Automotive history on display at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility
About three years ago automotive technology instructors at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility’s Vocational Village made a discovery that linked them to automotive history.
As they were preparing and cleaning the auto shop to prepare for the launch of the Vocational Village, they found an old car engine on a crate. It appeared beat up, damaged and had an intake full of rust.
“When we opened the Vocational Village, we found it, set it up on a stand and started to play around with it,” said Anthony Wohlscheid, an automotive technology instructor at the facility’s Vocational Village.
It was no run-of-the-mill car engine.
It had come from a Shelby Cobra sports car, and as Wohlscheid began to research its origins he found the engine once powered a 1967 Cobra prototype that was donated to the facility in 1968.
He also learned the vehicle was featured in promotional photos and ads for Shelby before it was donated to the facility.
When the auto tech program at the facility was later shut down, the vehicle was taken to a junkyard, while the engine remained behind.
That’s where car enthusiast Lowell Otter found the vehicle in 2000.
When he took the car home, it was little more than a rolling shell, Otter said.
But as he began to restore it, he noticed unusual details that would later identify the car as the Shelby Cobra prototype.
Wohlscheid later connected with Otter after learning he was now the owner of the vehicle the facility’s Cobra engine came from and invited him to visit the facility to take a look at it.
Other car enthusiasts connected to the Shelby Cobra, the facility’s former auto tech instructor and members of the Ionia Historical Society were also invited to see the engine firsthand.
Today the engine is a regular highlight on tours of the facility’s Vocational Village as prisoners fire it up to show off its power.
Otter has also temporarily donated the refurbished vehicle to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Mich., where it is currently on display.
Click here to see more photos of the Shelby engine and automotive technology tour.
