Chris Hall loves his car.

A lot.

So much so that the Cass County man can recite from memory the car’s vehicle registration number like most people would their social security number.

“I had the silly notion that I’d memorize the VIN in case it was ever stolen, so I could get it back,” he said. “I memorized it and to this day I can prattle it off without thinking — 242379B164347. Just something poetic about it, if I may.”

It’s a good thing he knows the VIN, too.

Hall and his Matador Red 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge have been together and apart several times throughout the years due to unforeseen circumstances.

Like any true love though, they always seem to find each other again.

 

Love lost

The story begins in Niles in 1977.

Hall was 17 and looking for something special to cruise around Niles in with his girlfriend of six months, Donna.

After some searching, he found what he was looking for: a bright, blood-colored Matador Red 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge. It had black interior, a 400-horse power engine and a four-speed transmission.

“It literally took my breath away. It looked like it was speeding just sitting still,” Chris said. “Of course I had to have it.”

The proud owner of a fairly limited edition vehicle, Chris said he drove the car hard and fast with little regard to its potential collectability, mainly because it seemed like everyone had a muscle car back then.

After graduating, Chris and Donna began to focus on their future together. Knowing Donna could not drive a vehicle with a manual transmission, Hall decided to sell the car to a local family and find a more practical vehicle — one they both could drive.

“If there had been a way to keep that car and get another I would have, but extra money and being 18 just don’t go together,” Chris said.

It did not take long for regret to set in.

Chris was knocking on the buyer’s door within a week, begging to get back the Judge. It didn’t work.

“No deal,” Chris said. “They were happy and really enjoying their new toy, just like I had for the last year and a half.”

Chris and Donna got married in 1980 and moved to Texas. Whenever he came back to Niles, Chris said he would knock on the buyer’s door and ask for his old car back.

He got the same answer each time.

“No deal, no dice,” Chris said.

 

Love returned

The Halls moved back to Niles in 1990 and, for the next 15 years, Chris said he watched in agony as the Judge slowly deteriorated from lack of use and exposure to the elements.

He continued to try to convince the family to sell it back to him, but nothing seemed to work.

In the meantime, Chris drove other cars he considered to be his “toys,” like Chevy Novas, an old Cutlass and even a 1957 Chevy.

It wasn’t the same as being behind the wheel of the Judge.

“Everything was a substitute — it was a cheap imitation,” he said. “They were always just a placeholder until I could get it back.”

The chance to get the car back finally came in 2005.

The Halls came into some money after selling a house and Donna came up with a plan: Offer them cash.

“Well, that was a new idea,” Chris said. “Another reason to love her.”

Chris brought the family the cash and made an offer. They agreed.

“After I picked myself up off the floor and regained consciousness I, after 27 incredibly long, lonely years, had the Judge back in my hands,” Chris said.

 

Love lost, again

Unfortunately for Chris, the Judge was not in good shape. Years of neglect had left the once beautiful machine a shell of its former self.

To get it up and running, Chris said it would have cost between $60,000-$75,000. He didn’t have the know-how to do it himself or the money to have it done by someone else, so the Judge sat unused in his pole barn for three years.

The only thing he could do was get behind the steering wheel and make “vroom vroom” sounds, he said.

Once again, Chris made the difficult decision to sell the Judge in 2008, in order to see it fully resurrected.

“Yeah, I’ll admit, if it wasn’t for Donna to lean on, I would have cried like a big baby,” Chris said.

They sold the Judge to a qualified muscle car restoration expert in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the promise that he’d keep in touch and update Chris on the progress of the restoration project.

Chris called monthly for the first three months and then found, to his dismay, that the number had been disconnected.

“His work address was listed as unoccupied with no forwarding number,” Chris said. “I thought the car was gone forever.”

 

Love found, again

For the next five years, Chris searched the Internet in hopes of finding the Judge on a car collector site or Ebay or anywhere.

He went without a sniff of the car until he Googled “GTO Judge for sale” on his birthday in June 2013.

There it was. A listing for a four-speed Matador Red GTO Judge. Black interior. Fully restored. The seller event listed the VIN number.

It was a match.

Chris called the owner, who was living not too far away in Vincennes, Indiana.

“(I) practically shouted his ear off for an hour about the Judge’s history, my attachment to it, my eternal quest to find it again, and how I’d give my left arm to come see it again,” Chris said. “He was really pleasant but I’m sure he thought I was either in need of some serious psychiatric help or just completely drunk.”

The Halls traveled on July 4 to see the Judge for the first time in five years.

“Honestly, it was better than I ever remembered or hoped it would be,” he said. “It was that bold, majestic Matador Red again, the interior was crisp, clean and brand new, and the engine rumbled like it was 1977 all over again.”

It turns out that the seller had bought the Judge restored from the person Chris had sold it to.

The current owner told Chris he drove it just three times in three years after realizing it wasn’t his taste.

Chris and the owner haggled over the price over the next several months before settling on a figure.

“I talked to Donna and I agreed that if I forego my birthday, Christmas and anniversary presents from now until about 2037 we could swing it,” Chris said.

The deal done, the Halls came into possession of the Judge for the third and final time in October 2013.

 

Reunited

As can be expected, the Halls spent a lot of time cruising around Niles in the Judge this past summer.

“You have this vision in your mind that is so perfect and so wonderful that you can’t describe it,” he said. “I tell everyone that having it back and driving it isn’t even close to that. It is way, way better.”

One of their favorite stops is the Dairy Queen on Oak Street where, back in the late ‘70s, Chris would buy Donna ice cream in an attempt to impress her.

“Something about being in my high school car and being with the love of my life, my high school sweetheart, is just a feeling that can’t be described,” Chris said. “It truly is just like going back in time.”

Now that Chris has the car back, will he ever sell it again?

“Not willingly.”