[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Boy it has been a while since I have visited this forum. With so many things going on this summer I only brought the Black bird out of the garage twice.
It would have come out more often if the weather had cooperated. Our usual Woodward Dream Cruise Tuesday gathering was rained out. The official Dream Cruise day, Saturday, had a storm coming in early afternoon. Ever try driving several miles on slicks on wet roads? Only my GTO came out that day.
It was unfortunate that I did not have the Black Bird parked in Birmingham that day. I had two very surprising guests hunt me down to see the Bird. It was Mike Kneiper the original owner of the 'Bird and his brother Pat. I invited to come back to the house to see and sign the car. Unfortunately they were both flying back to their respective homes.
Mike lives in Florida and Pat in Texas.
History is that Mike ordered my car in November 1967 and when deieverd the engine was immediately removed and a stronger one in stalled. Pat had also ordered a 1968 Firebird but his was ordered in March/April 1968 and came as a Ram Air II. All Kneiper Firebirds, Tony's '67, Mike's '68 and Pat's '68 1/2 were column shift automatic Ram Air cars.
In late '70 Mike thought he was selling the Black Bird to his friend John Polizter (Jim Wangers' street racer). Mike was surprised that it ended up with Jim Wangers.
John had fronted for Jim so that he price would not go up.

I was suprised to find the Black Bird in a fairly new automotive magazine, "STREET ROD LIFE" fall 2016 Vol. 2 NO.3. I have copied the cover and page for you. Trouble getting the cove loaded. But you can also go through the magazine on lin. Find the site, StreetRodLife.com. Click on the magazine cover. Then you can flip the pages. The Black Bird is on page 61.
Have a great day.