[SuddenDeath]

Eric,

Here is that photo you mentioned/asked for me to post.

Showing Joe's car under construction in the summer of 1975. Note the entire front clip, doors are removed. The doors are leaning against the wall behind the car, along with a pair of slicks I assume belong to it. One of the best pieces of history I've found on this car. Wish I could read the chalk board! That is Wayne Gapp at far right.

[SuddenDeath]

Joe's car, while appearing more race than street, the car really was a mild setup in both engine and chassis compared to others out there at the time and even before in some ways.

The car had nothing more than factory stock front suspension complete with stock shocks and sway bar. The rear, while it did have new frame rails, was nothing more than leaf springs moved in with lakewood slapper bars. No ladder bars, no 4 link, no trick parts, no roll cage, no harnesses.

The rear gear was a factory Ford 4.30 tractionlok with strange axles. The body retained all of its factory sheetmetal, glass, trim. They even modified and used the stock factory gas tank.

Early on the engine was mild by comparison to most even then...a bored/stroked 460 with factory 429 Cobra Jet heads, good pistons, a dual plane intake with a single 4 bbl carb. The camshaft was a solid roller at only .560/.590 lift. No tunnel ram, dual carbs, or aluminum heads. Trans is a beefed up factory C6 automatic.

To me the most amazing thing about its setup is the severe engine setback which was nothing short of incredible. I still can't believe the amount of work it took to do that. It also has (to me) a very unique stance.

Definitely one of a kind customer car to come out of the Gapp & Roush shop. I'm still amazed it exists.

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Tom,
Great of you to step in. Could you post some of those great pictures of your car that you sent me? Please include the one you have with the car sitting at Gapp/Roush. It is great stuff.

Also, back then your car was supper trick. No early street racer was thinking about setting the engine back for 50/50 balance. Or for better traction. That was left to the "Big" guys running SS, altered and FX. Or cheating in Stock classes.

Your Mustang was well balanced for a short wheel base car with all that weight up front. it need to have transfer. Tubbing a car was a sledge hammer to the inner wheel well and a pair of pliers to curl the lip of the quarter panels wheel well up and out of the way. So wider tires could fit in there.

In the case of the Bullett Addison's body man used an baseball bat and heat to stretch the quarter panels wheel wells outward. Some real high tech stuff back then!? LOL

The Black Bird and Bullett where just light cars with horsepower trying to get the tries to bite with sticky tires and VHT type compounds. Suspensions where simple; loosened up front and stiffen the rear with the help of a snubber. airbags or traction bars. 50/50 rear and 90/10 front shocks.
Stay warm.

[SuddenDeath]

Hi Eric!

I posted some pics last night, including the one in the Gapp & Roush shop...all are awaiting moderator approval.

[Dr HEMI]

Here's the Gapp & Roush photo.

Dozens (hundreds?) of cool photos of Tom's project here.

If you are the envious type, don't look.

http://www.motownmuscle.com/forums/s...ghlight=sudden

[Don 79 TA]

wow
seeing some of these old photos and reading the stories is just awesome
makes you realize how wonderful it must have been to experience those times
that mustangII had to be such a blast to drive back then

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Tom,
The Mustang II never looked this good when Joe first rolled the car out back in the day!
Congratulations on having Dennis Gage notice the car at the NPD show. I'll be looking for the episode.
Is that a Michigan plate on the back of the car?

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

A continuation email from Lorin Budzinski. I am using Lorin for the source at this point because in this point of my life I now had little time for street racing from late 1974 early 75 onward. I had stopped fooling around and got my butt in gear and finished my classes at the University of Michigan then moved to St. Louis for professional school. I did not move back until Sept. 1979. Even though I had a Golden Rod Yellow 1976 T/A 455 4 speed, (dog) with minor mods I was too busy with my practice to go racing.

As a side note; Jim Wangers and his drivers knew how to take care of "Pure Race Cars". They would would take them on a long drive to have the plugs load up then run them or the cars would over heat. On Woodward they would wait to run these guys that had been "Crusing" looking for a race all night. Then Wangers' et. al would come out late in the evening with a fresh car and run them.
This was done years later in the "Fastest Street Car Shoot Outs". Force the participants to drive several miles to weed out the pure race cars before hitting he track.

Here is the email from Lorin:

Eric

The fact that the car was well executed cannot be denied. When I said that it was a street driven race car, I was referring to the fact that the car was

well prepared for racing, but it was street driven. In this time frame it was not unusual for someone to bolt a set of header mufflers on their race car,
trailer it to a spot near meeting place and drive the last little bit so that they could claim to a have street car.

