ZimmerMotorcars

Zimmer Car Models

Two unrelated companies built Zimmers. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. of Pompano Beach, Florida, made the Golden Spirit, its four-door and the QuickSilver from 1980 to 1988; Art Zimmer's company of Syracuse, New York, revived the Golden Spirit from 1998.

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.
An original Golden Spirit coupé at Les Belles d'Époque show, Villemanoche, France, on 18 June 2023; its headlamp "spider" seems still to be in place, so it was probably built before mid-1982.François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0

Zimmer is the name of two companies, a decade apart and unrelated. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., the car company of the Florida mobile-home maker Zimmer Homes, built the Golden Spirit from 1980, a four-door version of it from 1983 and the QuickSilver from 1986, until its plant at Pompano Beach closed in May 1988. Ten years later Art Zimmer, a publisher in Syracuse, New York, and no relation, built Golden Spirits again under a new company of his own, Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., until about 2012. The line-up lists all four, oldest first.⁠1​2​3​4

Four models

The Golden Spirit was the original Zimmer: a new Ford Mustang, cut back to its cabin, lengthened and rebodied as a touring car of the 1930s, built as a coupé, a T-roof and a convertible, and for 1986 with three styles of roof. Its four-door relations, the Personal Limousine of 1983 and the later Four-Door Sedan, were few, and what they were built on is not known; their page sets out what is. The QuickSilver, designed by Don Johnson on a stretched Pontiac Fiero, was the only modern-looking Zimmer, a two-seat coupé built from 1986 to 1988.

The revival's cars were Golden Spirits again: coupés and convertibles on new Mustangs and, from 2001 to 2011, three kinds of four-door on new Lincoln Town Cars. The two Golden Spirits share a name and a look, and little else. The specifications set every model side by side.⁠1​5​6​7​3

The rear of a cream Golden Spirit coupé with a luggage rack, a spare-wheel cover and a tan padded roof.
The tail of an original Golden Spirit coupé, with its spare-wheel cover and luggage rack, at a car show in Ohio on 13 May 2023.Wikimedia Commons contributor, Public domain
The rear of a red QuickSilver with a chrome bumper and twin tail-lamp clusters.
The QuickSilver's chrome tail, on a red car photographed in April 2012.Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
The rear of a silver four-door Golden Spirit with a continental spare wheel and a luggage rack on a show field.
A revival four-door Golden Spirit on a Lincoln Town Car, at a classic car show in England in June 2010.Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0

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Which Zimmer is this?

Three things tell most Zimmers apart. An original two-door keeps the 1980s Mustang's door, quarter window, roof and windscreen (windshield) under its Zimmer trim, as in the picture; a revival two-door has a later Mustang's cabin, with its airbags. A four-door with the cabin of a 1998–2011 Lincoln Town Car is a revival car, built from 2001; what the original four-doors were built on is not known. A QuickSilver is a mid-engined two-seater with pop-up headlamps: a Fiero under a fibreglass body new in everything but the glass. The identification page goes further, into the numbers and papers.⁠1​8​3​7

The rear three-quarter of a cream Golden Spirit coupé with a padded rear roof, a chrome landau bar and a spare-wheel cover.
The surest mark of an original, on a coupé at Lowellville, Ohio, in May 2025: a 1980s Mustang's door, quarter window and roof under the padded rear roof.MercurySable99, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Before and after

There was no Zimmer car before the Golden Spirit. Paul Zimmer's company made mobile homes and converted vans, and the car began, he told Forbes, with an Excalibur he bought in 1976; the history tells the rest. After the original company's plant closed in 1988, no Zimmer was made for 10 years. The revival was its successor in name and look only, and after it came Heyman Motors, which used the name from 2012 to about 2016 and is not known to have built a car.⁠9​1​2​8​10​11​12

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Rivals

The Golden Spirit's rivals were the other neoclassics of its day, Excalibur and Clénet above all; the QuickSilver's were the coming Cadillac Allanté and Chrysler's two-seater built with Maserati. Neoclassic Car Brands compares them.⁠1​13​14

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Versions

Sources for Versions

QuickSilver
2,837 cc: Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40⁠7; Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, 1987 press kit (Golden Spirit and QuickSilver), covering letter of 31 Jul 1987; price list of 1 Dec 1986⁠15

  1. Golden Spirit

    1980–1988

  2. Golden Spirit Sedan

    1983–1987

  3. QuickSilver

    1986–1988 · 2,837 cc

  4. Neo-Classic Golden Spirit

    1998–2013

Pictures, top to bottom: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0; Daderot, CC0; Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0; Brian Snelson, 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
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  1. Michael Langberg, "Zimmer has 'Golden Spirit'", Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, 22 Mar 1981 (Sunday), p. 3F, p. 3F, Zimmer Homes and its car company; p. 3F, the car being built; p. 3F, the Mustang's roof and doors kept; p. 3F, the mobile homes and vans; p. 3F, the Dania dealer's top three. Primary
  2. Ellen Forman, Report on Zimmer Corporation's reorganisation plan, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 18 Jul 1989, the Pompano Beach plant, closed in May 1988; the plant closed. Primary
  3. 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, history page; the models and their donors; the four-door pages: the Lincoln Town Car. Primary
  4. Christopher Malone, "'M' is for Memoir: The A-B-Cs of Art Zimmer", Syracuse New Times, 16 Sep 2015, no relation to the original Zimmers. Reference
  5. Miami Herald, "Luxury automobile still the prime success indicator", 1 Nov 1985 (promotional feature), the 1986 models. Primary
  6. Zimmer Corporation, Zimmer Update, premiere issue, Jan 1984, p. 3, the Personal Limousine. Primary
  7. Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40, pp. 36–40, the Fiero and its designer; pp. 36–40, the conversion: the body new but for the glass; specification panel. Primary
  8. Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Company, on nyautos.com, Zimmer Golden Spirit coupé and convertible pages on nyautos.com, Wayback Machine captures of 6 Dec 1998, 28 Jan 1999, 24 Apr 1999 and 12 Oct 1999, the 1998 specification: airbags; the first revival coupés. Primary
  9. Anne Bagamery, "The egomobile", Forbes, 26 Sep 1983, pp. 90–94, the Excalibur of 1976. Primary
  10. United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTABVUE), Cancellation No. 92027992: Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Company v. Zimmer Corporation (registration 1177989), 1998, the old mark cancelled. Primary
  11. United States Patent and Trademark Office (assignment recordation), Trademark assignment, reel 4882, frame 0146, executed and recorded 16 Oct 2012, the marks assigned to Heyman Motors. Primary
  12. Heyman Motors, LLC, Zimmer Motor Cars website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2013–2016), Wayback Machine captures, 17 Jan 2013 to 16 Mar 2016, the Heyman years. Primary
  13. Kathleen Hamilton, "Zimmer's flashy cars swimming in almost-dry market", Automotive News (Crain Communications), via Internet Archive, 28 Jun 1982, p. 3, p. 3, Clenet and Excalibur. Primary
  14. Jack Hayes, "Ostentatious — and priced accordingly", Venture, Jul 1986, the QuickSilver's rivals. Primary
  15. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, 1987 press kit (Golden Spirit and QuickSilver), covering letter of 31 Jul 1987; price list of 1 Dec 1986, QuickSilver technical data. Primary

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