Powerblock Magazine Petty 'bird Article

[nitrometal]

Hey, have you guys seen this?

http://www.powerblocktv.com/magazine/?pub=2756b02d&page=1

Doug, didn't you say that when you saw it at the Amelia Island Concourse Show that it was obviously a later model race chassis?

[68X426]

Great post! Thank you for sharing.

[Aero426]

I did see the car at the show.  It is the car Hugh Hawthorne owns that he got from Richard about 1977.  He traded Richard a bulldozer and a backhoe for it.  It's been in his house ever since.    It is virtually identical to the trophy room Superbird, which has some construction features more consistent with a mid 70's built car.   Neither car matches period photos of the Petty Superbirds,  particularly in the underhood area where there are some major differences.    

Steve Hmiel who before he was a famous NASCAR crew chief, started as a fabricator at PE in 1975.    He recently remembered rebuilding the car for Hawthorne with Richie Barsz, about 1977.    He recalls it was a car from "out back" that they did some frame straightening to by sticking a long pipe in the frame rails for leverage, sent to the sandblaster, and built up back into a Bird.   Steve says Hugh has told the boys at PE that he has a photo of the car being worked on with most of the sheet metal cut off, but with Bird back window, but that photo has not been shared.   There was some conversation that it might have been the Darlington Road Runner wreck, of which there are pics of sitting out back.  But Steve says Dale Inman told him he had the Darlington car eventually hauled off.    This is all recent conversation.    What Steve described in the repair process is not consistent to me with the heavy damage the Darlington car had.   I certainly believe what Steve says about rebuilding a car, but which one?  Was it a Bird, a short track car, or a Bird that was converted to a short track car and wrecked later?    It really isn't clear.    Steve says that he and Richie Barsz had to rebuild both the bulldozer and backhoe they got from Hugh.  So I'd say that Hugh got the better of the deal.

After 1970,  the Hamilton Superbird was reportedly sold to Herschel McGriff out west where it went back as a Road Runner and raced on (per quote in Stock Car Racing).     One other Petty Superbird went to Norm Nelson in the midwest.  It no longer exists.       Was there a third Petty Bird?  I don't know.   One thing that is for sure, is that by the summer of 1972, Petty did not have any raceable Superbirds just laying around.    At the '72 USAC vs NASCAR Pocono race, Petty ran a 72 Road Runner against unrestricted USAC Superbirds and was quoted in Autoweek as, "I wish I had a wing car.  I just couldn't find one."  

There are some pics I saw recently on Flickr from 1972 at the PE shop.  He did have a 70 Road Runner short track car sitting there in the shop.   It's possible one of these cars wound up as a reconstituted Superbird later on.  

Another car that reportedly will be emerging soon from the Petty shop is the Hamilton Superbird (documentation prior to rebuild has not been revealed) .   I understand that the Hawthorne car is there being used for reference

[nitrometal]

More of the good stuff.  Thanks again, Doug!   

[tan top]

good reading  guys ! thanks for posting  this 

[nascarxx29]

  Good story

[flash]

Was the Superbird that went to Norm Nelson the one Richard Petty drove
in 1970??

[Aero426]

Was the Superbird that went to Norm Nelson the one Richard Petty drove
in 1970??

Yes, it was a genuine Petty Enterprises Bird, that is for sure.      The story is that Norm was doing some brake testing at Milwaukee in June of '71, and jumped in the Superbird that Roger normally drove for him.   (Norm usually drove the standard Road Runner.)      Norm felt there was a handling difference in the Superbird, even on the mile track.   They got on the phone to Ronney Householder (The Boss at Chrysler) who got the leftover Petty Bird shipped north.  

The photo is from 1972 at Pocono.    Norm was out with back surgery and had Wally Dallenbach drive the car. 

[hotrod98]

I would love to see that car sitting next to an original street bird just to see how many radical body mods had been made. Even the quarters look completely different as if they had been sectioned.

[Aero426]

One of the few things that might be left from Norm's ex-Petty car is the center grille and frame.     If you compare this to the Meet Richard Petty record album cover, it's similar.    I painted the outer frame 30 years ago, but the fine mesh has the original blue on the back side.   The larger expanded metal has some chips of blue residue among the rust.

[nascarxx29]

Just ran across this on youtube Norm Nelson superbird taking a hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldwPsI5-VqI

On another note I think I have the magazine petty builds early superbird.Mentioned here from another board

The 70 Road Runner that Richard wrecked at Darlington was a Nichels car, for sure. As mentioned, they were under the gun coming back from Ford with no Chrysler inventory on hand. They had their hands full building a couple of Superbirds in Level Cross.

If you look at the "Stock Cars '70" magazine, the article on "How we build stock cars" at will show at least one Superbird being built at Petty Enterprises. I don't have the issue at hand to refer to it and post it, but it shows a Bird fairly early on in the build. Maybe someone else has it and can post it up.

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Aero426



Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 692

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 4:09 am    Post subject:   

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One of the Petty Superbirds went to Norm Nelson in USAC in 1971. Many years ago, my father bought a parcel of parts that included the lower grille frame and screen from the car. I repainted the outer frame, but the expanded metal and fine screen behind it still have some remnants of the original Petty Blue. You can see it is similar in style to the one in the pit stop, or on the Meet Richard Petty album. 

[nascarxx29]

Dug out the meet Richard Petty album.To see the superbird nose screen material.Which also looks similar to the nose screen material used for the 69 white mock up daytona


Mock up daytona screen material image