This is the 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible that was gifted to Hunter S. Thompson in 1990, and then kept by him until his death in 2005. The car featured heavily in the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where it was driven by Johnny Depp.
Johnny Depp actually lived with Thompson for a few months to learn his character for the film, and it would be Depp who drove the car from Thompson’s home in Colorado to LA for filming.
Fast Facts: Hunter S. Thompson’s 1973 Caprice
- Hunter S. Thompson received this 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Convertible as a gift in 1990 from Jim and Artie Mitchell, San Francisco adult theatre owners who restored it and drove it to Colorado in a convoy to show support when Thompson was facing drug and explosives charges. He named it the “Red Shark” after the fictional car in his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
- Thompson’s car belongs to the second generation of the Caprice, built from 1971 to 1976 – the largest Chevrolet road cars made up until that point in history. For 1973, the model was renamed Caprice Classic, and the convertible moved from the Impala lineup for the first time. The optional 454 Big Block V8 produced 245 bhp and 468 lb ft of torque.
- The Red Shark was used for interior shots in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 film adaptation. Johnny Depp lived with Thompson for four months to study his mannerisms, then drove the car from Colorado to LA at 3am in freezing conditions with the top stuck down, armed only with flashlights, a cooler of supplies, and a portable tape recorder playing songs from the book.
- The car appeared on the covers of two Thompson books and was the place where Thompson proposed to his wife Anita. After being displayed publicly for the first time at a Las Vegas cannabis museum in 2018, it is now being offered at auction through Christie’s with an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 USD.
History Speedrun: Hunter S. Thompson’s 1973 Caprice
Best known for his 1971 autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson very famously owned this 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Convertible from 1990 until his death in 2005, naming it the “Red Shark” in tribute to the Great Red Shark driven by his alter ego Raoul Duke in his most famous work.
Above Video: This is the original theatrical trailer for “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” now considered by many to be one of the cultural touchstone films of the decade.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was written in the gonzo journalism style that Thompson helped popularize, the story followed Duke and his attorney Dr Gonzo on a road trip to Las Vegas in the Great Red Shark to chase the American Dream through what could only be described as a frenzied, drug-fueled haze. It became a benchmark of 1970s American literature, the novel was adapted into a 1998 film of the same name by director Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Dr Gonzo.
Thompson had originally received this car as a gift from notorious West Coast adult entertainment impresarios Jim and Artie Mitchell in 1990. Thompson had befriended the Mitchell brothers in the mid-1980s, when he spent a period working as the night manager at their San Francisco adult cinema, the O’Farrell Theatre (which he described as “the Carnegie Hall of public sex in America”) while purportedly researching a story on feminist adult entertainment for Playboy and working on a book for Random House titled The Night Manager, neither of these projects ever materialized.
When Thompson was arrested and charged with possession of drugs and explosives in 1990 in Woody Creek, Colorado, the Mitchells reportedly showed their support for the beleaguered journalist by restoring a 1970s Chevrolet Caprice convertible, similar to the model driven by Thompson’s protagonist in his famous novel, and leading a caravan to Colorado to coincide with his preliminary hearing. The charges were ultimately dropped when prosecutors cited discrepancies in witness testimony, and Thompson was set free.
The Second-Generation Chevrolet Caprice
Thompson’s 1973 Caprice is from the second generation of the model, made from 1971 to 1976. The second-gen series had been completely redesigned on a longer 121.5 inch wheelbase, with eye-catching fuselage styling, flush door handles, and double-shell roofs, they were the largest Chevrolet road cars ever built.
For 1973, the model was renamed Caprice Classic, and the convertible body style moved from the Impala lineup to the Caprice for the first time. The 454 cubic inch Big Block V8 option, which Thompson himself referenced in Kingdom of Fear when describing the car as “a rebuilt 1973 454 Chevy Caprice with power windows and heated seats and a top speed of 135.”
This engine produced 245 bhp with dual exhausts, but as is often the case with American V8s the more important number is the torque figure, which was a stonking 468 lb ft.
Thompson’s 1973 Caprice is from the second generation of the model, made from 1971 to 1976. The second-gen series had been completely redesigned on a longer 121.5 inch wheelbase, with eye-catching fuselage styling, flush door handles, and double-shell roofs, they were the largest Chevrolet road cars ever built. Image courtesy of General Motors.
The Caprice convertible would be discontinued after 1975, making the 1973 to 1975 cars the only Caprice-badged convertibles ever produced, lending them no small amount of collectability, and that’s before you add in the Hunter S. Thompson trivia.
Johnny Depp + Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Red Shark went on to appear on the back cover of Thompson’s 1994 book Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie and the front cover of his 2004 collection Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
Ralph Steadman, who famously illustrated the original novel, devoted vivid passages to the car in his 2006 memoir, describing its expansive beige “sofa seats” and the polished walnut drinks tray that Thompson had salvaged from an old Rolls Royce and mounted beside the 4-speed manual shifter, it was said to be large enough to hold a glass of scotch, a glass of spare ice, and a bottle of Heineken.
The Red Shark was also one of two cars used during production of the 1998 film. After living with Thompson, reportedly for four months, at his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado, to study his mannerisms, Johnny Depp drove the car himself from Colorado to Los Angeles for filming. As the story goes, Depp left at 3am in the freezing cold for his long drive, and the car’s top was stuck down as its motor was broken.
Thompson gave him flashlights and a cooler packed with essential supplies for the journey, as well as a portable tape recorder playing songs that Thompson mentions in the book. It must have been quite a sight for fellow road users to see a nearly frozen to death movie star driving a convertible with the top down listening to music from tapes on an old recorder.
While a red Chevrolet Impala was used for exterior shots during the film, Thompson’s Caprice was used for most of the interior sequences, most notably the iconic opening in which Duke and Gonzo load the convertible with illicit substances and drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas while exceedingly high.
Johnny Depp actually lived with Thompson for a few months to learn his character for the film, and it would be Depp who drove the car from Thompson’s home in Colorado to LA for the filming of Fear and Loathing. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
The car’s steering wheel was replaced at some point during production with one from a Chevrolet Impala, presumably for continuity purposes during filming. In 2018, the Red Shark was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Cannabition Cannabis Museum in Las Vegas, on loan from Thompson’s widow, Anita, who revealed that the car was where Thompson had proposed to her.
The Red Shark is now being offered for public sale, it has a price guide of $100,000 to $150,000 USD but it isn’t hard to imagine it might go for quite a bit more given the provenance. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Christie’s
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
