There is a huge mystery surrounding what happened to the golden Chevy that vanished after it was the 50 millionth GM vehicle produced
- Mystery surrounds GM’s Golden 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
- It was the 50-millionth vehicle from the American brand
- However, it simply vanished – and nobody knows what happened
Published on Oct 29, 2024 at 9:53 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Oct 30, 2024 at 4:13 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Lots of misinformation and mystery surrounds GM’s Golden 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air after the 50-millionth vehicle and ultra-rare Chevy disappeared.
The stunning, gold-painted-and-plated was built by Tri-Five experts.
Three all-gold 1955 Chevrolet Bel Airs were created in total.
However, two of the trio simply vanished – and nobody knows what happened to them.
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The golden Chevy trio
The stunning, gold-painted-and-plated 1955 Chevy Bel Air trio was built by Tri-Five experts.
The team included Joe Whitaker, co-owner of Real Deal Steel in Sanford, Florida, and Snodgrass Chevy Restoration in Melbourne, Florida, plus Kentucky-based Steve Blades, a Tri-Five enthusiast, owner, restorer, and dedicated historian.
In 1954, the 50-millionth General Motors car was close to rolling off the production line – putting its competitors firmly in the shade.
As well as the real gold cars, 5,000 gold-painted Bel-Air four-door sedans were sent to its top 5,000 dealers across the country.
The gold-plated trio traveled the country to promote GM – with the third car becoming the actual 50-millionth car on November 23, 1954.
It was never really meant to be driven, and every part including its hose, clamp, bracket – and even the battery – was painted gold.
However after it was in the Golden Carnival, it vanished never to be seen again.
The mystery disappearance
It could be that the second and third cars were simply crushed after they’d served their purpose – as was thought to be what happened to this Lightning McQueen NASCAR.
Or they could be lurking in a barn somewhere – like this rare barn find Aston Martin DB4 that was once ‘owned by a spy.
What we do know is that the first was burned in a garage fire with its parts later strewn across a property in North Carolina.
In 2022 GM historian and Tri-Five fanatic, Steve Blades decided to build a replica car based on the third golden Tri-Five.
While it had a new reproduction body and frame, it was as close to the original as possible with a 162-hp 265 V-8 engine dated September 1954 and other parts from the golden era.
The sparkling tribute was then auctioned at the 2024 Mecum auction in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Meanwhile, the unsolved disappearance of the world’s most expensive car is still baffling.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
