Quote:
Originally Posted by Wareagle
Eric is there any Video for the Blackbird - tried to search youtube etc. this is a great pic  |
Sorry, but I do not know of any video of the Black Bird.
But back in July, just before the Concourse d' Elegance of American here in Detroit I did a video and photo shoot with several people from Hagerty Ins and Scott Oldham.
Hagerty Ins, for their magazine and on line video, wanted to use my '68 GTO convertible Royal Bobcat 428 for a future feature story about three high performance dealerships. Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac, Mr. Norm's Dodge and Don Yenko's Chevrolet.
They used my 1968 verdoro green black top 428 GTO convertible for the Royal Pontiac example. A black 1968 Dodge Dart GSS 440 for Mr. Norms' and a yellow and black 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SC 427.
I brought Royal Pontiac's John "Cheater"/ Mystery Tiger Politzer along for the shoot. We spent the whole day in the City of Pontiac and at M1 Concourse.
Scott Oldham is the late Joe Oldham's son. Joe was best known as an automotive writer for "Cars" magazine. Joe had purchased a new 1969 Chevy Camaro from Baldwin Motion. He did a feature on it and soon after it was stolen. When Joe became ill a few years ago he and Scott replicated that car making a few changes to it. No hood tac and built this one as a 4 speed car.
Scott couldn't understand why Hagerty wanted my GTO and not the Black Bird. I could not answer that question. But to see the young film crew with their preconceived image of Woodward Ave that we raced on in the '60's is to understand. They pictured the Woodward that passed through the Oakland County suburban area as a dirty factory town. NEVER WAS. They positioned our cars near some railroad tracks by some old building.
Oakland County has been one of the wealthiest counties in the country.....Lets just call it Hollywoods image is WAY off.
I do have to tell you my GTO ran flawlessly while the other two cars had some real issues. One kept over heating and the other kept stalling and it's battery went dead. Funny too. The other owners kept asking me what I had under the hood. They wouldn't believe that it was just a 428 HO with a 744 cam. I do have to say both John Politzer did like the two other cars which where both recent frame off restorations. My car was done in 1986! Their cars did not sound very strong. Just nice cruisers.
Scott wanted to drive each car around the M1 Concourse. When it came to driving my GTO I insisted we pull out to Woodward Ave and I showed him how to launch the car on the street and use the Dual Gate. To say he was shocked and excited by the GTO was an under statement.
After the drive Scott asked me where Ted's Drive In was in relationship to where we are. I said you had just done the turn around in the GTO at the Square Lake Rd intersection where Ted's once stood.
I hope he enjoyed the ride!
Hopefully, