♪ >> talk about getting the keys to the city. they walk around like they own the place. >> sounds like you're the unofficial mayor of this town. >> well, that's one of my hats. >> guess what? they do. >> your dad bought the whole neighborhood? >> yes. the whole town. >> it is a real community. very close-knit. >> i was told i was born here, but i was too young to remember. >> they never thought they'd live to see this day. >> makes me sad. i don't want to have to move. >> when is the last time you got a listing for a whole town? >> never. >> will the heirs take the cash and let the bulldozers in? >> if you did sell, where would those people go? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby in western pennsylvania, turning into the village of reduction. i'm here because a viewer wrote me to say this whole place is his strange inheritance. >> my name is david stawovy. when my parents passed away, my siblings and i inherited a town. >> hi, david. i'm jamie colby. >> hello, jamie. welcome to the town of reduction. >> you wrote me you inherited a town? this is it? >> this is part of it. >> david and his three siblings' inheritance encompasses 75 acres of hills, farmland, and forest nestled along the youghiogheny river. the town, population 60, stretches out along reduction road, which leads into reduction circle, and an area called "the village," a collection of 19 houses. >> and the house right in front of me is the house that my

father decided to purchase, and that's where i lived when i was one year old. he wanted only one, but the people that was selling it asked him if he wanted to buy them all. so he ended up buying them all. >> your dad bought the whole neighborhood? >> yes, the whole town in 1948. >> but david's ahead of our story. it starts some 40 years before his dad became king of this hill. at the turn of the century, the town is owned by the american reduction company, which runs a bustling plant that recycles and reduces garbage shipped in from nearby pittsburgh. >> and the factory was directly behind you, down over the hill. they only had to walk down a set of steps, and they were at work. >> reduction was what was known as a company town, one of more than 2,000 communities wholly owned by one corporation or another that pop up across america in the late 1800s. >> ♪ you load sixteen tons

♪ what do you get? ♪ another day older and deeper in debt ♪ >> a number-one hit, "sixteen tons" by tennessee ernie ford makes company towns sound like woeful places to live. >> ♪ i owe my soul to the company store ♪ ♪ >> but that song topped the charts in 1955, long after almost all the company towns closed, and their story is more nuance than old tennessee ernie is letting on. history professor ed meena. who did it benefit more -- the company or the employees? >> the company had a steady force of workers at their disposal, but it gave the workers an opportunity to find their own life and their own future. >> company towns make it possible for workers to take the jobs in the new post-civil war industries located near natural resources

like coal, lumber, iron, and oil. >> it was you came on the railroad, dropped off, went to work. >> were the people that lived in these company towns proud to work for the company, or is it a little indentured servitude? >> a little bit of both. the company was run for profit, and the workers, in many instances, were very expendable, but some of the company towns were a little bit better, and workers were given the opportunity to have some leisure time. there were activities, religious instruction, athletics. >> reduction, p.a., comes to life in 1910 with the opening of the american reduction plant. it's known as "the town that garbage built." >> all the garbage from pittsburgh, and they brought it out, and they ran it through a processing plant, and they separated the copper, aluminum, or whatever metals. they made soap. they made fertilizer. >> and how many workers did

reduction need that it made sense for them to build a company town? >> well, i think at their heyday, they had 400 people living in reduction. they had three shifts. it worked 24/7. >> in 1920, david's grandparents, polish immigrants valentine and johanna stawovy, settle near reduction and start a dairy farm to supply milk, eggs, cheese, and produce to reduction. they become its company store. is that the farm? >> yes, this is a shot of my grandfather and my grandmother and all the siblings. >> how big was this farm? >> he bought like 100 acres, and then he bought another 100 acres. he bought up a lot of different farms. >> that's a substantial dairy farm. >> well, he had four sons, and his daughter worked there, and so he had his own workforce. >> one member of that workforce, david's father, john stawovy. born in 1922, he grows up milking cows, working the fields, and attending school with the rest of

the reduction kids at this one-room schoolhouse. by then, american workers are starting to enjoy the economic advances that will bring the era of company towns to a close -- rising worker incomes, mass-produced cars, widely available home financing. they get a taste of a better life. >> oh, absolutely. workers have a higher standard of living because of their union contracts. they actually get paid time off. they get a little bit of a pension. >> in 1936, a larger garbage plant opens in pittsburgh. american reduction closes the plant here, and reduction becomes a ghost town. when reduction closed, what happened to the people living in those houses? >> people were devastated. that was their livelihood. >> the stawovy family dairy, nevertheless, thrives. in 1948, david's father is newly married and looking

for a starter home. he approaches the american reduction company to purchase one of the houses in the old neighborhood. >> he said, "what's the price?," and he gave him the price, and then he said to my father, "instead of buying one, why don't you buy them all?" >> how much? >> $10,000. >> did he have the money? >> no. he borrowed it. >> he saw it as an investment? >> oh, yes. >> david's parents rent out the 18 vacant homes and move into this 600-square-foot house just like the others. here they start a family. david is born in 1949, followed by sisters jacque, cheryl, and brother jan. >> it was very close-knit, and, as i recall, it was very happy. >> jacque recalls a childhood spent playing with the other kids in the village. >> we loved to ice-skate on the pond that was right next to the dairy. before we went ice-skating, we would go into the dairy and get hot chocolate. >> time stands still in good

ways and, well, not so good ways. >> all the houses had outhouses. they didn't have indoor plumbing. once a year, they had to be cleaned, and my father would have me going out with him and hold the flashlight when he would do his duty. >> we would do whatever he asked us to do. whether it be painting, scrubbing, we all had a hand in it. >> the kids grow up, move away, and begin their own careers. for the next six decades, with support from their mother, dad runs the old company town from top to bottom. >> my dad did it for years all by himself, and he was incredible. >> but when the landlord, town engineer, and public works chief needs to retire from office, his son david is about to find out that being lord of the manor isn't all it's cracked up to be. >> you get a call 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning. it's my responsibility. >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question...

the answer after the break. i joined the army after 911, cuz, um, i thought that was what i needed to do. we got our orders to go overseas and i went to baghdad, iraq.

we were transporting a bomb sniffing dog to the polling stations. we rolled over two anti-tank mines, it blew my humvee up, killed my sergeant. after the explosion, i suffered a closed head injury, um, traumatic brain injury, loss of a limb, burns to 60% of my body. when the doctors told me i reached my plateau, i did not want to hear that because i do not believe i have a plateau. so, i had to prove 'em wrong, which i am doing to this day and i will still do until the end of my days. i've gotten to where i am at because of my family. and, the wounded warrior project has helped me more than i can ever imagine. they have really been there to support me in my endeavors. my number one goal, basically, is to get close to where i was.

i am more than ready to work hard to get to that goal. i am living proof to never give up and i will never give up. ♪ >> so, a strike begun at what company town led to the creation of labor day? it's "b." in 1894, after their wages

were cut in half, workers at the pullman railcar company in illinois walked out, leading to a nationwide strike. in response, president grover cleveland approved the federal holiday of labor day. ♪ >> hard to believe this beautiful western pennsylvania hamlet is known as "the town that garbage built," but it's true. the village of reduction dates back to 1910, a company town of the american reduction plant, trash processor for nearby pittsburgh. the plant closes in the '30s, but local dairy farmer john stawovy buys the whole spread in 1948 and runs the town, home to about 60 people. >> i was told i was born here, but i was too young to remember. >> walter willie klorczyk grew up in reduction in the 1950s. what was it like living here? >> well, it was country. you're exposed to all kinds of animals and bugs and stuff,

and you get used to living in the country. >> were the neighbors close? >> very close. i mean, close enough where you couldn't do anything wrong without coming home and finding out that everybody knew about it. >> for willie, reduction will always hold a little piece of childhood magic. >> there was never a streetlight here, and i remember one time we laid down and looked up at the sky, and realized there's more than just a few stars up there. >> for the next 60 years into the early 2000's, john stawovy and his wife, amelia, not only run the town, but maintain its characteristic charm. >> when the people would come to pay the rent, it was like a friend arrived. sometimes my mother would invite them in to have tea or coffee or feed them. they were all very kind to my parents. >> but when their father enters his 80s and begins to suffer from dementia, david, now a retired schoolteacher,

finds himself more involved with all the day-to-day duties. was there some point when your dad got ill and you realized you'd have to take over all of the responsibility? >> i was there with my father, helped him throughout all the years, and now, for the last five years, i had to really take care of him. >> in 2014, david's father dies of heart failure. two years later, his mom passes away. david's named executor of the estate. >> my father chose me. it's an honor that my dad thought that much of me for me to be responsible enough to take care of his family. what's in his will i will do. whether i agree with it or not, i will do what my father asked, and that's -- i feel it's an honor. >> for david, it's also an honor to keep the town running just as his parents did for more than 60 years. sounds like you're the unofficial mayor of this town. >> well, that's one of my

hats -- one of them. >> what other things do you have to do? >> sewage officer, plumber, electrician -- you know, i do it all, whatever needs done. >> do you have the expertise to do all that? >> i do probably 98% of the work myself, and my family helps, also. one of the worst things we had recently, one of the main waterlines broke in the middle of the road. >> david's not the only family member on the clock. >> since i retired, it's kind of my job now. my husband and i do the bookwork, and we make all the deposits. i do all of the leases. >> for their work, the siblings earn hourly wages. then at the end of the year, each typically receives an additional $15,000, profit from the rental income. don't you think you should be making more money for all this? >> $15,000 is not a lot of money, but it's something. i'm happy with that. >> david and his siblings are happy about something else, too -- the community that they've

helped to perpetuate. tight-knit? >> oh, yeah. >> what kind of things do they do for each other? >> well, like sometimes when they have to leave, they'll watch their children or they'll say, "pick up my child when they get off the bus till i get off work." >> kate and larry blasko have lived in reduction for two years. you came and looked at it... >> came and looked at it, and we said, "we want to rent it." >> and why not? these homes are perfect for a couple of empty-nesters. ♪ look at this kitchen, okay? i could totally make magic here. you got the sink, you got a beautiful stove, you have this huge refrigerator -- it all fits -- and if you want to have breakfast in the house? right here. you got a whole seating arrangement, storage. isn't it darling? it's such a cute house. you guys like living here? >> we love it. >> love it. >> what's the best part? >> just being alone and the wildlife and quiet. >> quiet. >> what are you missing? >> nothing. >> traffic.

>> yeah. >> missing traffic. >> it's a pretty friendly and quiet little town, but maybe not for much longer. when is the last time you got a listing for a whole town? >> never. >> what's david asking? >> here's another quiz question for you... the answer when we return. mom, dad, can we talk?

sure. what's up, son? i can't be your it guy anymore. what? you guys have xfinity. you can do this. what's a good wifi password, mom? you still have to visit us. i will. no. make that the password:

"you_stillóhave_toóvisit_us." that's a good one. seems a bit long, but okay... set a memorable wifi password with xfinity my account. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. mr. elliot, what's your wiwifi?ssword? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. hey! let's basement. [ grunting ] and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here too. so sophie, i have an xfi password. and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. >> so, what old company town has been transformed into a five-star resort? it's kohler, wisconsin. founded in 1900 on the grounds of the kohler plumbing fixture plant, the town now boasts

a hotel, water spa, and championship golf course. ♪ >> after inheriting the old company town of reduction, pennsylvania, from their parents in 2016, retired schoolteacher david stawovy and his siblings have been busy keeping the town up and running. but heavy are the heads that share the town. so as they reach retirement age, they decide to put the entire village up for sale. what was it that finally made you say, "out"? >> my wife and i want to travel. my sisters want to travel. you're tied down. you're never at peace. >> when is the last time you got a listing for a whole town? >> never. [ both laugh ] >> debbie dattalo is the listing agent. what's david asking? >> 1.5. >> 1.5...? >> million. >> is that a good price? >> i believe it's a fair price,

and everything's negotiable. >> how would you describe this property? >> it's unbelievable land, and the history of it, i think, is even more amazing. >> what do properties around here sell for? >> the market is growing, so my expectations are only going up because of the growth that will be happening in the next couple of years here. >> if the heirs get their asking price, split four ways, they'd each receive 375k. where's the value -- where we're standing right now, in these houses, in the river, the neighborhood? >> i believe it's the land. this is very difficult to find this amount of land in a parcel like this. >> other than what it is right now, what could this property become? >> i think it could be a housing development. i still have in my mind that it could be a recreational space. >> news travels fast in a small town, so it's no secret to the residents that their time

in reduction, p.a., could be dwindling away. >> makes me sad. >> i don't want to have to move. >> it's a decision the residents may be forced to make sooner than they'd like. >> i did have an offer already. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." ♪ >> david stawovy and his three siblings have just put up for sale the tiny former company town, reduction, p.a., that their family has owned and run for 70 years. while they're excited about the prospect of selling, they're uncomfortable with the thought of uprooting the town's 60 residents. >> why do you care so much? >> i just like people, that's all. i try to give them a good -- you know, it's a reasonable place to live. i try to give that to them.