That was how I remembered the car. When it was first brought out, we all felt that the press coverage was more tied to the fact that Roush was involved than the car being a real fire breather. That is why I made the comment about Roush not realizing the degree of sophistication that street racing had attained. We felt that the Mustang would have been a good race for the 11 flat Shelby, but not a "take on all comers" street car. I brought this up when I was told that the car later beat Addison. The conclusion is that something happened. Either Addison's car was sick, or the Mustang got a lot faster (or they never raced and my unimpeachable source was mistaken).
As far as the roll bar is concerned, a glance at the pictures show at least a 6 point roll bar which was good enough for nine second cars at that time. As for the leaf spring and slapper bars, Bill Jenkins used that arrangement until he was way into the 9 second range. There would be no reason to modify the front end, the Mustang II front end is still being used in race cars today and would have been good back then. The chassis set up is mild by today' s standards, but was quite serious for its time.
Most of the problems documenting the performance of the car comes from the fact that, after the big splash when it was introduced, it maintained a low profile. Very few of the regulars that I have talked to ever saw it on the street or on the track.

[Dr HEMI]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

I can't believe nobody's talked Lane Automotive into building a 1/18 of that 'Bird......They have the mold.

They have now! Acme is using the LANE Automotive mold to create the Blackbird.

[Dr HEMI]

[brut4s]

Very cool!!!

[Greg Reid]

Definitely very cool!

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

Hi Guys,

As you can see a lot has been going on with the Black Bird. The release of the diecast by ACME Trader will be coordinated with an article by Barry Kluzyck in "Muscle Car Review". Both should be coming out in November.

The diecast and box are still being worked on. I set in a sample of the hood stripe that is a better match. The box has it a goldish the cars is a tangerine pearl metallic.

Unfortunately, Jim Wangers and ACME could not come to an agreement so Jim's name does not appear on the box. So make sure you buy the magazine to go with the car.

We shot the car Labor Day Weekend. I brought John "Cheater" Politzer in the Black Bird and met Brian Ballish and Barry on Woodward and Long Lake Rd. The meeting took place across the street from Jim Wangers' old ad agency McMannis, John and Adams office. Later DMBB.

As you may remember Brian built the car with help coming from Tom Nell with an advance cam designed ground by General Kinetics and lots of support from PMD engineering. The Ram Air IV heads that where sent to Butch Elkin at Diamond to do along with the PMD Trans Am groups heads they where trying for the 303 blocks.

John "Cheater" was the Mystery tiger as part of 1966 Geeto Tiger program taking on all comers. Also the subject of Brock Yates' "Car and Driver" article, "Street Racing" that appeared in the Sept. 1967 issue. He was also Royal Pontiac's number one driver.

No matter how hard I tried, I could NOT convince John to slide behind the wheel of the Black Bird with Brain ridding shot gun down Woodward.

But Brian jumped or should I say dove into the passenger seat while I offered him a ride foe the shot. John instead choose to drive the camera car and toy with us and... irritate to photographer. LOL

The stories where a lot of fun. I'm not sure what will be published. I'll give you this one story:

I can't remember his first name but, Zubor had a strong Mopar that he kept challenging the Black Bird. He would spend a lot of money to have Ted Spehar and Tom Hoover work on his car. He'd tell Brian what he was doing in hopes that Brian would tell him what was new. Brian would just say he had the porter washing the car.

Once Brian heard what Zubor was doing. Brian would modify the Black Bird a little more. Zubor never did beat the Black bird.

Brian even worked on mixtures of fuels for the car. He once called Dow Chemical. They asked Brian how many tankers did he need. Brian said he only needed a sample. They said we only give free samples in 55 gal. Brian said, well OK ship it.

There was a lot of laughs. I'm not going to spoil it.

Oh, by the way Lane was prepared to do the car several years ago but they had financial problems. As you know they are no longer around.

I hope you enjoy both the diecast and the article.

[Keith Seymore]

Eric - here are the photos you forwarded from the photo shoot on Woodward.

K

[Tenney]

Too cool, Eric!! Are you bringing the Blackbird to MCACN this year?

And will that legendary Royal '65 be making a return trip, Keith?!

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Tenny,

I'm not a show guy. I'll attend them. But not display anymore.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Tenney

Too cool, Eric!! Are you bringing the Blackbird to MCACN this year?

And will that legendary Royal '65 be making a return trip, Keith?!

Haven't seen an invitation yet

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Haven't seen an invitation yet

Keith,

Bob Ashton is looking for 1964 GTO's. I worked with him at "Eyes on Design". He gave me an invite for the '64 GTO I had there but not for my '68.

You may want to contact Bob directly.

[Dr HEMI]

Where to pre-order the 1/18 Blackbird:

http://www.acmediecast.com/products/...ac%20Firebirds

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Just want to give you an update on the diecast.

ACME has corrected the air cleaner to a black lid and added the Ram Air foam seal. Tow hooks have been added like on the "real" car.

The accent paint is being changed closer to Tangarine metallic pearl rather gold shade on the sample box.

Traction bars have also been added to the rear.

I have been told they have had a lot of interest and advance orders for the car.

Wow....I would never have dreamed the car was that well known nationally.

I'm waiting to proof read the "Muscle Car Review" article.

You may learn more about the secrets surrounding this car. LOL