Beck TD, Part 3: History!

I have been doing some research on the Beck's Brewery TD, trying to figure out its history. While on vacation, I spent a lot of time on the web after returning to the hotel each night, trying to find something. I found no mention in the Internet record, but I did find an interesting link. I remembered that the car is wearing a sticker for the South Jersey region of the Sports Car Club of America, region 84.

It also had several stickers from events that might give a clue:

I went to the web and found the region's website at http://www.sjr-scca.org/. I contacted their newsletter editor, sent my info, and he very kindly agreed to publish my query in their email newsletter. He also gave my info to a gentleman named Gary who was very knowledgeable about the events held in the region, and he made several inquiries for me.

By the time I heard from Gary that no one had any knowledge of the car, I wasn't surprised. See, by that time I had gotten back into the garage and taken a much closer look at the car. I was surprised to see that the mountings for the roll bar and the shoulder harnesses were very weak. They would never have passed the tech inspection to be allowed on a race track. The car was also missing other equipment required for racing, like the battery shutoff switch. I concluded that the car must have been used in promotions, and perhaps for Exhibition Class at vintage events.

About that time, prior owner Mark told me that he remembered a sticker from a service facility in the car's front tool box. I found it, and it was from Sports Car Haven in Danville, PA. I called the phone number on the sticker, in area code 717, and got some girl's cell phone. I surmised the shop was no longer in business. But that was wrong! I later did a web search on the name, and they were one of the unfortunate businesses caught in the split of the 717 area code. They had the same number, but now in the 570 area code. Looks like a great shop - here's their website: http://www.sportscarhaven.com/

I called, and the owner remembered the car right away. He said he still had the name and number of the person that added the racing livery. I called him, and what an interesting person he turned out to be! His name is Steve Fox, and he's a professional racer. You can find his site here: http://www.stevefoxondemand.com/

It turns out that Steve had a deal with a huge beer distributor in Northeastern Pennsylvania, to provide them with a display car each year to use at their headquarters. The Beck's TD was displayed for about six months some time in the 2010-2012 time frame, and then the car was returned to Steve. He drove it a couple more years, and then sold it on.

The beer distributor is T. Verrastro, and their Facebook page at 

https://www.facebook.com/pg/T.VerrastroBeer/ shows that they still like to have a classic vehicle to advertise their beer. Here's a photo from that page:

The car was already converted to Volvo power when Steve bought it, and needed a lot of work to get it back on the road. So, that's still a mystery. I hope that my queries will lead to some info about that some day. The serial number is the key: TD15710. Ask around for me! 

Now that I know the livery is fake, I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. Leave your votes in the comment section!  Continue on to Part 4...