>> if you did sell, where would those people go? >> well, i promised them if i sold that i would give them one year to find a place to live. >> not everybody's going to agree. they may want to take possession and tear them down immediately. >> i know, but i told them. i made a promise. i'm a man of my word. >> i don't want to have to move. >> you know that he is looking for a buyer, but only a buyer that would be willing to let people stay here for a period of time? >> yes. >> that seems pretty unusual in america. >> well, it is. >> everybody's after that buck. you're right. i give him a lot of respect for that. >> we're hoping that someone will come along and run it just the way we did and maybe even make it better. >> just a month after putting the town on the market in october 2016, david gets a call from a prospective buyer. what would they do with the property? >> there's a big mound that's a high point where you could see for miles. he wanted to build a mansion up on top of it. >> ooh. the offer comes in at $800,000, well below the $1.5 million

asking price. but the real deal-breaker for the family is that reduction would be reduced to nothing. what's it like to have a client who's a little bit hesitant to sell? >> i think my business is about emotions, and sometimes people are emotionally tied to their real estate, and i understand that. this property is still important to them, and i think that will be important when we find the right buyer to know the love that went into the houses and also the people that lived here. >> walking around reduction, i realize that while houses, roads, street signs, and water mains can put a town on the map, it's people that make it a community, like larry, kate, and willie, and all the others who've lived in these brick houses and populated the old company town with plain old good company. it's no wonder that even with big money on the table, david and his siblings

say they're determined not to let the people of reduction down. where are you going to find somebody that will buy this property and treat these people with the respect that you have? >> i hope there's somebody out there. >> what's the upside for them? >> to want to take care of people and for the love of man. ♪ >> remember how the stawovy family dairy provided the residents and workers of reduction with food and supplies? well, it turns out there was one popular farm product old grandpa valentine sold on the side -- moonshine. david tells me his gramps ran a secret still right on the farm -- even did a little time behind bars when he was caught. of course, after a long day in the garbage factory, i can understand the workers in the old company town wanting a little cocktail. i'm jamie colby.

thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> the fastest racer on earth... >> my dad was the first american to ever go over 400 miles an hour. >> ...won't let his son take the wheel. >> i wanted to beat him. >> you wanted beat your father. >> at everything. >> but when the legend meets a tragic end... >> everything changed for the thompson family. >> ...he leaves behind one heck of a challenge. >> danny, you didn't dress me up like this for nothing, did you? >> we want you to get the real feel for what it's like to sit in a 400-mile-an-hour car. put your hand here and on your other side so you can let yourself down slowly. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby on a beautiful, snowy day about 40 miles east of telluride, colorado, here to meet a man determined to set the record straight with his strange inheritance, a legendary drag-racing hot rod. >> my name is danny thompson. when my father was killed, he left me a car named "challenger 2" plus a big piece of unfinished business. >> danny, i'm jamie. >> so nice to meet you. welcome to colorado. >> inside danny's garage, i get my first look at his strange inheritance. >> this is challenger 2. this is the beast. >> oh! challenger 2, a 50-year-old supercharged, piston-powered racecar -- all i can say is... god bless america and racing, danny! kind of looks more like a spaceship than a car. >> kind of like a spaceship, trying to make it be

as aerodynamic as possible. >> the story of this racecar starts with this little traffic cop, mickey thompson, danny's dad, born in 1928 in alhambra, california, a boy who loves tools more than toys. >> he took apart the family washing machine because it had a gasoline-powered engine. >> fox sports vp erik arneson. >> he took apart his sister's roller skates to get the wheels. mickey was going to use whatever he could to make something he was playing with go faster. >> as a teen, mickey gets his hands on an old model "a," soups it up and hits 89 miles per hour. he's hooked. in 1945, 17-year-old mickey is idling at a traffic stop when he spots a blonde in the next lane. he decides to impress her with his wheels. the cute blonde is up for the challenge. >> this guy looked like he was really hot stuff. i said, "oh, okay, we'll give it a go."

