[thews]

Found this:
http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums...itch-firebird/

Fitch Firebird 400 and Sprint (1967) (John Fitch was the first SCCA national champion driver. GM hired him to run a factory Corvette race team at Sebring in 56 and or 57. After that he started John Fitch & Co. in Falls Villiage CT, his big thing was making modified Corvairs called Sprints. They were availiable throught certain Chevy dealers, similiar to Yenko's. He also tweaked other cars such as a 67 Olds, some VW's. He later became involed in automotive safety barriers. Fitch knew John DeLorean who was running Pontiac in 1967, and DeLorean sent Fitch 1 400ci Firebird and 1 OHC 6 cylinder with a four barrel (Pontiac Sprint engine) to play around with as an engineering exercise. When he was done with the 2 cars they where brought back to Pontiac for the evaluation and also to Lime Rock race track in CT. The Fitch cars ran back to back tests with Pontiac engineering dept cars called PFST. At the end of the tests Fitch felt his car was better suited for everyday street driving while the Pontiac PFST wasn't real a street car, more of a race car. My understanding is Pontiac never backed the Fitch car program other than send Fitch the first 2 cars, and Fitch busy with his other projects at the time, never really marketed them other than a few magazine road tests. Fitch doesn't remember how many cars he made in the end, it seem to be around 6-8 cars, all 400ci engines except the 1 OHC Sprint. The Sprint car had factory options of rally gages, console, tilt, wood wheel, deluxe interior, 4 speed, am/fm, hood tach, rally wheels, tinted glass, power disc brakes, and radial tires (actual option on Firebirds in 67). For Fitch mods there's Koni Front shocks, Lucas Flame thrower driving light, mesh in front of the light/grill, adjusted caster, rubber bumpers on the shaft of the front shocks (to change spring rate), re-valved steering and brakes, headlight flasher switch, one time wiper switch, light monitoring panel, leather steering wheel cover, Judson coil, dual exhaust, and the fins an the quater panels (they were to cooling the brakes and let air into the interior but never developed). Also for the 6 cylinder car Fitch want to supercharge it, but never actually developed it. A fitch opted car would sell for about $1000 more than the sticker price on a car. Fiberglass fins are designed to scoop air into interior of car for fresh air supply with all windows closed. Fins also provide easy identification of Fitch-Bird, as opposed to standard Firebird, and were definitely eye-catching. The Fitch-Birds were distinguishable from standard by a wire mesh grille and headlight cover at the front, and Butress-Back tops, trademarks that have distinguished Fitch's recent design efforts. On the test car, the built-in air vents in the Buttresses were non-functional. Fitch estimates cost of the Fitch Firebirds, complete with modifications, at approximately $1000 above the price of a well-equipped standard Firebird Sprint or Firebird 400, depending upon model desired.)