The Claymobile almost got me arrested. I had no idea that the mysterious, custom car, with a rumored, legendary ownership, would eventually be stolen. The Claymobile story fueled my journey from junk yards to Junkyard Life and is the reason I continue to document automotive history, one junkyard dream at a time.
Finally, the story comes home.
The Claymobile facts
The Claymobile, previously owned by retired pilot and Corvair enthusiast, Orville Lippert, is a highly-customized 1965 Corvair Corsa convertible. The car is reportedly linked to boxing great Muhammad Ali (previously known as Cassius Clay).
Legend has it that GM presented Cassius Clay with the modified Corvair in 1964. Hence the name “Clay”-mobile. Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964. Skeptics are quick to note that the raised white lettering on the tires reads “CLAYMOBILE CORVAIR 1965,” and that Ali would not have accepted the Corvair with his “slave name” attached.
The Claymobile was stolen six months after I “uncovered” the custom Corvair and published a story about it online. I’m still searching for the truth and the Claymobile.
Lead on Mystery Car
9:04 a.m. – December 6, 2008
“You’ve never seen a car like this!”
My brother-from-another-mother, Michael Reeder, had been feeding me a tale about acres of Corvairs surrounding a mystery machine in a field. He was convinced that one of the cars had to be a George Barris custom hot rod.
“Looks like a home-built ‘Speed Racer’ car.”
I was determined to lay eyes on the mystery car myself on a blustery, cold Saturday in December 2008. Three children tucked into the backseat of my battered, silver, Mazda 626. Reeder and I drove toward an overgrown triangle of land in Cullman County, Alabama. Armed with a camera and a box of Pop Tarts, we were ready for anything.
“Are we there, yet?”
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| A mysterious, custom car, seemingly abandoned. The Claymobile! |
First look: The Claymobile
10:13 a.m. – December 6, 2008
“What the heck?”
The Bermuda Triangle of oddball cars sits along a 55 MPH stretch of two-lane highway. A gray and black 1965 Fitch “Sprint” Corvair was planted a few feet from the road and served as our landmark. The location was desolate and surrounded only by farmland and swift traffic along the land bordering the highway.
Hesitantly, our daddy daycare brood toured the abandoned car collection disguised as a junk yard. A line of four Corvair wagons, fighting a losing battle with the unrelenting hedgerow, caught our attention first. Stepping gently through the briar-laden property, with kids in tow, Reeder and I eye-balled dozens of complete, restorable cars. Almost all were mid-to-late 1960s-era. Mostly Corvairs. They were scattered among several vandalized and heavily damaged buildings, including a cinder block garage and single-wide mobile home.
Cast-off parts, including doors, hoods and wheels, were piled, strewn and stacked in weeds. Bags of trash and pockets of decay resembling a garbage dump and war zone were sprinkled around the property for good measure.
Centered among the chaos sat the CLAYMOBILE!
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| Check out the smooth curve on the top edge of the frameless windshield and dramatic swoop along the top edge of the Claymobile’s eight-inch-thick doors. |
Walk-around
10:24 a.m. – December 6, 2008
An open air cockpit, tail fins and long snout? Really, I had never seen anything like it. Long and low with an exaggerated set of tail fins and enormous diamond-shaped exhaust ports. Movie set rocket ships of the late 1950s had nothing on this car.
A closer look revealed a rear-mounted, flat-six, multi-carb Corvair engine and a Corsa emblem on the glove box. All clues to Corvair origins. Raised, white letter tires proudly displayed “CLAYMOBILE CORVAIR 1965” around the vintage ET II wheels.
Was this a home-built tribute to the “Speed Racer” car of cartoon fame? Could it really be a George Barris custom hot rod? Why was it sitting in a field next to a destroyed, single-wide trailer?
It was time to ask the nearest neighbor about the place.
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| Custom, raised-white-letter tires tell the story, “ Claymobile Corvair 1965,” and dig those ET II mag wheels! |
Knock-knock!
“Hi! You don’t know me but I’ve got some questions about that land with all the old Corvairs.”
Initially, the neighboring property owner was reluctant to divulge any details. But the story was just too good to keep secret.
I learned that Orville Lippert, the owner of the land and all the Corvairs, had passed in 1989. Orville, originally from Michigan, was an airplane mechanic, inspector and pilot. He built his own airplane, the Lippert-Fokker, and established Lippert’s field, a landing strip in Michigan. Orville survived a 1969 airplane crash while practicing touch-and-go landing in his WWI German fighter plane. He moved from Michigan to Florida, then decided to retire and move to property in Alabama, where he maintained a large collection of Corvairs.
According to a neighbor, a member of Orville’s family had taken up residence on the property but struggled to maintain the place, because they worked in another town. Eventually, the family member moved away and seldom checked on the old place. Other alleged details from the neighbor, mentioned sketchy activity on the property, which all seemed plausible considering the condition.
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| Giant tail fins and large exhaust ports highlight the Claymobile’s rocketship styling. |
Retracing my steps, the first Claymobile story
4:00 a.m. – December 9, 2008
My automotive journalism career, if you can call it that, began in March of 2008. I co-authored a blog on al.com with two like-minded, fellow, newspaper journalists, Chris Tutor and Bill Kimber. We covered the local automotive scene for fun, receiving little recognition for our unpaid pursuits. My first story was about exploring junkyards. I was hooked.
I posted the first Claymobile story three days after I saw it in that field. It was 4 a.m. and I was anxious to find out more about the mystery car.
