A requiem for Detroit’s legendary ‘Black Ghost’

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Courtesy of Mecum Auctions

Believed by many to be an urban legend, the Black Ghost was identified by its flair, including pan-African flag decals and a “Gator Grain” vinyl roof.

Growing up in Detroit, Gregory Qualls never thought too much about the black 1970 Dodge Challenger his father Godfrey kept under blankets in the garage — until his dad occasionally brought it out. “It was loud and it would shake the house,” the younger Qualls recalls.

It was only after his father died in 2015 and Qualls fixed the automobile up that he realized its significance. It turns out his old man was the driver of the legendary “Black Ghost,” a mysterious souped-up car that was said to appear during illegal street races in Detroit in the 1970s. After leaving its opponents in the dust, the Black Ghost would drive off into the night, only to resurface months later and do it all again.

The Black Ghost will make an appearance in Detroit this weekend at the 70th annual Autorama hot rod show — perhaps its last — before it heads off to Indianapolis in May, where it will hit the auction block.

It makes sense that the elder Qualls would keep his identity a secret, since he was working as a Detroit police officer in traffic enforcement at the time and would lose his job if he was caught. But the car was identifiable thanks to its flair, including the red, black, and green pan-African flag decals on its fenders, a white “bumble bee” stripe on its tail, and its “Gator Grain” vinyl roof, among other features.

After Qualls got the car in working order and started taking it to car shows, it was recognized by old hot rodders at Detroit’s 2018 Autorama.

“A lot of people just thought it wasn’t a real car, that it didn’t really exist,” Qualls says. “I guess they were just as surprised as I was to learn that my dad was a street racer.”

Fortunately, Qualls’s father kept the receipts. According to the Hagerty Drivers Foundation, the car was believed to be just one of 23 HEMI four-speed R/T SE Challengers sold in the model’s debut year and likely one-of-a-kind when it comes to its particular performance and trim options. Qualls’s father, 27 when he bought the car, selected just about every custom option available.

A special forces combat trooper in Vietnam, the elder Qualls was awarded a Purple Heart for his service, which included completing 300 parachute jumps. He appears to have put his racing days behind him in the mid-’70s when he re-enlisted in the National Guard, apparently fulfilling his need for speed by encouraging his son to pursue competitive RC car racing. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, which went into remission before returning just before his death.

In 2014, Qualls says his dad invited him over for a beer. The two got to talking about the car, and took it out of the garage and cleaned it up together.

Qualls thinks his father knew he was going to die soon. “My dad was a very private guy, and he didn’t want his family to feel like he was a burden to them,” he says. “Looking back, it was like, yeah, he was trying to tell me something.”

With the help of a friend, Qualls restored the car on weekends over the course of a year, a little bit at a time. He says he just wanted to get the car in working order because it reminded him of his old man.

“I just wanted to drive and experience what my dad experienced,” Qualls says.

Then, once the story of the Black Ghost came to light, Qualls wanted to make sure his father was memorialized. The car was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Historic Vehicle Register in 2020, and Hagerty Drivers Foundation released a documentary film about it. In 2022 Greenlight Collectibles released a series of toy cars, and last year, Dodge even manufactured a limited-edition run of 300 Black Ghost-style Challengers, what the company calls “a modern manifestation of the historic vehicle” before it retires the model next year.

Qualls is hopeful that whoever buys the car at auction will continue to preserve the Black Ghost’s legacy. “It’s at the point where I can’t really enjoy the car anymore, because it’s just too valuable,” Qualls says. He believes the car could fetch as high as seven figures at auction, which will help his family.

But the reappearance of the Black Ghost has had intangible ripple effects, too.

“People feel they can relate to it,” Qualls says. “There’s some people that even reached out to me and told me that I helped give them motivation to get their parents’ cars running again.”

The Black Ghost will be one of 800 custom vehicles at Autorama Detroit, which also include eight creations by the Motor City’s famous Alexander Brothers, the Rat Fink Reunion featuring five vehicles designed by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, lowriders, and more.

There will also be a preview of a new documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Keith Famie called Detroit, The City of Hot Rods and Muscle Cars, the Miss Autorama Retro Pin Up Girl Contest, and celebrity guests including rapper Flavor Flav, Henry Winkler, and Dave Kindig from Bitchin’ Rides.

The first Detroit Autorama took place in 1953 at the University of Detroit Field House as a fundraiser for Michigan Hot Rod Association, moving to the former Michigan State Fairground and the Detroit Artillery Armory before landing at the former Cobo Center in 1961, now known as Huntington Place, where it has called home ever since.

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The 70th annual Autorama rolled into Detroit [PHOTOS]

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