Wanted:pics of pete hamilton's superbird

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

any pics wanted -Matt

[Magnumcharger]

Hows this?

[Charger_Fan]

 

[nitrometal]

Here's some I have, Matt.

[70charger_boy]

Wanted: pics of 72 Roadrunner

[wingcar builder]

which 72' roadrunner? do you mean the one he drove (#6) for Cotton owens? ~ WcB

[70charger_boy]

which 72' roadrunner? do you mean the one he drove (#6) for Cotton owens? ~ WcB

no this roadrunner
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,30519.msg334830.html#msg334830

[nascarxx29]

[nascarxx29]

I got another intersting tidbit on Pete but no picture just a old newspaper headline.He had to report to court in Camden NJ over some military dispute

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

sweet thnx dave

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

oh and magnum i was speaking about more like a 5 minute job on paint

[Ghoste]

Did Petty supply him with two different cars or just one and it got the red identifier repainted at some point?

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

what color blue are those rims?

[Aero426]

Did Petty supply him with two different cars or just one and it got the red identifier repainted at some point?

They only started the season with two Birds, one for Pete and one for Richard.    Coming back to Chrysler from Ford they were starting from scratch and were a bit under the gun.    The Birds were built at Pettys.  The short track Road Runner that Richard wrecked at Darlington came from Nichels because of the time crunch.    My feeling is there was at least one more Superbird added during the course of the season due to wrecks, attrition, etc.   

[Ghoste]

Oh wow, thanks Doug.  I never knew Petty himself started the season off with only one car.  I had always assumed that it being Richard Petty and all, that Plymouth would just naturally give him lots of everything.

[nitrometal]

what color blue are those rims?

Yeah, I've wondered about that darker blue that both teams used.  Does anybody out there have any info on why they ran that color?

[Ghoste]

Wasn't it just to break things up a little bit?

[wingcar builder]

Doug, was the Gurney car actually a Hamilton car? I can't find much info on this car at all. thanks ~ WcB

[Aero426]

Doug, was the Gurney car actually a Hamilton car? I can't find much info on this car at all. thanks ~ WcB

I don't think so.  There are pics of the Gurney car at Nichels in early winter '69.    You can see the dark outer wing and the white rear stripe.  I've been told that the Gurney car was, or went on to become the Engineering Superbird, which was used nowhere near like the 88 car was.   I think it was George Wallace that told me this.    You are right, there is not much info about this car. 

The tough thing is that there are some chassis records what went where on the Ford side, but virtually nothing on the Chrysler side.   I've been told there was nothing left of that nature in Griffith, Highland or anywhere else.  Sure would be nice to know.    When you look at the archival material that is there,  the Ford documents are a lot of managerial and budget stuff, versus the Mopar paperwork being very much oriented towards performance testing and engineering.   Both of course are very interesting. 

[Ghoste]

It's interesting too as it compares the management styles of the two companies, at least as regards their performance efforts.  Trivially interesting maybe, but still fun to compare.

[wingcar builder]

Doug, the one thing i'm interested in seeing is the 1-to-1 scale blueprints for the Nichels' chassis on rolls Terry said he's not sure where they are but he was going to look for them! Also, if you have that pic of the Gurney Superbird in Nichels can you email that to me please? thru here or our other forum? Thanks Doug!   ~ WcB

[Chad L. Magee]

I think I can do better than just a picture......

[Chad L. Magee]

Another article (his car is on the third page)....

[Aero426]

Doug, the one thing i'm interested in seeing is the 1-to-1 scale blueprints for the Nichels' chassis on rolls Terry said he's not sure where they are but he was going to look for them! Also, if you have that pic of the Gurney Superbird in Nichels can you email that to me please? thru here or our other forum? Thanks Doug!   ~ WcB

I will dig for the pic.

Harold Tarter in California had a set of prints, but I am not sure exactly for what year.   He showed them at our meet at Indy in 2002.

[Chad L. Magee]

I literally hit the magazine jackpot this weekend.  I bought a hundred Stock Car Racing issues (including Vol. #1, Issue #1) along with a few other NASCAR racing books.  As soon as I can go through all of them, I will post any pete hamilton superbird articles that I find.........