light changed, and i put my foot on the pedal, and it surprised him so much that he hesitated for a second, so i naturally got ahead of him. >> she makes him eat her dust, and they become high-school sweethearts. you spent an awful lot of time with cars. >> yeah, i loved it. we used to meet at the drive-in with all these guys, and that's all they talked about, cars, not girls but cars. >> the teenagers marry in 1947. they spend their time building fast cars so mickey can set records with them, like the one he sets in his innovative slingshot dragster, 151 mph. meanwhile, in no time flat, their first kid, danny, comes along. >> danny was born right into the heart of the drag-racing part of mickey's career. >> he was my idol, racing this and doing that and inventing that. that's what my dad did. >> to pay the bills and fund his racing dream, mickey takes a part-time job

as a track manager at a drag strip in long beach. it's there that 9-year-old son danny starts entering events in quarter midget-class racing on a kids' track behind the grandstands. >> early on in life, danny looked up to his father in a way that he constantly felt like he had to prove himself to his dad. >> one day at the midget track, danny is sure he's earned dad's approval when he scores a big win. not so fast. what happened that day? >> he come running over, and i thought he was coming over to congratulate me. i won the race. i was standing there with the trophy girl. i was happy. >> but evidently there was an accident on the track, and another child injured his back, and it was announced over the pa system that danny had injured himself, and mickey came running over. >> but your dad thinks that you're the kid that got hurt? >> yep, and that feeling in his heart of me laying there hurt, that did it. he just came and said, "that's it. you're done. you're never racing again ever in your life." my dad took my car away,

sold it that night. >> he was just panic-stricken. he'd been doing racing, and he knew the dangers. >> a lot of people got killed in those days, and he just didn't want that to happen to his own son. >> but mickey is still willing to risk his own life. in fact, he's setting more and more records as a hot rodder. he breaks many of them at the bonneville salt flats, a 40-square-mile dry lake bed at the utah-nevada border. it's here that the world land-speed record is set, a blistering 394 miles an hour, john cobb, a brit. mickey is determined to beat it. >> british had the speed record on american soil, so he says, "going after that record will be my challenge," and that was the birth of challenger. >> in 1958, mickey and his best friend, mechanic fritz boyd, start brainstorming plans for a racecar with four whopping piston engines. >> so no rockets, no jet motors.

this is all piston-powered, the same kind of car that you would drive to work. they were mechanical geniuses, but they had to come up with transmissions and rear ends and fuel tanks and all of these things. this was a dream. this was a pipe dream. >> some 120 miles west of... >> finally, in 1960, mickey and challenger 1 hit the salt flats. ♪ he spits off from the starting line... then rockets through the finish at a speed of 406.6 miles per hour. >> my dad was the first american to ever go over 400 miles an hour, and he did that in 1960 in a car that he built in his garage. bonneville is what made my dad an american hero. >> but mickey's achievement comes with an asterisk. bonneville rules require two trips on the 8-mile course. official results are the average of the two speeds to account for wind resistance.

on the second race, challenger 1's engine craps out, so mickey starts again from scratch, this time spending 8 years to finance his vision of the ultimate streamliner, one with enough juice to smoke through the finish line more than once. >> the frosting on the cake was going to be challenger 2. >> mickey plans to break the land-speed record during the 1968 speed week at the bonneville flats, but a freak rainstorm turns the flats back into a lake. the event is canceled. it rained? >> it rained. >> the speed week cancellation turns into one of life's fateful detours for mickey. at the time a growing number of deadly racing accidents leads major sponsors to exit the racing world, so mickey now in his 40s, switches gears, going from the man behind the wheels to the man behind the deals.

he launches a high-performance tire company and an entertainment group that holds indoor racing shows. he and judy divorce, and in 1971, he marries 24-year-old trudy feller. as for challenger 2... >> so that car went in a trailer, and it sat in a trailer for years. >> until the day danny gets a mind-blowing call from dad offering the challenge of a lifetime. >> it took 25 years for him to say, "danny, this is your shot." the answer after the break. liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?!

