Suburban Man Loses Friends, Then Prized Car
SOUTH ELGIN, Ill. (WBBM) -- Here is a heartbreaking story about friendship and classic cars.
WBBM Newsradio 780's Pat Cassidy reports Thomas Franzen of West Dundee had a 1978 special-edition Pontiac Trans Am. It was his prized possession.
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He tells the Elgin Courier News that he and two friends, Glen and Scott, bought their Trans Ams together when they were 16. One bought a 1979 Trans Am, the other a 1975 Trans Am.
After the two friends were later killed in accidents involving their cars, Franzen, now 48, couldn't bear to drive his car again.
That was until July of this year, when a "friend of a friend" Ron Olson talked him into dismantling the TransAm and had it repainted at Head-On Collision South Elgin, the newspaper reported.
The experience ended in another tragedy. Head-On Collision was foreclosed, and it appears the parts might have been auctioned off – leaving Franzen with just a shell and some sad memories.
Detectives are now trying to find the former owners of Head-On Collision and the parts for Franzen's Trans Am, the newspaper reported.
