ZimmerMotorcars

Zimmer Motorcars

The Zimmer cars of 1980 to 2013: the Golden Spirit, a new Ford Mustang rebodied in Florida as a 1930s touring car, its four-door and the Fiero-based QuickSilver, and the Golden Spirits that a second, unrelated Zimmer company built from 1998.

A pale yellow Golden Spirit coupé with a chrome grille, gold eagle, two large headlamps, fog lamps, trumpet horns and flared wings over white-wall wire wheels, in a museum hall among other cars.
An original Golden Spirit coupé of the 1980s at the Automobile Driving Museum, El Segundo, California, in May 2018.Daderot, CC0

The story in brief

The Zimmer was born in a mobile-home company. Paul H. Zimmer, chairman of Zimmer Homes of Pompano Beach, Florida, told Forbes that in 1976 he bought an Excalibur roadster, and that the stir it caused convinced him his company could build such a car. In November 1980 it announced the Golden Spirit: a new Ford Mustang cut back to its cabin, lengthened and rebodied in fibreglass as a touring car of the 1930s, with a gold eagle on its grille. Its car company, Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., added a four-door Golden Spirit, the Personal Limousine, in 1983, and in 1986 the QuickSilver, a modern two-seater on the Pontiac Fiero. The cars sold, but the parent lost heavily on its homes, motor homes and coaches, and when it filed for Chapter 11 on 10 May 1988 the car plant closed.

Ten years later Art Zimmer, a Syracuse publisher and no relation, built Golden Spirits again under a company of his own, on newer Mustangs and on Lincoln Town Cars, a handful a year until about 2012: they are the Zimmer Neo-Classic. The Zimmer name passed to Heyman Motors in 2012 and fell silent in 2016. Two companies, then, a decade apart; the date and place that many accounts give, Syracuse in 1978, fit neither, and the history tells both stories and where that date came from.⁠1​2​3​4​5​6​7​8​9​10​11​12

A cream and a black Golden Spirit coupé side by side on a Los Angeles used-car lot in a faded colour photograph.
Plate I Two Golden Spirits on a used-car lot on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 1992, four years after the Pompano Beach plant closed.Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0

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The models

The original company built Golden Spirits as coupés, T-roofs and convertibles, a few four-doors, and, for two years, the QuickSilver; the revival built Golden Spirits again, as two-doors and as four-doors on Lincoln Town Cars. The line-up below lists all four lines, and the models page shows how to tell them apart. How many were made is a question with many answers in print. By this site's reckoning, which How Many Zimmers Were Made explains, the original company built about 1,250 Golden Spirits in its main numbered series; the revival never published a total.⁠13​14​15​16​17

A maroon and tan Golden Spirit coupé driving along a desert road with the Las Vegas skyline and mountains behind.
A Golden Spirit coupé on the road in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March 2008.Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
The long tail and chrome rear bumper of a silver QuickSilver seen from the rear three-quarter.
A QuickSilver, the Fiero-based two-seater of 1986–88, at Amenia, New York, in September 2021.Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Is a Zimmer a Mustang?

In part. Every two-door Golden Spirit began as a new Ford Mustang, bought from a dealer, and kept the Mustang's doors, roof, windscreen (windshield) and cabin under its fibreglass body. The QuickSilver began as a new Pontiac Fiero, and the revival's cars mostly as new Mustangs and Lincoln Town Cars. But a Zimmer was never a kit car: the original company built every one in its own plant and sold it complete through its dealers, and the revival built its cars to order. Identification explains how to tell an original from a revival car, and both from the look-alikes made by others.⁠3​18​19​16​10

The side of a yellow Golden Spirit's cabin, with an etched-rose wind wing, a leather sports seat, a cowl lamp and a padded rear roof.
The door, roof and windscreen of the El Segundo Golden Spirit are its Mustang's, under Zimmer's padded rear roof and trim.Daderot, CC0

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When did Zimmer stop building cars?

In 1988, and again about 2012.

Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. closed its plant when its parent filed for Chapter 11 on 10 May 1988. Art Zimmer's revival company built its cars until about 2012, and on 16 October 2012 signed the Zimmer marks over to Heyman Motors, LLC. The last new Zimmer on record is a convertible in videos posted in May 2013; the website went quiet in 2016, and the ZIMMER GOLDEN SPIRIT mark was cancelled in March 2022.⁠7​8​11​20​12​21

Checked 16 October 2026

The rear of a silver four-door Golden Spirit with a continental spare wheel and a luggage rack on a show field.
A four-door of Art Zimmer's revival company, built on a Lincoln Town Car between 2001 and 2011, at a classic car show in England in June 2010.Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0

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Rivals, reviews and buying one

The Golden Spirit's rivals were the other neoclassics of its day, the Excalibur that inspired it and the Clénet above all, and Neoclassic Car Brands sets them side by side; the reviews gather what the press said, from Forbes to Car and Driver. Anyone thinking of buying one should start with the buyers guide.

This is an independent history of the Zimmer cars, 1980–2016. Its address was once the revival company's own website, but the site is not that company or any other: it has no link with any Zimmer company, family or club.⁠3​1​17

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By the numbers

Built
1980–2013
Versions
4Golden Spirit, Golden Spirit Sedan, QuickSilver and Neo-Classic Golden Spirit
Price new
$45,900first-year price, announced 26 November 1980⁠2

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Versions

Sources for Versions

QuickSilver
2,837 cc: Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40⁠16; Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, 1987 press kit (Golden Spirit and QuickSilver), covering letter of 31 Jul 1987; price list of 1 Dec 1986⁠15

  1. Golden Spirit

    1980–1988

  2. Golden Spirit Sedan

    1983–1987

  3. QuickSilver

    1986–1988 · 2,837 cc

  4. Neo-Classic Golden Spirit

    1998–2013

Pictures, top to bottom: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0; Daderot, CC0; Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0; Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0.

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Notable cars

  • Art Zimmer's 1987 Golden Spirit

    Whereabouts unknown

  • The Golden Spirit at the Automobile Driving Museum

    Survives

  • Built 1998

    The first Neo-Classic Golden Spirit

    Whereabouts unknown

  • The 2013 Golden Spirit convertible

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1981

    Liberace's Golden Spirit

    Survives

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People

  • executive vice-president

    Dick Brown

    Former president of DeLorean Motor Cars of America who became executive vice-president of Zimmer Corporation, the parent of Zimmer Motor Cars, in April 1983.

  • chief executive

    Eran Heyman

    Software developer, as Hagerty described him in 2014, and head of Heyman Motors, LLC of Closter, New Jersey, which took the Zimmer trademarks from Art Zimmer's company in October 2012 and ran the Zimmer website until 2016.

  • designer

    Don Johnson

    Car designer, not the actor. A former General Motors designer, as Car and Driver and Zimmer's own literature describe him, he designed the Zimmer QuickSilver of 1986 to 1988. Car and Driver quoted him on the car in its road test of April 1987.

  • general counsel, president

    Terry McMahan

    Zimmer Corporation's general counsel from 1979 and its president and chief executive from August 1988, when he took the company through Chapter 11 after the Golden Spirit and QuickSilver plant had closed.

  • president

    Carl Severe

    President of Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. by 1987, the voice of the company's releases that year. When he took over from Bob Zimmer, and what he did before or after, is not known.

  • owner, founder

    Art Zimmer

    Syracuse, New York, businessman, publisher of the Syracuse New Times from 1984 to 2010 and no relation to the Zimmers of the original company. By his company's account he first saw a Zimmer in Syracuse in 1995, bought a 1987 car in March 1996 at his wife's urging, and that September started a club for Zimmer owners. In 1997 he founded Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., which filed a new trademark rather than buying the old company and built Golden Spirits on new Mustangs and Lincoln Town Cars in small numbers, on order only. He assigned the marks to Heyman Motors, LLC on 16 October 2012. His memoir, Making It Count: From A to Z, was published in 2015.

  • vice-president, president

    Bob Zimmer

    Paul H. Zimmer's son, who ran Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., the car company of Zimmer Homes (Zimmer Corporation from 1982), and spoke for it from 1981 to 1986 on its customers, dealers, exports and the QuickSilver. Vice-president in 1981 and president from 1982, he was still president in September 1986; when he left, and why, is not known.

