Car Number: 87
Owner: Marshall Griffin
Make/Model/Year: 1949 Oldsmobile Fastback
Motor: 1958 Olds 371 J2 Tri-Power
Hometown: Columbia, SC
Car’s Background: This car is a replica of the legendary car known as the “Goldsmith Special”. The real car sits in the Darlington Raceway Museum.
Paul Goldsmith wheeled the No. 87 Griffin Motors Racing car to a fifth place finish in the NASCAR Modified-Sportsman Championship race on the Daytona Beach and Road Course, a race in which a lap involved a blast down Highway A1A and a return north on the beach sand.
Buck Baker also piloted the Bobby Griffin-owned machine to much success.
Smokey Yunick called Paul Goldsmith the “best pure racer” he’d ever seen. Paul is 96 and still enjoys talking about the “good old days” of NASCAR.
Driver’s Background/Hobbies: (Marshall) My family has been racing in NASCAR since the first Darlington Raceway “Southern 500” on September 4, 1950 – they owned the Griffin Motors Oldsmobile Dealership in Florence, South Carolina.
I am retired and my hobbies are playing with old race cars and driving on old racetracks and preserving my family’s racing history.
Favorite SCC Track and Why: Darlington Raceway. My family’s Oldsmobile dealership entered the first Entry in the First Southern 500 in 1950.
Brian Baker helps Marshall with the car, and both take laps in it at each SCC event!