The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles need no introduction. They’ve been around since the mid-1980s and continue to be a pop-culture sensation with critically acclaimed films dropping as recently as last year. What might fly under the radar of even hardcore TMNT fans though is that for a time, they were the face of a four-car Ford Taurus IMSA racing team.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, and by 1991 the concept was so popular that it had commanded $1.1 billion in toy sales. The faces of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo were everywhere. That includes both on and in the race cars at the heart of this story.
Eastman and Laird struck up a friendship with Willy Lewis, an instructor at the Skip Barber Racing School, and in 1990, they discussed putting “some Turtles on some cars next year,” according to Ford. Ultimately, Ford agreed to co-sponsor a quartet of Taurus SHO race cars for the IMSA Firehawk Series with Eastman’s Mirage Studios.
As a result, each car would go on to represent a character from the cartoon. These cars weren’t super-highly-tuned SHO versions either. The cars had a spoiler, a front lip, a police-spec Taurus grille, and minor suspension modifications compared to a stock SHO.
The graphics packages were reportedly even more advanced though. They surpassed those NASCAR was using at the time says Hemmings.
Eastman turned to artist C. Michael Lewis to create bespoke images of each of the four turtles – one per car – and then, as Willy Lewis told Delbaugh, they had to create an entirely new process of printing high-resolution files as decals to apply C. Michael Lewis’s work to each of the four cars. “It was a more detailed and crisp image,” Delbaugh said. “They were apparently ahead of even NASCAR at the time in this respect.”
Additional graphics on the rear window of each car depicted the Turtle in question sitting in the rear seat as if they were cheering on the driver of the car. The graphics even made their way onto the helmets for each car. The visors even had portions covered to more closely emulate the Turtle theme.
That’s right, the portion of the helmet that the driver used to see the racetrack had graphics covering parts of it. Granted, these were really just strategically cut bits of tinting. In 1992, a team member of the racing team, driver Paul Armstrong was asked by the late broadcaster Tom Hnatiw if they could “actually see out of these things?” His response was “No, but we try not to see when we drive anyway.”
Perhaps that explains why these Fords never managed a victory. Their best overall finish saw the quartet finish third, fourth, fifth, and seventeenth on March 14, 1991. The team raced in IMSA Firehawk for only a single year.
For 1992, Ford backed out of its commitment to sponsor the team and Eastman sold the entire team, cars, parts, and everything else involved to CANCOM. That company decided to use the Fords in the Canadian equivalent to the Firehawk series but again, the cars wouldn’t claim any podium finishes.
Instead, they’d race for the 1992 season, turn heads while doing it, and then leave competitive racing behind.
Where Are The Turtles Now?
In 1995, the cars went to public auction. Initially, it’s believed that they went to a group of friends (how appropriate) who used them for amateur racing. From there, their paths get murky with some reportedly tuned to more extreme lengths and others left unrestored.
What’s clear is that today, all four still exist in various forms of repair. One owner, Michelle Harlmeier, actually has two of them — Leonardo and Raphael.
Donatello made its way to Oklahoma, where its current owner, Matt Delbaugh found it and bought it. He then somehow obtained clearance to register the car as street legal in Pennsylvania where you might see it running around from time to time.
In fact, you might see Michelangelo in the same area. Delbaugh found it nestled away in a barn in Toronto and brought it back to the States too. Cowabunga!
This is just rad. I love the branding and that Ford actually went along with it.
Although I do have a question. You say that in Canada they again never got a podium, but before you mention third, fourth, fifth and seventh. Third place was still a podium back then, right?
I don’t believe the police grills were run on the cars in either series, but were swapped later on when they had new owners. Leonardo is still sporting the original grill and livery from the Canadian series. Michelangelo has a police grill now, but still original paint. Raphael and Donatello were restored to the US livery (and both now have police grills).
Most gen I SHO enthusiasts swap a police grill on for looks. There are reproduction ones available now, including 3D printed ones.
Here’s a hilarious old anti-drug commercial from the 90’s w/ the TMNT that I still quote to this day
“Let’s get a pizza!”
“I’m not a chicken, you’re a turkey!”
https://youtu.be/AqaocGXy1uM?si=t6NJWLLDQKB8K6ar
Eastman also sponsored motorcycle racer Dale Quarterley, who I think still stands out for winning the AMA championship without winning a single race (he finished every race thus earning points where more aggressive riders maybe got a first but didn’t finish other races). I believe he was also the first “privateer” in that he had no corporate sponsorship.
He also had the best way of writing his name on his leathers since Alan Cathcart’s Kanji.
https://www.race-uscra.com/uploads/2/9/7/5/29751819/quarterley-fim-teaser_orig.jpg
Am I the only one annoyed that the Donatello and Leonardo helmets are sitting on the wrong cars?
The pics from the original racing series do not have the Police Spec grille on them. The #32 car in the more recent IG post with the current owner shows the Police Spec grille.
Here is another SHO that has the police grille installed:
https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1555000201c0436d0e923920683515549994999206835Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-9.16.59-AM-620×438-1.png
I was going to say that those cars in the top picture do not have Police grilles. I’m guessing that was a modification that was made when they found the cars to be running a bit warmer than they wanted in racing conditions. Or they just cut slots in the existing grilles that resembled the Police version.
That was kinda my guess as well. Stock SHO grilles for the first race (and probably where all the publicity photos were taken since it was their debut). After that race, need better cooling so pop on the Police grille.
Those are *tails* on those crouching turtles, right?
RIGHT?
I didn’t know I needed this information but my God did I need this story. I hope I get to see one one day
Heroes in a sedan shell, Taurus power!
None of the original photos show the cars wearing police grilles. Only the current photo shows one of the two cars with the police grille. I was surprised to see none of the cars wearing this grille despite the text in the article, since they obviously helped with airflow. Years ago I found a couple of these grilles in the junkyard and they fetched a pretty penny, even back then.
Taurus SHO? More like SUPER HIGHER OUTPUT TAURUS
(Needs to be four two-syllable words.)