on it.
- [Tom] Who owns this car now?
- [David] We do.
- [Tom] Like, the family owns it?
- [David] Yeah, my dad--
- [Tom] Can I sit in it?
- [David] Back to my dad,
you sure can.
Reach all behind the dash,
and see if you find the key.
Try the ashtray.
- Oh yeah, look at that.
Boy, that's probably the old Ford dealership key fob.
- [David] Well, it never went.
It's plain Jane. (laughs)
- Right, right, right.
There we go, ready?
- [David] Yes, sir.
(engine roars)
(engine revving)
- Oh, that's sweet!
So, you know, being this is a 4-door,
and a high performance car,
this is the kind of car a moonshine rider
probably would have preferred,
'cause it didn't look racy,
it looked like a family-go-to-church car.
And meanwhile, the whole trunk will be
filled with mason jars.
That's a cool car, man.
69,687 miles.
This one of my favorite cars, man.
This is neat!
(driving rock music)
Tell us about what we're walking towards here.
- [David] Yeah, we're walking towards a car
I'd raced at Talladega.
I got this car from Rick Wilson, and--
- [Tom] So, it was a Kodak car?
- [David] No, it was before the Kodak car.
He was driving for Kodak,
and this was his personal car.
He'd run it in oracle racing.
And so, I got it,
and was running it at Tallageda,
and I run it at Daytona and Atlanta.
A guy drove up behind us,
it just lifted the back end off the racetrack.
There's not even a black mark on the racetrack,
he just lifted it up.
- [Tom] The back of the car?
- [David] Just lifted up,
when he drove up behind us.
He never touched me.
Broke my left leg, not my right leg.
It's transmission was up in the seat with me,
and the recall broke my left leg.
So, we got another one of them old cars,
and took all the parts off of this,
and put it together and went back up
to Charlottetown race.
- Let's just stop here for a minute.
So, right there is where a super speedway
was gonna be, built into the bank turns.
So, tell us about this thing.
- [David] Well, y'know it cost so much
to build the bankings for the grandstands,
and back then you didn't think about that.
So, he found a place that you could have
natural grandstands with the contour.
Cut the trees off, and do your grading,
fill the turns in and all he would a had to
put the lower turn, the others woulda been natural.
And graded it out, and you just had the banks to
sit on then, like you seen on the back straightaway
at the Lakewood Fairground in Atlanta.
- The first super speedway was Darlington.
Was it 1950?
- 1950.
- And so your dad had the idea for this in '47?
- '46 and started it mainly in '47,
after the war.
- And then when Darlington opened, he said,
"Well, that's it."
- Yeah, he said, "Well, they already got one,
"we don't need another one."
- Wow.
- But, it'd have been Dawsonville versus Darlington.
- Yep. - Yup.
- Isn't that something, man.
So, I mean, cool pick-up truck here.
Cool one over there,
but really what I wanted to show you back here,
is this old coupe.
'34 Ford, five window coupe.
Tell us about experience with this car.
- Well, they said the '39's was a little heavier,
and Jack Smith had a '34 Ford
and went to The Peach Bowl,
and he was winning races right and left,
because they were a little lighter.
But, when you got through with my dad,
he put floating hubs and spindles,
and all that stuff, on 'em.
Made 'em as heavy as a tank,
and he was adding too much weight to it,
so he built a '34 to go out and ran,
and it run mostly at The Peach Bowl,
and some of these other little short tracks.
- [Tom] So, this has got truck axles on it?
- [David] Yeah, that's what he done.
- [Tom] Let me ask you this,
when you restored your dad's coupe,
the black coupe?
- [David] Yes, sir.
- [Tom] Was it in worse condition than this?
- [David] Is in every bit as bad,
'cause you'd run it at Daytona at the beach,
and when you ran on the beach you had the salt water.
- [Tom] So, you're gonna restore this car?
- We're looking at restoring it.
- I would like to see this car outta here one day.
That'll be cool.
And you need to put it in that building or something.
- [David] Yeah, I need to.
(driving rock music)
- Sir, I'll see you in 25 more years.
- Yeah, I hope so,
and as good a shape as we're in too.
