Sitting at a red light on Riverside Drive, he revs his engine. He looks to his right, checking out the    competition. He smiles. The minivan sitting alongside is no threat to his hot little muscle car--a Nugget Gold 1970 Olds Cutlass W-31 with black hood scoops and racing stripes and a 325 horsepower engine that screams. And the driver, Bill Baggett, isn't about to drag race down this straight stretch of Riverside Drive in Clarksville, Tennessee along the Cumberland River. A father of two, Baggett will celebrate his 37th wedding anniversary in August.

By a beautiful gift of fate, Baggett, at age 61, has the opportunity to revisit the days of his youth in the

same car he cherished in his prime.  On April 10, 1970, Baggett, then a 21-year-old university student, ordered the Olds Cutlass brand new from the factory through Jack Saunders Motor Co. in Clarksville.  

By the time he added almost every available option, including a W-31 engine with fiberglass hood, M-21 Muncie close-ratio 4-speed transmission with a Hurst competition-plus shifter, heavy-duty cooling system, FE2 sport suspension, factory 8-track tape deck, 3.91 positive-traction rear axle, sport steering wheel ,and Rocket Rallye Pac, the bill came to $4,400. Baggett traded in a used 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass HT on the new Holiday Coupe, and added to that money he had saved from working in hay and tobacco fields the previous two summers.  "I loved the car because of the rarity of it," Baggett said about his first brand-new car.  "You never saw them anywhere in this area”.  This was the only one of its kind sold in Clarksville in 1970.”  In fact, Oldsmobile made only 1,029 of the limited production vehicles nation-wide, and according to Barrett-Jackson Auctions, Inc., only 74 are now still known to exist in the entire United States.

Brenda Baggett, Bill's wife, acknowledges that the flashy gold sports car may have been part of the attraction when she first spotted Bill at the drive-up outside Shoney's Restaurant on North Second Street, 39 years ago. "The first time I ever saw him, there were several of us college girls cruising McDonald's and Shoney's", she said. "He was in his car with a bunch of guys”.  Brenda said the car was "snazzy," but she wasn't all that impressed with Bill or any of his buddies at first.  She fell for Bill gradually because "he just kept pursuing," she said.  The couple dated in college, married, and honeymooned in Bill's hot rod.  Bill even claims it was the bumping and jumping of his car, along with the popping of the clutch, that finally brought about the birth of their first child, Tracye, in 1976.  Tracye, who will turn 33 on Nov. 14 of this year, was two weeks late in making an appearance, and Bill thought a rough ride in the Olds might help to speed things along.

His ploy worked, but it was Tracye's appearance that eventually led to the sporty car's disappearance.  "It got really difficult, trying to put a pacifier in her mouth, or hand her a toy to play with," Brenda said. The Baggetts got a lot of use out of the car, with Bill driving it on weekends and Brenda driving it to work daily as a physical education teacher in Cheatham County, Tennessee.  Her older students, eighth-grade boys in particular, looked at her car with yearning. They had a favorite joke: "Mrs. Baggett, Mrs. Baggett, I need to borrow your car keys!" They never gave up hope that just once, she might say “OK”.

Despite the car's numerous attractions, the Baggetts knew it didn't fit well with the demands of young children. "As the family began to grow, we reluctantly sold it for peanuts to some friends," Bill said. He waved good-bye to the car in 1981, and never expected to see it again. Twenty years later, he and the Olds, now better than new after the restoration, were reunited.

In 2001, Bill joined The Memory Lane Cruisers, a classic car club in Clarksville. "I had to drool over all       these guys' cars," Bill said.  At that point, he had only memories of his own classic beauty, and he had no idea just how beautiful his car had become.   Baggett's car had gone from hand to hand and drag strip to drag strip, until it arrived at Richard Kitzmiller's restoration shop in Prarie Village, Kansas. 

Kitzmiller did a total body-off-frame restoration of the car, using all exact replacement materials and parts.  He added a rear spoiler, which may be the only optional feature available besides air conditioning, which Bill didn't order on the car in 1970.  Bill had been meticulous in keeping records on the car, and those records went along with the vehicle from one owner to another.  Jim Lorance of Independence, Missouri, who eventually bought the car from Kitzmiller, found the car's original invoice in the glove box with Bill's name on it.  He called information, got Bill's telephone number, and gave him a call.  "I'm coming to Cool Springs Galleria in Nashville, for a car show if you want to see your old car again," Lorance told him.  Bill was floored. He arranged to go to the show in Nashville, where he got to see the Olds for the first time in 20 years, and he was thrilled beyond comparison.  He immediately started cooking up plans to get it back, and let it be known to Mr. Lorance that he'd like first chance if it were ever offered for sale again. He waited a while to approach the topic with his wife Brenda.  When he did, the results were less than favorable.  "I thought he needed his head examined," she said. "We had one child who had just finished college, and another turning 16 who wanted a car of his own."

Eventually, Bill got the chance in August, 2001 to buy back the car and grabbed it without Brenda's complete endorsement of the plan. What he once sold for peanuts had become a meticulously-restored treasure, and under the great care of Jim Lorance, had become a first-place winner in the Oldsmobile Club of America's  National Meet in Denver, Colorado in July of 2001. Classic cars are an expensive hobby. Shortly after he bought the car for the second time, Bill experienced another illustration of that fact. He paid $145 to replace the set of four floor mats that, on his original window sticker, had cost $14.53. "He did what he wanted to do and I got over it," Brenda said. "They're just little boys with more expensive toys."

Ever the family man, Bill also managed to hook up his son Josh, a senior at Clarksville High School, with a stylish 1995 Camaro in the perfect shade: CHS purple. Three decades from now, Josh may get the chance to search for and find his Camaro with the same kind of glee with which Bill welcomed his Olds W-31 back home.  Josh, now 22, is campaigning to drive Dad's hot rod, which some day will be his.  Bill has let him drive it once or twice, but considering the care he invests in his 39-year old prize, Josh shouldn't bet on driving it much until he gets a little older.  When questioned about taking the car out in bad weather, Bill said "I watch for the mud puddles and I watch  the sky. I try to get weather forecasts in advance." He's been so successful at this that he hasn't had to wash the car a single time in the eight years he has had it back.  He keeps it in a heated and cooled garage, and uses a soft yarn California Duster to keep its shiny surface looking new. "He was a car fanatic back when we were dating, but not like he is now," Brenda said. "He's very appreciative of it."

Bill's appreciation goes beyond simply caring for the car's flawless interior and "Nugget Gold" paint job. He says he and the other guys in The Memory Lane Cruisers, a local Clarksville car club, get the opportunity to recapture the days of their youth by owning and driving classic cars. But few have Bill's ideal situation. The car he enters in shows and takes to club cruise-ins each Saturday afternoon at Wendy's in Clarksville, is the very same one in which  he met his wife, wooed her, married her, honeymooned and took his first child home from the hospital.  There may have been a little post-marriage engine revving at red lights, too. "Most guys sit around and moan and groan and say,  "I wish I had the car I had back when I was 19 or 20 years old," Bill said.  “I consider myself lucky because I had that opportunity and got mine back. Chances like this only come around once in a lifetime". 

By Bill Baggett

Bill is a proud car owner.