Sports and vintage racer Shaun Coleman recently contacted Hunter Auto Group with some truly remarkable news about a restoration he recently completed on a 1965 Chevy Impala SS sponsored in the 1965-67 NASCAR season by Hunter Automotive. Once manned by the late Roy Mayne and barn stored since 1967, the car was unearthed after Shaun came in contact with Wayne Smith of Royston, GA last year.
Shaun's gorgeous restoration of the Impala stays true to the original paint and sponsorship logos - even down to the "Hunter Chevrolet Co" painted on the driver side rear fender! No detail was spared, and the Impala shows it in every photo and video on Shaun's website. Believed to be long gone, this was a wonderful surprise to Hunter Auto and a treat to see such a great Chevy fully restored and roaring down the tracks once more.
The
Nascar Impala website Shaun runs details the car's legendary transformation from show room display model to NASCAR racer as overseen by Tom Hunter (Grandfather of our own Tom and Randy Hunter, seen in the pictures below) and Roy Mayne.
This is a great piece of NASCAR history, bringing back the nostalgia of the days when smaller homegrown teams could show up and compete with the big money teams on the same tracks.
The car's Hunter roots are remarkable, as detailed by Shaun:
"As I understand it the car was purchased from your dealership in 1965 right off the showroom floor -a 65' Impala SS 283 4-speed in evening orchid, with the heater and radio delete
option [a very rare set of options in that day I'm told] - and taken to Roy's
house where they pulled the motor, suspension and other bits off and sold them
back to the dealership, replacing them with Rex White's 1963 Championship
Impala suspension and motor, which you can see in the 6 lug tractor-hubs/wheels
which were Rex's signature parts and are still on the car today."
Many thanks to Shaun for sharing this piece of racing and Hunter Auto's family dealership history with us - check out the website and take a trip down memory lane with Hunter Automotive Group!