  • designer, chairman

    Paul H. Zimmer

    American businessman, chairman and president of Zimmer Homes Corp., the Florida maker of mobile homes and recreational vehicles renamed Zimmer Corporation in 1982, whose car company built the original Zimmers. He told Forbes that the reaction to an Excalibur roadster he bought in 1976 convinced him his company could build such a car, and he drew the sketch from which its engineers developed the Golden Spirit, announced in November 1980. His son Bob ran the car company, Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. of Pompano Beach, which added the QuickSilver in 1986. Losses in the parent's housing, motor-home and coach businesses, not the cars, took Zimmer Corporation into Chapter 11 on 10 May 1988, and the car plant closed. He stood down as chairman at the start of 1989, citing his health, and stayed on the board. He was not related to Art Zimmer, who revived the name in 1997.

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  1. Anne Bagamery, "The egomobile", Forbes, 26 Sep 1983, pp. 90–94, pp. 90–94, the Excalibur of 1976; the Excalibur. Primary
  2. Miami Herald, Business brief: Zimmer Homes to build the Golden Spirit, 26 Nov 1980, the announcement of 26 November 1980; business brief. Primary
  3. Michael Langberg, "Zimmer has 'Golden Spirit'", Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, 22 Mar 1981 (Sunday), p. 3F, p. 3F, the car being built; p. 3F, the Mustang's roof and doors; no sales to the public; p. 3F, the Dania dealer's top three. Primary
  4. Fort Lauderdale News, Business brief: the Zimmer limousine's debut, 27 Oct 1983, the four-door's debut. Primary
  5. Monrovia News-Post, "Quicksilver Introduced By Zimmer", 20 Apr 1986, the QuickSilver's launch. Primary
  6. Rebecca Ross Albers, "A new chance for a shattered empire", Miami Herald, 17 Oct 1988, the causes of the failure. Primary
  7. Ed Lopez, Report on Zimmer Corporation's Chapter 11 filing, Miami Herald, 11 May 1988, the filing of 10 May 1988. Primary
  8. Ellen Forman, Report on Zimmer Corporation's reorganisation plan, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 18 Jul 1989, the plant closed with the filing. Primary
  9. Christopher Malone, "'M' is for Memoir: The A-B-Cs of Art Zimmer", Syracuse New Times, 16 Sep 2015, no relation to the original Zimmers. Reference
  10. Clifford Atiyeh, "Q&A: Art Zimmer explains his lavish, 'neo-classic' car craft", Boston.com (Boston Overdrive blog), 18 Sep 2009, the output in 2009; the revival's Mustangs and Town Cars. Primary
  11. United States Patent and Trademark Office (assignment recordation), Trademark assignment, reel 4882, frame 0146, executed and recorded 16 Oct 2012, the marks assigned, 16 October 2012; the assignment of 16 October 2012. Primary
  12. Heyman Motors, LLC, Zimmer Motor Cars website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2013–2016), Wayback Machine captures, 17 Jan 2013 to 16 Mar 2016, the website to 2016; the last captures, 2016. Primary
  13. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, "Zimmer Motor Car Features and Specifications", revised May 1984, the Coupe, Formal and Convertible. Primary
  14. Zimmer Corporation, Zimmer Update, premiere issue, Jan 1984, p. 3, the Personal Limousine. Primary
  15. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, 1987 press kit (Golden Spirit and QuickSilver), covering letter of 31 Jul 1987; price list of 1 Dec 1986, price list of 1 December 1986; QuickSilver technical data. Primary
  16. Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40, pp. 36–40, the Fiero; the new Fieros; specification panel. Primary
  17. Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., Syracuse, New York, Zimmer Motor Car Company website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2000–2012), Wayback Machine captures, 3 Mar 2000 to 13 May 2012, the models and their donors; no total; the archived company website. Primary
  18. Kathleen Hamilton, "Zimmer's flashy cars swimming in almost-dry market", Automotive News (Crain Communications), via Internet Archive, 28 Jun 1982, p. 3, p. 3, the Mustang's "rollcage". Primary
  19. Joe Rhodes, "Autos as Art", Miami Herald, 20 Sep 1987, new Mustangs bought from dealers. Primary
  20. YouTube, Three videos of a Zimmer Golden Spirit convertible ("Zimmer Golden Spirit"; "Zimmer Golden Spirit 2014 Convertible"), posted 20–21 May 2013, the videos posted in May 2013. Primary
  21. United States Patent and Trademark Office (Trademark Status and Document Retrieval), ZIMMER GOLDEN SPIRIT, serial 75320076 (registration 2480221): status and prosecution history, 1997, cancelled 4 March 2022. Primary

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