ZimmerMotorcars

Zimmer Golden Spirit Images

The Zimmer in pictures: original Golden Spirit coupés, most of them in museums and at shows on both sides of the Atlantic, their interiors and details, the QuickSilver, the revival's four-door, and two prints from Los Angeles in 1992.

A black Golden Spirit coupé with a tan padded rear roof and chrome side exhausts on a cobbled square.
On the cobbles of Erfurt, Germany, for the first Erfurt Classic rally in August 2021: a black Golden Spirit coupé, its chrome side exhausts running back beneath the landau bar and the padded roof.Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0

Zimmers turn up today in museums and at car shows on both sides of the Atlantic, and most of the pictures here were taken at them: original Golden Spirit coupés in California, Nevada, Ohio, France and Germany, QuickSilvers, a four-door of the revival, the Zimmer Neo-Classic, in England and two prints of 1992. Each caption says what its picture shows, with the place and date wherever the photograph's record gives them; a year is the year of the photograph, not of the car, and a car is dated only by what it shows. All the Golden Spirits but one are originals of the 1980s, from Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. of Pompano Beach, Florida; the exception is the revival four-door near the end. Each picture opens a larger view.⁠1​2

Golden Spirit coupés

The coupés here share one shape, a new Mustang's cabin under a long fibreglass nose, and differ in roofs, colours and details. Most wear the padded half roof and landau bar that the first cars had; two seem to keep the "spider" in front of each headlamp, the part a recall of July 1982 had dealers remove, which is why their captions date them, with care, to before the middle of that year. The yellow coupé at El Segundo appears here from three angles.⁠2​3​4

Golden Spirit coupés 10

  • A yellow Golden Spirit coupé in a museum, showing its chrome grille, gold eagle, two headlamps and two fog lamps, trumpet horns and flared wings over wire wheels. Opens a larger view

    1 The yellow Golden Spirit coupé in the Automobile Driving Museum, El Segundo, California, photographed in May 2018 from the front three-quarter: chrome pods for its two headlamps, fog lamps and trumpet horns.

  • A yellow Golden Spirit seen head-on in a museum, its tall grille between two headlamps and two fog lamps and trumpet horns. Opens a larger view

    2 The El Segundo Golden Spirit head-on in May 2018: the tall grille and its eagle stand between the two headlamps.

  • The rear of a yellow Golden Spirit with a luggage rack, a spare-wheel cover and chrome bumpers. Opens a larger view

    3 Behind the El Segundo Golden Spirit in May 2018: a luggage rack, the covered spare wheel and chrome bumpers.

  • A black Golden Spirit coupé with red pinstripes, chrome trumpet horns and a tan padded rear roof, seen from the front three-quarter on a gravel show ground. Opens a larger view

    4 Red pinstripes on a black Golden Spirit coupé, shown at Villemanoche, France, in June 2023 (Les Belles d'Époque): the recalled headlamp "spider" appears to survive on this car, a sign, though not proof, that it left the factory before mid-1982.

  • A cream Golden Spirit coupé with a tan padded rear roof, side exhausts and wire wheels, parked at a car show. Opens a larger view

    5 A Golden Spirit coupé in cream, its side exhausts and wire wheels in view, at the Ohio show of 13 May 2023.

  • A cream Golden Spirit coupé with a gold eagle on its grille and a padded tan rear roof at an outdoor car show. Opens a larger view

    6 A cream Golden Spirit coupé with a padded tan rear roof at a car show in Ohio on 13 May 2023.

  • The rear of a cream Golden Spirit coupé with a luggage rack, a spare-wheel cover and a tan padded roof. Opens a larger view

    7 The cream Golden Spirit's tail at the same Ohio show on 13 May 2023, with a luggage rack and spare-wheel cover.

  • The rear three-quarter of a cream Golden Spirit coupé with a padded rear roof, a chrome landau bar and a spare-wheel cover. Opens a larger view

    8 A cream Golden Spirit coupé at Lowellville, Ohio, in May 2025, seen from the rear three-quarter with its padded rear roof and chrome landau bar.

