[TCracingCA]

The true Charlie not being a crazed drinking wild man really plays against the legend tall tale! It kind of complicates things for a true historical telling of who he was in a movie!

I did hear from another Corvette guy who doesn’t want to be public, that thought the kids activities were dangerous, noted his wife with their kids drove that road. That he actually called the police himself on the Mulholland racers! He would pick the litter left from the bad groups hanging out down in front of his property, if he saw one of the a-hole racers, he would chuck an empty beer can or something at them, but that was while standing there with his broom, not while driving.

Some of the dates I find are off! Considering the 1951 GMC. Charlie was born April 4th, 1945, so drivers license age 16 (1961). The King of the Mountain movie was 1981, and some say he died 4 years after that, but it is hard to argue with Find a Grave and 1982.

I love chasing dates on stories, so Ronin was 1998. They employed 300 stunt drivers for the filming, and most of those were French guys including F1 star (UOP Shadow is how I best remember him- Jean Pierre Jarier. Thus how many American drivers could there have been in Europe, very few! So I look up Skipp Sudduth and he was a car enthusiast and had a few Corvettes, along with some other fast rides! He drove most of the lead scenes in that movie, so that would be the source of Charlie car! Probably took it to that garage from the studio lots, were he did a lot of movies, and a Charlie admired it, so one day the guy sold it to him, as a guy like that flipped rides to the latest and greatest. Edit: I found one internet article of a stunt driver named that sold him the car?

As I am trying to give perspective here from the Corvette world, a 1966 Big Block and its oiling problems usually did not fair well in road racing! By 1968 they knew how to remedy that! I bet the car was used, and did not have its original engine. C2 Sting Rays were cheap then, as most wanted the C3 Stingrays (Shark body)! I bet Charlie didn’t have this car till around 1970. And he tried to go real track racing.