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The opening lines of 1978 Bruce Springsteen song “Racing in the Street” have plenty in common with a car that’s up for bidding Saturday at the Mecum Auctions event the Indiana State Fairgrounds: “I got a ’69 Chevy with a 396, fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor.”
The 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle convertible set for auction features a 396 cubic inch engine and an aftermarket Hurst gear-shifter. And Springsteen owned the muscle car, although not until the early 1980s.
The seller is Toby Scott, a Montana-based recording engineer who worked with Springsteen for more than 30 years.
Someone could write a concept album, or at least a song, about the car’s roundabout journey to Indianapolis.
The road began, as any Springsteen fan might guess, on the Jersey Shore.
Scott said he first encountered the Chevelle when Springsteen picked him up at a train station in Red Bank, N.J.
It was 1982, and they were recording the “Born in the U.S.A.” album in New York City.
“One Friday, [Springsteen] asked me what I was doing over the weekend,” Scott said. “I said, ‘Nothing. I’m just hanging out.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you come down to visit me on the shore?’ ”
The friends repeated the get-togethers a few times a month, Scott said, driving around Springsteen’s home turf and checking out bars at night.
Springsteen purchased the car in 1981, and he had the original “LeMans blue” paint scheme replaced by black.
“It was no showpiece, by any means,” Scott said. “It was just the car he took to the beach.”
Scott recalls an inadequate muffler system on the noisy vehicle.
“You were encouraged to burn rubber at any stoplight,” he said.
After the release of “Born in the U.S.A.,” which sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, Springsteen & the E Street Band embarked on tour and the rock star told Scott he could use the car whenever he wanted.
By Christmas 1987, Scott said he was stumped for a gift idea for Springsteen.
“That year came around and I didn’t know what to give him,” Scott said. “I ended up giving him an acoustic guitar that I always had around the studio.”
On New Year’s Eve, Springsteen came up with a reciprocal gesture.
“A week later, he had a party at his house,” Scott said. “I walked in and he handed me a Christmas card. The keys to the Chevelle were in the card. He was quite pleased to be able to give it to me.”
After Scott took possession of the car in April 1988, he drove it frequently until he turned it over to an East Coast body shop that autumn for restoration. Because of two bad experiences with mechanics and finally a good one, Scott only drove the Chevelle once more—for about 10 to 15 miles in 2020.
Work at the first body shop was slow and expensive, Scott said, and he eventually sued to get the car back after five years or so. The convertible was shipped to a garage in Montana, where the work again was slow and more than what Scott wanted to pay.
Years of storage came next for the car that was in no condition to drive.
In 2015, Scott hauled the car to Danville, Illinois, where Ken Salomon, then the owner of Fagan Auto Parts, took on the restoration task.
Rewinding to the first mechanic to tackle the project, no engine was in the car. The East Coast shop pulled out an engine smaller than a 396 and then sourced a 396 but never installed it.
Salomon told Scott that effort was a mistake because a 396 wasn’t intended to be included in this model.
Improvising, Scott said that was OK and he referred to more lyrics from “Racing in the Street”: “Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch.”
“I told Kenny, ‘We’re going to put it together, just like they did,’ ” Scott said.
Things worked out, and the price was right.
“I ended up paying him exactly, if not less, what it would have cost me 30 years earlier,” Scott said.
In 2019, Scott told Springsteen the restoration journey was nearing completion.
The Boss, Scott said, offered some advice: “You know what you ought to do with that thing? You should stick it in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and jack the value up.”
The car, returned to its blue paint scheme, went on display at the Cleveland museum in 2020. After a few months, one of Springsteen’s surfboards was placed in the back seat to enhance the presentation.
“Nobody much knows, but he was a big surfer,” Scott said. “He surfed a lot.”
The car was placed in a warehouse at the end of the exhibition, and Scott decided earlier this year that it was time to sell.
He’s hopeful someone pays six figures to be a cool rockin’ driver in Springsteen’s former ride.
The reserve is $100,000. Scott said Salomon predicts a selling price in the neighborhood of $250,000.
“You never can tell,” said Scott, quoting a Chuck Berry song that Springsteen occasionally covers in concert.
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396’s were common in Chevelles, should have put it in