  • The rear of a black Golden Spirit with a tan padded roof, trunk straps and a black spare-wheel cover. Opens a larger view

    9 The Erfurt Golden Spirit from the rear in August 2021, with its padded half roof, landau bar and boot (trunk) straps.

  • A maroon and tan Golden Spirit coupé driving along a desert road with the Las Vegas skyline and mountains behind. Opens a larger view

    10 A maroon and tan Golden Spirit coupé on the move, on a road in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March 2008.

Picture credits (10)
  1. 1 Daderot, CC0
  2. 2 Daderot, CC0
  3. 3 Daderot, CC0
  4. 4 François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0
  5. 5 Wikimedia Commons contributor, Public domain
  6. 6 Wikimedia Commons contributor, Public domain
  7. 7 Wikimedia Commons contributor, Public domain
  8. 8 MercurySable99, CC BY-SA 4.0
  9. 9 Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0
  10. 10 Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0

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Interiors

Two kinds of Golden Spirit dashboard appear: the Mustang's own, re-covered in leather above a wood console, and a padded dash of Zimmer's own design. The identification page says what such details can and cannot tell. The QuickSilver kept the Fiero's instruments inside Zimmer's leather and wood.⁠5​6

Interiors 3

  • A Golden Spirit dashboard with a wood-rim steering wheel, round gauges in a woodgrain panel and a burr-walnut console. Opens a larger view

    11 Inside the El Segundo Golden Spirit in May 2018: the Mustang's own dashboard, re-covered and veneered, behind a wood-rim wheel; the fabric mat on top is an accessory.

  • A Golden Spirit cockpit with a padded tan dashboard, a burr-walnut instrument panel, a gold-spoked wood-rim wheel and tan leather seats. Opens a larger view

    12 Zimmer's own padded dash, not the Mustang's, photographed at a show in Ohio in May 2023, with a burr-walnut instrument panel and a wood-rim wheel with gold spokes.

  • The cockpit of a QuickSilver with ivory leather seats, wood dash panels and an ivory leather-rimmed steering wheel. Opens a larger view

    13 Ivory leather and wood round the Fiero's instrument binnacle and console in a QuickSilver, photographed in January 2015.

Picture credits (3)
  1. 11 Daderot, CC0
  2. 12 Wikimedia Commons contributor, Public domain
  3. 13 Eric Friedebach, CC BY 2.0

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Details

The details are what Zimmer added to a Mustang: the grille, the eagle, the lamps and horns, the script and the etched glass. Owners have changed some of them since, so the captions say where a part is not the factory's.⁠5​4

Details 4

  • The chrome grille, gold eagle, two headlamps and two fog lamps and four trumpet horns of a yellow Golden Spirit. Opens a larger view

    14 The El Segundo Golden Spirit's front in May 2018: chrome grille and eagle, headlamps without the recalled "spider", fog lamps and four trumpet horns.

  • The side of a yellow Golden Spirit's cabin, with an etched-rose wind wing, a leather sports seat, a cowl lamp and a padded rear roof. Opens a larger view

    15 The side of the El Segundo Golden Spirit's cabin in May 2018: an etched-rose wind wing, a leather seat and a cowl lamp, with the Mustang's door, roof and windscreen (windshield) under the trim.

  • The chrome words Golden Spirit on a tan padded panel above a large crossed-flags V8 badge. Opens a larger view

    16 The Golden Spirit script on the Villemanoche coupé in June 2023, above a V8 badge that is not a factory part, with paint from a later respray over the letters.

  • The front of a black Golden Spirit: two headlamps and two fog lamps, amber indicators, chrome trumpet horns and a mesh grille. Opens a larger view

    17 The Erfurt Golden Spirit's front in August 2021: headlamps, amber indicators, horns and fog lamps round a mesh grille, topped by a silver mascot in place of the factory's gold-plated eagle.

