BOONES MILL, Va. – For the right price, you could be the next owner of a piece of Boones Mill history.
The 1991 Chevy Camaro police car is one of the first of its kind and it’s up for sale.
The town sold it in 1997 and the antique car is once again up for grabs.
After 30 years, the Chevy classic still has a nice hum to it.
“It was the Corvette engine that they put in the Camaros,” explained Lynn Frith, the car’s current owner.
It’s not what’s under the hood that makes this antique a treasure.
“I think it kind of put us on the map. [Boones Mill] was known as the place that you don’t want to speed and it’s because of the car,” said Frith.
Boones Mill didn’t always have that reputation.
Frith was also the town’s police chief from 1989 to 2013 and remembered how the town had a great need for speed.
“We had a (Ford) Crown Victoria before this and it was very slow and everybody knew it,” said Frith.
He mentioned drivers would get away two to three times a week. That’s why the town got the Camaro, it’s the first of three muscle cars the town purchased over the years.
“One night, I was working radar and a car came through radar 104 mph and I couldn’t begin to catch them with the other car but this [Camaro] caught it,” Frith remembered.
The car caught more than just speeding cars, it caught a lot of attention too.
“One time I had a person I arrested for a DUI and as I was putting him in the car and putting the seatbelt on him he said ‘You know this was worth it, I get to ride in this car’,” said Frith.
The new owner not only gets the history of the car itself, but gets a piece of the priceless memories made with the car too.
“Here’s a photo of when Michael Waltrip’s crew stopped and took pictures and I pulled behind it like we were pulling it over on Route 220,” Frith said.
When the town was selling the car back in 1997, there was also interest in using it for a movie. Frith was contacted by a movie production company that wanted to buy the car for scenes in the “Smokey and the Bandit” themed movie.
“I ask him what’s going to happen in the movie and they said at the end of the movie the car actually does this big jump and it’s destroyed. I told the council about it and they said not to sell it to them,” Frith said.
He and his brother loved working on cars, so they ended up buying it. As much as he’ll miss it, Frith said he’s ready for the next owner to step up.
“I’ve had it long enough maybe it’s time for someone else to have it,” said Frith.
The car is on sale for $18,950.
Along with pictures and newspaper articles about the iconic car there is a letter from the town explaining restrictions like if you drive the car on the road the light bar and the word police have to be covered.
Click here for a look at the listing.