Detroit police officer’s illegal street-racing Dodge Challenger added to Historic Vehicle Register

It’s a lawman’s car that broke the law.

The Historic Vehicle Association has added a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE with a unique past to its registry of significant vehicles. The black coupe was purchased in 1969 by Godfrey Qualls, who was a Detroit Police motorcycle patrol officer and U.S. Army vet who received the Purple Heart.

Qualls ordered it with a pistol grip shifter for its four-speed manual transmission and a 426 HEMI 4-barrel V8 with the intention of racing it … on the street.

According to the HVA, Qualls would show up and dominate an illegal race, then disappear for months at a time, turning the car into something of an urban legend known as the “Black Ghost.” But by the end of the 1970s, Qualls put it away in his garage and left it there for decades as he helped his son Gregory Qualls work on his own cars.

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Gregory Qualls told the Detroit Free Press he remembers well going for thrill rides in the car as a boy but didn’t know about his father’s illicit escapades until after he inherited it upon his father's death in 2015 and the stories started coming to light.

“I’d know Dad was taking the car out because starting it shook the house,” he said.

Gregory Qualls brought the car back to running condition but has left it unrestored with just over 45,000 miles on it and mostly just drives it to car shows these days.

The Challenger joins a growing list of vehicles that stands at 28 and includes the recently unearthed Ford Mustang from the Steve McQueen film “Bullitt” and Ronald Reagan’s 1962 Willys CJ-6.

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