Picture credits (4)
  1. 14 Daderot, CC0
  2. 15 Daderot, CC0
  3. 16 François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0
  4. 17 Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0

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QuickSilver

The QuickSilver was a different car altogether: a two-seater on a stretched Pontiac Fiero, with the engine behind the seats and its extra length let in both before the doors and aft of the rear wheels, which the silver car shows from both ends.⁠7

QuickSilver 3

  • A silver QuickSilver with raised pop-up headlamps and a chrome front bumper, parked in a driveway. Opens a larger view

    18 A silver QuickSilver with its headlamps raised, at Amenia, New York, in September 2021.

  • The long tail and chrome rear bumper of a silver QuickSilver seen from the rear three-quarter. Opens a larger view

    19 The Amenia QuickSilver from the rear three-quarter in September 2021, its tail lengthened behind the Fiero's rear wheels.

  • The rear of a red QuickSilver with a chrome bumper and twin tail-lamp clusters. Opens a larger view

    20 A red QuickSilver from behind, photographed in April 2012.

Picture credits (3)
  1. 18 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
  2. 19 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. 20 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

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The revival four-door

From 2001 the revival company of Art Zimmer built its four-doors on Lincoln Town Cars, and on the one here the Town Car shows through in the rear door, the pillar behind it and the back window. It is the only revival car in the gallery.⁠8

The rear of a silver four-door Golden Spirit with a continental spare wheel and a luggage rack on a show field.
Continental spare and luggage rack on the tail of a revival four-door, a Lincoln Town Car dressed as a Golden Spirit by Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., seen at an English classic car show on 27 June 2010.Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0

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Los Angeles, 1992

Two prints from a Los Angeles used-car lot in 1992: by then the Pompano Beach plant had been shut for four years, and these cars had passed into the trade.⁠9

Sunset Boulevard, 1992 2

  • A cream and a black Golden Spirit coupé side by side on a Los Angeles used-car lot in a faded colour photograph. Opens a larger view

    21 Two Golden Spirit coupés, cream and black, on a used-car lot on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 1992; the cream car's headlamp "spider" suggests one built before mid-1982.

  • A red QuickSilver coupé beside a 1950s Cadillac on a used-car lot in a 1992 colour print. Opens a larger view

    22 A red QuickSilver among the used cars on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1992, with a 1950s Cadillac alongside.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 21 Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
  2. 22 Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  1. Wikimedia Commons, "Zimmer Golden Spirit - Automobile Driving Museum - El Segundo, CA" (photographs, group), 16 May 2018, DSC01390 to DSC01412. Primary
  2. Michael Langberg, "Zimmer has 'Golden Spirit'", Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, 22 Mar 1981 (Sunday), p. 3F, p. 3F, the Mustang's roof and doors kept; p. 3F, the first coupé. Primary
  3. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Golden Spirit "Road Map" fold-out brochure, c.1985–86, the Classic, Elegance and Cabriolet panels. Primary
  4. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (US Government Printing Office microfiche), via Internet Archive, Safety Related Recall Campaigns for Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Equipment, Including Tires, quarterly report, 1982, campaign 82V-073, the headlamp recall; campaign 82V-073. Primary
  5. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, "Zimmer Motor Car Features and Specifications", revised May 1984, interior: the leather-covered dash and the wood console; standard equipment and options. Primary
  6. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Window sticker of a 1986 Zimmer QuickSilver, 1986, standard equipment. Primary
  7. Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40, pp. 36–40, the conversion. Primary
  8. Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., Syracuse, New York, Zimmer Motor Car Company website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2000–2012), Wayback Machine captures, 3 Mar 2000 to 13 May 2012, the four-door pages. Primary
  9. Ellen Forman, Report on Zimmer Corporation's reorganisation plan, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 18 Jul 1989, the plant closed in May 1988. Primary

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