[Tom Vaught]

Tenny, you ever hear of Jack Watson, the Hurst Shifty Doctor? I had conversations over the years with him, before his passing, a couple of years ago. He was a Michigan Raised Engineer for GM before going to work for George Hurst as the "Shifty Doctor".

People over the years claimed that the "Blue Car" was "crushed". As John V pointed out it had a valid Michigan License Plate and was driven to NYC and to Florida as well as back to Michigan towing the Red Car.

Because Hurst wanted to get the Hurst Shifter installed in the 64 GTO vs just a few Hurst 3 speed and 4 speed Hurst Shifters installed in the 421 SD Catalinas sold or Tempests Sold, a Vehicle was needed to do that engineering work at Hurst. Some say that is the reason why the Blue Car was built before the Red Car. GM Engineers drive "M" Plate vehicles. Anyone, like George Hurst or Jack Watson could drive a valid Michigan License Plate vehicle, (with a Proper VIN Tag and Registration).

So they did the Hurst Engineering work in the Detroit Area as Hurst had a Engineering Center set up there, with Jack Watson running it.
I actually was at one of the Hurst "Engineering Centers" later locations in Mt Clemens, Mi. The original Hurst location was in Madison Hts Michigan.) when Schnorack was running the Red Car on the Drag Strips with Bill Sherman's approval.
I asked Jack about the whereabouts of the Blue Car at that time. Big SMILE. The story that is told a lot it that it was crushed.
Engineering Prototypes get crushed or put in museums. Not vehicles with valid license plates and VIN Numbers.

Seems like a similar story about the Hurst "Hairy Olds" Twin Engine Cutlass being "buried in a field" when people asked where that car was.
Years later the car showed up in the Oldsmobile Museum for a while billed as a "clone of the original car". Every special piece on that car was custom made and no one could duplicate that car exactly like the original was. So the "car from the dead" appeared again. I believe the Blue Car is out there and was never crushed.

That being said, this year at the Detroit Auto Show, there was the Original Steve McQueen 68 Mustang used in the film, not the stripped down camera car (found in mexico), the real deal car driven by Steve McQueen and the Stunt Driver.
Ford had it in their Auto Show display. The owner of the car did not tell anyone he had the Mustang for many many years. It went back into storage after the event this year. $1,000,000 vehicle for sure.

So maybe at some point in your lifetime Tenny, you might see that Blue Car show up again and you can do a Auto Show deal with both cars on the Podium.

Tom V.

ps Jack Watson's "job" when he worked for GM and did special jobs for Bunkie Knutson and Pete Estes was to install "larger" engines in smaller vehicles for engineering work. (clearly noted in many articles about Jack Watson). So the Blue Car in the pic posted WAS given the 421 Engine
not later but most likely EARLIER that the Red Car which had not been built yet by most likely Jack Watson's team who had did other vehicles like it in the past for GM as their jobs.