Papa John Gets Camaro Back; Chain Offers Free Pizza to Camaro Owners Today

Posted by Adam Kuban, August 26, 2009 at 3:15 PM

[Credit: Jalopnik]

In 1983 John Schnatter somewhat famously sold his 1971 1/2 Camaro Z28 to keep afloat his father's tavern, the family business that would become the springboard for the Papa John's pizza chain. This year, Schnatter and PJ's began capitalizing on that origin story by conducting a very public search for the car.

The automobile blog Jalopnik helped reunite the pizza mogul and his wheels, and now, in celebration, the chain is offering free pizza to Camaro owners. Anyone who drives his or her Camaro to the nearest Papa John's today will get a large one-topping pie.

9 Comments

Tags: chain pizza, free pizza, Papa John's

9 Comments:

The automobile blog is not available now so I don't know if it explains that he paid 250k to get the car back as I heard on the radio this morning. That seems like alotta friggin' money for a Camaro. Even a 1971 1/2 Z28. Anybody?

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 4:39PM on 08/26/09

Paulie: Yes. He gave a $250k reward to the current owner. Apparently it was the 2nd owner since Papa John. The people who bought it from him recognized the story and tracked down the guy they in turn sold it to. He got $250k for it and gave a $25k finders fee to the people who bought it from Schnatter. Somehow all this was facilitated through Jalopnik and its Facebook page.

Adam Kuban at 4:50PM on 08/26/09

I had to forward this to my brother - he owns a similar-looking Camaro we lovingly call "Joe Dirt" (the previous owners trashed it up a bit, going so far as to paint "Fool's Gold" in obnoxious script across the rear of the spoiler). I'm not sure he'll be able to pull Joe out of storage in time to take advantage of the offer, though.

And yes, $250K is a lot of money for this car, but you can't put a price on nostalgia. I'd pay WAY more than what my first car with worth to get it back & restore it (I've seen it once since I sold it & it was very beat up; I cried).

SconnieGirl at 4:59PM on 08/26/09

Free pizza for Camaro owners? That should make the entire state of NJ very happy.

ESNY1077 at 5:12PM on 08/26/09

Thanks Adam and SconnieGirl If anyone tracks down the the original owner of my 1972 not 1/2 Karmann Ghia and fetches me 250k for it, I'll do the Poppa John's guy one better and give you 30K.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 5:21PM on 08/26/09

If someone can please track down my first car, a 1973 Toyota Celica, would you please do me the favor of shooting it, repeatedly.

I will reimburse you for the ammo.

redfish at 5:25PM on 08/26/09

A little more about the car http://jalopnik.com/5344739/how-jalopnik-reunited-papa-john-with-his-camaro somebody put a lot of time , and effort into building the car he bought back, it's now a drag radial race car, and from the pics with the front wheels hanging in the air , it's a pretty nasty piece, doubtful it's worth that kind of coin, but still a nice car, it's cool to see a story on all the sites i go to daily, this one, yellowbullet.com, and bangshift.com....'love cars n food!

jword2001 at 10:31PM on 08/26/09

What a treat. At the end of the day, you're stuck with a crap pizza and you're still driving a Camaro.

Nate Johnson at 11:54PM on 08/26/09

Is the right hand pic in front of his current house? I need to start a pizza chain if it is.

BrianPrestonCampbell at 12:09PM on 08/27/09

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