- (laughs) Thank you, David.
Happy hunting.
(driving rock music)
Guys like him you've got to pay attention to,
because he's the last guy that knows,
kind of, the racing secrets of the, this area here.
His father passed it on to him,
he's got no kids, so you know,
when he goes those stories are gone forever.
So, I really try to pay attention to those guys,
because it was all about moonshine and stock car racing.
It wasn't even NASCAR.
This was pre-NASCAR, when his father wanted to
build a super speedway out the back of their yard.
Listen, thanks for joining us.
If you have any friends that you think
would like this Barn Find Hunter program,
I'd say subscribe.
We're now approaching, I think,
1.1 million subscribers.
Programs come out every two weeks,
on a Wednesday,
and I hope there's happy barn finds in your future.
- You started the Daytona one,
here in the Buick, towing a race car.
And a guy and Carlene went with them,
and they got down through there,
and is going down,
and the other man, he went to sleep.
And Dad said, "We ain't towed much, so we got be careful."
And anyway, Jack and I, get slung way up down
near the Georgia line.
We was in, actually, Florida,
and it went up on the bay.
Well, it flipped the race car
and tore the towbar loose,
and pulled the bumper off the Buick.
So, you see back then they ran more than two races a year,
they run five or six races a year at Daytona.
So, they messed that up.
Well, he was going to grab the Buick,
and you got the towbar,
and they couldn't 'cause it'd knocked the bottom
of the radiator off the Buick.
Well, they on this bank,
and couldn't get it back in the road,
so he said, "Well, what the hell, it's tore up anyway."
So, he backed the Buick up,
and run and jumped it off the bank back into the road.
So, then it cut it off,
keep from cooking the motor.
So, they took the race car and the towbar--
- Towed the Buick?
- And put it on the front of the Buick,
and put it on that.
Well, there one, but one seat in a race car,
and all the tires, and a jack, and a toolbox
and everything was in a race car.
So, my mother and him got in the Buick,
'cause it had the seat and all,
and it's gone getting daylight then,
and they start out down the road,
and him and the race car pulling the Buick.
And he'd notice people moving over
and everything, when they got to toward the beach,
and it had done, the tire went down on the Buick,
and it had done wore the fender skirt off,
rubbed the quarter panel down.
Your mother's blowing the horn
of a race car with no exhaust.
Hell, it didn't have no mirrors on it,
'cept a little mirror in the center,
and you couldn't see out the back for it.
And I said, "The car was swaying like that behind it."
And Dad just said, "Well, it's, you know, racing."
Anyway, they got discouraged,
and finally they stopped at a red light,
and people run over to the side of it, and say,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa."
And he looked and got out,
and opened the door, and looked back,
and there's the car sitting on the ground.
It had broke the sway bar in the Buick too,
and the tires rolled over and cut the side walls
out on the fenders.
And he drug that thing down to that.
Now, that was a trip.
- Your mother was an angel.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- Oh my goodness. (laughs)
- Oh lord, but these things really happened.
Now, that's just to get to the race,
then you got the race.
- They had to fix the car down there?
- Oh yeah, had to fix the Buick.
- [Cameraman] So, what happened at the race?
You raced the Buick?
You wanna tell that story?
- Well, that was a different trip, not that trip.
This was when there were just, like,
say towing and going down through there,
and he just wanted to try the Buick out
and just see how fast it run.
So, they run the race car up the beach,
and he run right with him with the Buick.
And they would try out, up and down.
See, when you raced on the beach,
you never made a full lap around a racetrack.
They qualified you up and down the beach.
The first lap you ever made around the racetrack
was when the green flag dropped
to go all the way up and down.
It was a four mile course, the racetrack was.
So, he figured out, "Well, for extra money,
"we'll run both of them."
He actually finished 5th in the Buick,
and the race car finished 7th.
So, he called it his highway car.
Think he meant to hold more people in it
at sometime, maybe some moonshine or something,
but at any rate, these were true happenings.
That's what built the racing sport into what it was.
People come to see what was gonna happen next.
They called him the wild Indian,
'cause you didn't know what was gone happen.