After four years, many smiles, and even more looks of disbelief, the 1987 Buick Century Station Wagon known as "Red Thunder" (now labeled a gross polluter by the State of California) has left Sonoma for retirement at the Windsor Pick and Pull.
Former owner Greg Rank was told by the Windsor Pick and Pull that Red Thunder may turn up in the spring of 2009 to be crushed at the monster truck show at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds before officially retiring as scrap metal in Windsor. In its lifetime, Red Thunder made four trips across the Rockies, traveling from Los Angeles to Wisconsin as Rank's parents visited family members in the Midwest and historical sites around the country.
Rank's father sold the station wagon to him in 1993 for $1. As part of an unspoken and largely unplanned "senior project," Rank and son, Spencer, embarked on modifying the car, giving it the title of an "anti-rod," with the slogan "Zero to 60 in about a day..." It became a cult hit at Sonoma Valley High School.
The artwork for Red Thunder was provided by Jeff Rank, a cousin in Edgerton, Wisc., who runs a large digital format company.
Throughout Red Thunder's reign, some people thought the Ranks were selling an energy drink or a new wine; others thought they should open a mobile coffee stop with their own brand of coffee. Red Thunder was featured in several original local video shorts (namely "Thunder Boy" which can be viewed online at www.gregrank.com) and recently featured in the original movie, "Elliot's War" (http://elliotswar.com), soon to be released, and featuring the entire Sonoma Rank family and many of their friends.
"At the end of the day, Red Thunder was nothing more than an eccentric vehicle designed to bring smiles to passersby, no hidden marketing agenda, just pure good ole' Americana fun and a practical car for hauling large items to the house from Friedman Brothers Home Improvement Center," Rank said.
He added, the car ended its reign with more than 210,000 miles on two engines.
NEWS SOURCE
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