That guy is correct. Kids pushing an old car down a hill to its doom has been a long standing bay area tradition. Not gonna specify how it got there, but someone may or may not find a 1989 Ford Festiva in several years........

Well, I am from that era, and I had a very good friend, Bill W. (RIP) from Belvedere, who told me back then that, in the late 60's, that was exactly what had happened. He had an old car he wanted to get rid of and one night after dark, he and a few buddies went up Mt Tam, had a beer party, and then pushed his car over the hill, watched it roll down the hill and crash. A bit buzzed, they all laughed their way home. But in my friend's story, about 2 weeks later, a CHP appeared at this door and asked him if it was his car. He admitted to it and was given a citation costing a few hundred dollars. Apparently, as was done then, he had left his DMV Registration strapped under plastic on the shaft of the car's steering wheel! We never went up there, but maybe this is the same car.

I was going to say it was a 41 Pontiac! Knew it from the center grill peice. Called it before the guy showed it!

That beer can has a pop top. Those weren't around in the '40s or '50s. There's a clue for you.

There are old cars like this all over Mount Diablo as well and Morgan territory. Somebody simply pushed it off the road when they were done with it. Was pretty common back in the day.

It would be rare for it to have 138k miles. Back then engines needed an overhaul around 100k.

And the funny this is, I could have figured out everything they managed to find in this video in 10 minutes on reddit.

Being disgruntled, the Chauffeur after loosing his job, was told to just park the car anywhere and walk home. The former Chauffeur said, "Okay".

Always wondered what the story was behind that car! ...also, nice use of music from the game Kerbal Space Program.

I lived up in the hills by Santa Cruz when I was a kid and in the middle of the woods there was a cliff, and next to this cliff was a huge tree which was somehow holding an ancient car which had obviously been driven off the cliff and was also full of bullet holes. Nobody I asked ever knew anything about it and we eventually moved away, but for 33 years that car has haunted me.

My dad has some good storiesw about pushing old junkers off cliffs with his friends, it was actually quite a trend back in the day

*Is there enough of the firewall for a build plate?* The steering column is consistent with a 1940's-50's build, with the shifter for a presumed three-speed externally mounted. An expert Time 2:35 has it preliminarily identified as a 1941 Pontiac with an inline eight. General Motors went with an early version of the A-arm front suspension in the 1930's, with kingpin-type steering knuckles consistent with this wreck; balljoints weren't used until the 1950's.

I just want to add in case anyone is curious that there’s another wrecked car on a trail in the Berkeley Hills, same deal where I have walked by it so many times and just wondered why it was there. The car seems to be from the same time period as this car, with just as much damage and mystery surrounding it

There is a truck somewhere up there half buried in the dirt as well right along the trail. I came across it hiking years ago.

There's lots of cars driven off hills and driven into lakes. Teens having fun.

That was so cool. Excellent job.

Reminds me of the 5 or so crashed cars I've seen hiking in the woods by Skyline Blvd (CA 35). The oldest I've seen is a 1940s Chrysler and the newest a 2010-ish Ford Explorer. The latter one was involved in a fatal crash that made local news. They tend to leave the cars in place after wrecks because it would be too hard to pull out of the forest.

One old General tire still on her...love automobile archaeology!

I could identify that this was a Pontiac when I saw the indented strips on the hood, which was a distinctive Pontiac motif. And I also was sure this had been pushed off the road at night intentionally when it was said that there were no newspaper stories of a crash in this location.

Youngster would get old car and trucks, and drive them in the woods........Some times they even use old cars as wood haulers. We find them in the woods of New England

I would love to see the engine restored. Being on its side, means the oil is in the cylinder thus not rusted and the intake is pointing down so water is not going in.

My grandfather used to talk about chicken races on mt. Tam. Might have something to do with it, he used to say all he ever saw go over the side was two cars.

An "A" frame suspension and coil springs seem to be evident, so it might have been an upgraded and hot-rodded "1941 Pontiac".

Check the date on the tires for a time frame for when roughly it was last driven

Thanks for very little The mechanic needs his own show

One of the senior class pranks at Monta vista involved the students pushing a car in the pool. So I here. So pushing a vehicle and abandonning it seems plausible.

heard this last night on the radio, i was laughing pretty hard "ya go daddy-o" lololol

great story - thanks for the research!

Bay area "Carcheology". Along the Carquinez Scenic Dr in Martinez, you'll see an old wreck down the hill. With my knowledge of cars and pictures, I found it to be a 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air.

Interesting story!!! Thanks..

The remaining tire may give clue as to when. Tire maker & style would have been produced up to a certain date. Today there are manufacture dates when the tire was made on the sidewall.