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(group conversation) ♪wooooo oo waa ahhh ♪it's a beautiful mornin' thank you ♪ahhh, ah ahhh ♪each bird ♪ >> so the bonneville salt flats serve as a backdrop in which hollywood blockbuster? >> danny thompson always wanted to be like his dad, mickey, a drag-racing legend, but mickey, knowing the dangers of the sport, forbade his son from racing. until i left home, and i started racing motorcycles, and i didn't tell him. >> against dad's wishes, danny begins indy car racing, too. >> i had my own career, but not from anything he gave me.

he owned a tire company. when i needed tires, he made me buy the tires. >> in time, danny marries and has his own son, travis, but he still harbors resentment toward his father. >> i wanted to beat him. >> you wanted beat your father. >> at everything. >> then, in 1988, to danny's surprise, mickey calls his son out of the blue and offers him the chance to do just that. >> he says, "i want to run challenger 2." and he says, "i would like to have you drive it." sorry. after all of these years, the number-one thing, he comes back. he wants me to drive it. >> what changed? >> maybe he just finally got to that tipping point where the scales just rolled the other way, and he decided this was the time. >> danny and mickey set about getting the mothballed challenger 2 ready to run the bonneville salt flats. >> bonneville is a whole unique character all to itself,

so when we're talking about of salt, this is it right here. here's a chunk. >> that's the surface? >> that's the surface. now running at bonneville is the same as driving on slushy snow. that's how slippery it is. >> what does it take to run on this kind of salt? >> this was a tire that goodyear designed for my dad. as you can see, there's no tread on it. tread weighs a lot, and as it starts spinning, the centrifugal force, the tire gets bigger and bigger. these tires will grow 2 inches bigger at 400 miles an hour. >> in once race? wow. >> so a lot of really technical things that were developed just for bonneville. >> and as they prepare for the big run, danny, now 38, finds himself rebonding with his 57-year-old father. >> he'd call me at 1:00 in the morning, and he'd say, "i got this idea." he wouldn't let you sleep. >> there's another surprise call from mickey coming soon, but this one will stop danny in his tracks. >> i can't ever remember worrying about my dad. i never worried about him coming home.

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♪ >> it's "a," when in 1954, pontiac introduced the bonneville special. >> danny thompson's childhood dream is coming true, a chance to get behind the wheel of his dad, mickey thompson's, prized racecar. >> my dad and i were going to do this

as a father-son project. here we are, team thompson. >> then danny receives a frightening call from mickey. he warns him to be extra careful and watch over his wife, valerie, and his newborn son, . . dispute with a former business partner named michael f. goodwin. >> michael goodwin's way of doing business was very different than mickey's way of doing business. lawsuits went back and forth, and the more that mickey won, the more michael got upset. >> what did he say? >> travis had just been born, and he told me i needed to watch valerie and travis very closely. and when my dad said that, i paid attention because my dad was not afraid of anything. >> on march 16, 1988, in l.a. just around dawn, mickey thompson is walking to his car with his wife, trudy, when two men on bicycles approach. >> they had trudy out of the car in the front of the driveway and executed her, and then they went up,

and they shot mickey multiple times. mickey and trudy die on the scene. that morning, danny gets a call telling him to head to his dad's house right away. >> police were already there doing the investigation, so his dad just kind of laid in the driveway. his hero, the man that he saw as unbeatable, undefeatable, that changed everything for him that day. >> how could somebody that's invincible be gone? >> police believe michael goodwin contracted the hit in an act of revenge, but it takes more than a decade to arrest him. >> michael goodwin stood as jurors walked into the pasadena courtroom. >> goodwin is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. >> it was 18 years till they finally put the guy in jail. >> by this time, danny has retired from racing, thrown everything into storage, and moved here to colorado. as the years click by, you'd think challenger 2 would become just a relic of racing's past. instead, it's a nagging piece of unfinished business

for danny thompson. do you hear your dad in your head? >> yeah, he'd be wanting to kick my buttif i didn't do i, if i didn't get it done. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪livin in this crazy world ♪so caught up in the confusion♪ ♪nothin' is makin' sense ♪for me and you ♪we've got to give a little love♪ ♪have a little hope ♪make this world a little better♪

♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> when danny thompson's father, racing legend mickey thompson, is gunned down in 1988, danny inherits dad's stable of racecars, including one they hoped would set the land-speed record, challenger 2. >> when my dad died, it all went away. so the car went back in the trailer. i didn't want to do it without him. >> but by 2010, danny is nearly as old as his dad was when he was murdered, and he's starting to look at things a little differently. he wants back in. >> i always wanted to go to indianapolis and be an indianapolis car driver, and i didn't make it,

and the bonneville thing has always been in the back of my mind. >> the "bonneville thing," a quest that began at the salt flats in 1960, when mickey drove 406.6 miles per hour, the record at the time for a piston-engine vehicle, if only that vehicle, challenger 1, had not broken down during the required second run. since then, a few, but only a few, racers have beaten his dad's mark. that's why, says danny, on the 50th anniversary of mickey's historic feat, he pulls challenger 2 from storage to see if he can get it in shape to officially enshrine a thompson in the 400-mile-per-hour club. >> there's only been 12 people in history to go over 400 miles an hour with a piston-powered car, so this is a pretty elite group that i'm getting in step with. >> the first crew members danny recruits -- his 31-year-old son, travis,

and his wife, valerie. >> i think finally he just decided, "you know what? i can't not do this." >> there's a lot of similarities between my grandfather and my dad -- the drive, the determination and just a love of going fast. it's almost genetic. >> travis signs on sponsors to help foot the bills, but the lion's share comes from danny and valerie's own savings. >> everything we have -- and, valerie, i love you for this -- is in that car. >> nobody believed that he could really do this. as the time passed, he found individuals to help him complete this car, the best people that anyone could ever ask for. >> finally, after 6 years, in 2016, challenger 2 is ready to race. danny, who's now pushing 70, and his 50-year-old challenger will need to be in top performance mode.

>> so what have you done to your dad's challenger 2, the one that you believe will get you that record? >> so the body shape and all that is almost the same except for 32 inches added to the back. two engines still, but now we're making 5,500 horsepower. >> that's legal? >> it's heaven! i'm a 5,500-horsepower sandwich! >> it's an extra tight squeeze when you have to dress like the michelin tire man. >> we want you to get the real feel for what it's like to sit in a 400-mile-an-hour car. >> okay, the moment of truth -- can i fit in that teeny, tiny space? >> first thing, steering wheel is coming off. >> uh-huh. >> next thing is, put a leg all the way over and into the seat. there you go. put your hand here and on your other side so you can let yourself down slowly. >> so i'm fitting. i'm fitting. >> you got it. >> i did! there were doubters among the crew that thought i couldn't do this. >> you don't have much room

between your head right there. now imagine having a helmet on, a hans device, and gloves on. >> you know what i wish i had on? a blood-pressure cuff because my heart is racing. i can only imagine the thrill that you have at the start of that race. >> august 14th, 2016, the weather at the bonneville salt flats clear and dry, 97 degrees. ♪ as danny rockets across the desert floor, he's hoping to break the current land-speed record in a piston-powered vehicle, 437 miles an hour. but is his 50-year-old strange inheritance up to the bonneville challenge? >> wow, look at it go. >> he clocks in at 411 miles

an hour, good enough to join that 400 club if, per racing rules, he can do it again tomorrow. but remember, it's the second run that foiled his father. danny is back the next day. anything less than 392 miles per hour will be disaster. he'll fall short of a 400 mph average. and to beat his dad's mark, he's got to hit 402 or better. there he goes. his official average time, 406.7 miles per hour. that tops his dad by just a hair. >> after 60 years, we beat him by one-tenth of one mile an hour. that was one of the most fulfilling days of my life, bar none. >> but it still doesn't quench the need for speed

danny inherited from his dad. he tells me he'll keep hauling challenger 2 back to bonneville until the world record is officially his. >> how many more years of racing you have? >> what, is my wife back there? >> in his heart, you know, he's a racer. that desire and that passion to always go faster is always going to be there. >> danny swears the utah salt flats are heaven to him, but not so much during the 2010 bonneville world finals. he's driving this souped-up beauty, at the time the fastest mustang ever, 260 miles an hour. the mustang flies out of control. i mean, really flies. it lifts off the sand, flips end over end in the air for 1,100 feet, and tumbles back to earth. danny emerges unscathed thanks to the racecar's awesome safety features. just a day in the life of a hot rodder.

i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. help! get me out! i'm stuck. >> all of these changes have happening because america is being respected again. [cheers and applause] >> and breaking news this morning, president trump taking victory lap last night after he announces details of summit meeting with north korea's leader. cheryl: and it's going to be another busy day at the white house today, the president set to announce a new plan to lower drug prices, and also going to meet with auto ceo's to discussing rolling back obama era emission standards. >> stocks got a big lift yesterday, back to end of year