Opening the Vault Doors

Harold Sullivan Redefines the Meaning of “Garage”

Words: Roger Meiners

Harold Sullivan, a well-known Michigan-based Mopar® muscle car collector, and his wife Sharlean, were planning a new home. The design included two large attached garages, one for the family cars, and one for a few cars from Harold’s Mopar collection.

Sullivan has a large collection of Dodge and Plymouth muscle that he keeps in an industrial park. While the storage building is well-appointed inside, it’s still, well, industrial. He wanted something closer to home that would be a showplace for his most treasured cars.

This collection started in 1989 when Sullivan purchased a 1970 440 Six Barrel Road Runner. It represented a new investment direction. Harold had abandoned the stock market and thought that cars would be a better investment. “The cars have far exceeded the return from the stock market,” he said.

The jewel of the collection is the Silver Bullet, a former Chrysler engineering car that terrorized Detroit’s Woodward Avenue during the sixties and seventies. Owner Jimmy Addison ran the car out of his boss Ted Spehar’s Sunoco gas station on Woodward in Birmingham, Mich. Spehar was closely-allied with Chrysler’s race group at the time, so there was plenty of access to go-fast parts.

Harold traded a 1970 Petty Blue Six Barrel Superbird for the Bullet around 1997. The Silver Bullet was in storage for 16 years after the owner, who got it as an 18th birthday present from his father, damaged the motor and parked it. The car has its original fiberglass fenders and doors. Addison helped Sullivan during the latter stages of the car’s restoration.

The results of Harold’s work have redefined what’s cool in a car-lover’s garage and lounge space. Elegant might be the word. There is room for five or six very special cars, plus neon signs and cabinets for memorabilia. The floor is done in black epoxy, and there are carved moldings all over the place. A sixty-foot mural covers the back wall. Harold retained artist Bob Bowen to do the piece. Bowen is a Detroit area illustrator who does high-end renderings of cars for the auto manufacturers.

Upstairs from the collector car storage area is a Mopar-themed wood-paneled lounge complete with built-in display cabinets for his many trophies and scale-model cars. Wall-to-wall carpeting, indirect lighting and comfortable leather seating add comfort for the visitor.

Last month’s Mopar Magazine cover was shot at Sullivan’s new garage. The photo shows a few of the cars that live there.

For more information on the Silver Bullet, see www.silverbulletgtx.com. You can see an image of the sixty-foot mural there, too.