When I was a kid there were some mangled car bodies, engines, axles, etc at the bottom of the cliff by the whirlpool down river from Niagra Falls. Those cars hit hard!

Usually a wreck like that is a stolen car pushed over the edge. (You wouldn't push your own worn out car because there's a good chance it'll come back on you and you'll be charged for winching it out.) These are all over the U.S. if it was just off a road in a less spectacular spot it could've just been a road accident. Monte Cristo hiking trail in the San Gabriels has a few wrecks at the bottom like this. It's right off a main road. In other canyons in the San Gabriels are Model T chassies that were caught up in the 1932 flood. Model T's were made with Vanadium steel so their wrecks won't rust out as quickly as other cars. Higher up in some mountains and blind canyons you'll find aircraft wreckage. In Michigan we just to see cars in lakes. These were used for ice fishing when the ice wasn't quite thick enough. Or they're stolen cars parked on the ice late in the season.

There is a old car with the same old headlights(that bubble mostly outside the frame look) but i think it was a pickup at my parents house in the the Santa Cruz mountains just outside of Silicon valley. The car was found there before the private 1 mile road to the house was built in the late 70s, from the public road which would have existed in the 40s. Which means the car was just driven down the ridgeline most likely just crashing through the shrub before tumbling down a steeper part of the hillside a bit. I was also told that kids in the 50s would steal cars and drive them off cliffs for fun. Sounded wild to me, but I have done that in video games before and they didn't have those so who knows. The car ended up packed with sticks by woodrats and we never bothered looking through it to see if it was a crime scene though so RIP if so but no point disturbing it now.

Mt. Tam... such a magical place.

There would have been a vin on the jam of that old Poncho, there would likely have been a data plate in the engine compartment as well

I lived for a time, 1967, on Pine Hill Rd, kinda the outskirts of Milk Valley then. Couple friends of mine, and myself, took a hike up some trails one day, from where we lived and came across that car, wrecked at that spot. We didn't know what or why it was there just thought it was pretty cool that we made it this far up n came across a wrecked car. I was 14 then, n have told the tale many times over, of following unknown dirt trails, up a steep hillside, to see the view and discover a old wrecked car.

I watch that whole thing and you don't even know the answer!!!!

At water dog park in Belmont there are three cars like this. The funny thing is, the trees have grown up since the cars were apparently pushed from the ridges.There's no way they could get to where they are now!

There’s another car wreck in Juaqin mIller park in Oakland. It’s off a trail close to the view point.

Interesting. Some 10 years ago this Limey toured the Rockies and Black Hills, and was heart broken by the number of genuinely classic 1920's cars and trucks just dumped and rotting away in the roadside fields. Mount Tam, I know better for the famous railroad that used to go up the mountain to the summit - Shay engines pushed the cars up the hill, and Ol' Man Gravity brought them back down again.

Did tires have date codes back then?

1953 and earlier, the engine serial number was used for the VIN

I found the rusted out wrecks of THREE Simca 1000's (red, white, and light blue) near the start of the VASA trail in Traverse City Michigan. No idea how they got out there, either.

I remember seeing this rusted car hulk on a hike in the early 1970s. 1941 Pontiac makes sense, I doubt it had 138,000 miles as cars back then generally didn't last that long.

When land was cleared for farming the rocks were put into walls. Old walls all over the Ozarks. Hard pan was dug out of the ground in the San Joaquin Vally made into walls. The last walls were destroyed around 40 years ago, all now gone.

Did the tires not have date codes back then? That would give a good timeline of when it happened.

Police officer: "we don't know what kind of vehicle it is exactly" Me (a car guy): "oh that's a 1940s Pontiac"

You could check the manufacturer date on the tire to let you know the last time it got new tires

Great investigation! Now there's more than 10 cars in Trona wildrose road, Slate Range Crossing to identify and get the story behind all of them!

that ksp music though

In Marin in San Geronimo Valley people used to abandon wrecked and worthless cars in the woods in the 70s. When I lived there there you could stumble across them all overgrown on hikes.

Do the tires have a manufacturing date code stamped on them?

We used to take our winter beaters to the gravel pits in the spring, demo derby or just drive to destruction. I once had a pinto wagon, it was a tough car, drove it to the pits to wreck and leave it there, ended up driving it home again after as it wouldn’t die, finally on the third trip to the pits and after loosing all the coolant the engine seized. Pushed it into a waterhole, it floated out to the middle and sunk, turned out to be really deep! Good chance it’s still down there. I cringe at some of the cars that wrecked there, but they were just old cars at the time.

