page_title: Orbitron
section_title: Ownership
hierarchical_section_title: Orbitron / Ownership
caption_attribution_description: Front of the restored Ed Roth "Orbitron" custom car at the Pomona Fairplex, Pomona, CA USA in January 2009
context_page_description: The Orbitron is a custom car built by Ed Roth and feared lost until its rediscovery in Mexico in 2007.
context_section_description: Fellow automotive customizer Darryl Starbird purchased the vehicle from Roth in 1967 for US$750.00. Starbird traded the vehicle some years later to an unidentified collector in Texas.  From Texas the Orbitron was traded to a carnival owner in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico in or around 1991.  By that time the asymmetrical nose had been cut off and discarded, possibly for additional air flow to the radiator for the car's use in and around the carnivals.
  Automotive restorer Michael Lightbourn, who heard rumors of the car's existence in Ciudad Juárez, discovered it parked in front of an adult bookstore for use as an advertising aid.
  The car had been sprayed in faded black primer and was basically complete except for the hood, the tachometer, the television, the fur lining, the long-missing nose and the bubble top, believed destroyed in the early 1970s when it became stuck and trapped the car's then-owner.
  The family who owned the bookstore had also owned the carnival in which the car was used.  After intense negotiations with the family (who were reluctant to sell the deteriorating vehicle for what they said were sentimental reasons), Lightbourn was finally able to return the Orbitron to the United States.  Upon its return, the Orbitron was sold to Beau Boeckmann of "Galpin Auto Sports" fame.
caption: Front view of the Orbitron with the unique red, green and blue Lucas headlamps.
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