Recognition
2 p.m. – December 9, 2008
A few hours after the Claymobile story hit the web, Hemmings Motor News posted their own story, complete with my photos and details about the Claymobile. My colleague, Chris Tutor, had sent them word of our Claymobile scoop. The Hemmings story garnered immediate reaction. I watched as the Claymobile story and images spread to automotive websites and forums across the globe. I soon added a brief video, walking viewers around the Claymobile, in response to a comment posted on the Hemmings site.
A local Corvair club, Vulcan Corvair Enthusiasts, in Birmingham,
Alabama reported that the Claymobile was originally painted yellow. A
photo from a late 1970s car show at Eastwood Mall shows that the Claymobile was painted purple by 1977.
Many theories circulated, none confirmed. Joji Barris, George Barris’s daughter, dispelled the myth that the Claymobile was a Barris creation. “No recollection,” she said.
Ali Center, the Muhammad Ali museum in Louisville, also had no knowledge of any Claymobile connections to Ali.
A rumor that the Claymobile appeared in Playboy magazine remains unfounded.
I did learn that original content, especially automotive unicorns like the Claymobile, will be devoured by the web before you can blink.
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| The Claymobile retained many 1965 Corvair Corsa-specific parts, like the Corsa instrument cluster. |
Stolen
10:45 a.m. – June 28, 2009
“I need to talk to you, now!”
The Claymobile was stolen six months after I unveiled it to the world wide web.
Orville Lippert's son, Eric, the understandably shaken owner of the Claymobile, reached out to me in a desperate attempt to locate his one-of-a-kind custom Corvair.
“I don’t have any paperwork or VIN information on the car,” Lippert said. “Did you take a photo of the VIN?”
Unfortunately, I did not.
The car was Eric’s family treasure. He inherited the car from his father, Orville Lippert, in 1989, and had plans of restoring the car to its former glory. He planned to sell the car, for what he hoped would be a huge profit, to fund his daughter's education and his own retirement.
Lippert, now living in a distant city, rarely visited the Claymobile property. As soon as the Claymobile was discovered missing, Lippert notified the sheriff’s office and reported the theft. The authorities were unable to offer assistance without photos, paperwork or VIN information.
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| I gave the car's shark nose front end a firm tap. It responded with the dull thud of lead or Bondo. It must have been molded solid. |
Help!
Lippert looked to the web for help. He Googled “Claymobile,” and Boom! my photos appeared.
Proof that the Claymobile was once on the property.
Lippert sought my help –– after deciding not to press charges against me for trespassing.
I received a phone call from the sheriff’s office and my employer’s legal team were involved. Luckily, I kept my job. My boss allowed me to continue posting content, that did not involve the police or lawyers, to al.com.
2nd Story Plea
11:00 p.m. – June 28, 2009
I wanted to help Lippert find his Claymobile. The car was more than the sum of Corvair parts molded into a custom hot rod. It represented the family’s dreams. Lippert, convinced that the Claymobile once belonged to Ali, planned to complete the car’s restoration in hopes that it would garner the family a windfall. The same day I found out about the theft, I posted a new story alerting readers of the news. It included Lippert’s contact information.
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| The Claymobile was stolen from an overgrown triangle of land in Alabama where it had been stashed for many years, uncovered. |
5+ year Claymobile update
Still missing. Lippert has no leads on the Claymobile.
“Maybe it will show up one day?,” Lippert said. “If they didn’t sink it in a lake.”
More vehicles went missing from his Cullman property after the Claymobile vanished.
Lippert had enough.
“I got tired of everyone stealing everything,” said Lippert.
Eric decided to scrap the remaining cars and sold the land. His father’s Corvair collection is no more.
The Claymobile, and the Cassius Clay connection, a distant memory.
What did I learn?
The story beneath the rust has value. Original content is king and everybody wanted a piece of the Claymobile for their website. Before I brought this story to light, few had ever seen the car or knew details about the mystery surrounding its existence.
The photos I took and excerpts from my stories can be found on blogs and forums across the web. The mystery of Muhammad Ali and the Claymobile created quite a stir and led me to tell my tales on Junkyard Life.
I continue to dig for dream cars on the cheap and will tell the stories of the people who held the keys.
Jody Potter
— Junkyard Life
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| Fins from the 1950s and imaginative design helped to make the Claymobile a one-of-a-kind custom that will never be recreated. |
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| Small pillars support the windshield. High-backed bucket seats. Seat belts? No. |
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| What was a custom Corvair built for Cassius Clay doing in a field? |
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| Power locks or power window switch on the door panel of the neglected interior? |
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| Imagine rowing through the gears in the open cockpit. Did the legendary Muhammad Ali once hold the Claymobile’s steering wheel? |
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| Multi-carb, rear-mounted flat six Corvair engine powered the Claymobile. |
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| A TV was installed in the glovebox of the heavily customized Claymobile when the car was first completed. Note the Corsa emblem. |
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| The headlight trim and mouth-like grill were created in the use-what-you-have school of design. Notice the purple paint under layers of primer? |
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| The Claymobile’s seats included headrests. |
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| Vintage ET II mag wheels were wrapped with Silvertown tires lettered with "Claymobile Corvair 1965." |
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| The Claymobile was advertised in Hemmings in the late-1970s. |
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| Claymobile in 1977 at an Eastwood Mall Corvair show – Birmingham, Alabama. |
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| Surprised at how good the Claymobile looks in 1977? What a difference 30 years can make when parked out in the elements. |