What fantastic historians the park services have... I could tell it was a GM with the stamp of GM on it LOL... you take a few pics of it and a car guy CLEARLY figured it out in less than an hour

Odd, there's one like that near atherton avenue in the walking paths...

Wrong...it was my grandpa's car. My uncle wrecked it there when he was a teenager.

Amazing Fact! There is the remains of a Grumman Hellcat WWII fighter plane crashed not too far from Rock Springs. Found it on an acid trip in 68'. Never could find it again. Go due North East from the parking lot. Lemme know whatcha find.

DMV? Local sheriff? Anything on the slope above the wreck? Human remains? Funeral notices? Drunk driver? Somebody driving home late one night, fell asleep and didn't make the turn. Flatbed truck, carrying the old car, took the turn too fast and the car rolled off. I've always wondered about the wrecks at the bottoms of the cliffs along Coast Highway One.

What's the story behind the car; we don't know. Thanks for watching

There’s also a CRV flipped over at the bottom of a cliff on devils slide trail in Pacifica.

"Iron American Dream" on KZfaq Traditionally you smoke a doobie right there. Roll up a fatty and burn it down. Mount Tam is so beautiful.

The Ksp music kinda caught me off guard😂

There’s one in Pleasanton! By the Pleasanton Preserve

When I was kid in the late 60's I remember seeing a couple of old wrecks that were down ravines. I think they didn't have the technology or the will to move them like they do now.

I’d like to find out about the old jet plane that used to be in a park on 19th st in SF.

I would have never thought it to be a car from the 1940s! I thought it was a hatchback from like the 70s until the specific details were mentioned

saw that wreck.. also saw couple more wrecks on my recent hikes..

What is the trail to get there?

Any updates?

It's a 41 pontiac torped coupe I looked at the pictures and I matched the fender or what's left of it and what I saw it was a luxury car and back then very expensive to own

In Newfoundland along the old rail road tracks of Princeton you’ll find cars abandoned in the bushes and even stuck in odd places just like this. Car is. It’s usually done when the cars are done for.

Several of these in the creek coming out of water dog lake. I've also heard it was kids pushing them down hills

3:45 it might have crashed somewhere in the 60’s because that can has the 60’s style can

I just drove down the road above the car a week ago.

Atlas Grip Safe tires are a clue, too.

What trail is it

My uncle pushed a car off a cliff with his friends when he was a teenager, it wasn't uncommon. the car he pushed was a 1971 beetle though

A: Kids blowing off some steam or B: Insurance fraud

There should be some sort of serial number stamped somewhere. I have a 1946 Dodge. Back then, the VIN was basically the serial number. Usually found stamped on a plate on the driver side right in front of the door. Best thing is to ask a pontiac expert out serial number locations.

A KQED program! I've always wondered about it. Since no fatality is recorded, perhaps someone just pushed it off the road to get rid of an old car. I was always surprised that Park Rangers just didn't cart if off!

Omg you guys don’t know how the car got there?? I thought everyone knew that.. sheesh

Good job on car research.

A 41 Poncho is a slick car. I’d love to grab that straight 8, & anything else salvageable. So long as the block isn’t cracked, it’s possible it (the engine) could be saved!

I wonder if the motor is salvageable?

A mill valley police chief drove off a cliff and died somewhere around there. Never mind, they didn't die and it was William Walsh in 1911.

is that the only one you guys found? theres wayyy more theres even a b-17 up there

Kerbal Music? I like it :P

Well, there’s four and a half minutes and two adverts that I’ll never get back-

Is it fixable?

interesting how one tyre is still firmly on the wheel

its 38k miles. many odometers at the time did not have a place for a 6th digit to be in the 100k+ milage range. engines were not set for that much wear and tear. also many people did not drive as long distance or as much as we modernly do.

go up into sonoma, medocino, on some of those old dirt back roads you will find all manner of old cars crashed and abandoned.

Why does a tire that has been out side in the elements for about 40-50 years still look new? if it was pushed down the hill or rolled down, using a metal detector and walking from top to bottom might turn up more clues

It was a Tokyo drift hill bully style from the 50's.

Nicely done as the logical inclusion of people that actually know a lot about early autos.

I saw something on the newspaper that said “the torpedo” so it drove off at high speed

Isn't there a way to coordinate news articles from crashes of the time? There must be a way to find out if any medical services were dispatched to that area ever...right?

There's a wreck car like that at Rancho hills I'm Gilroy ca

It's unusual for those old cars to get much more than 100,000 miles before the engine needs rebuilding. So that's probably the actual mileage on the odometer which means that it was probably between 5 and 10 years old when it crashed depending on light use or heavy use. So I would guess a 1955 or earlier crash.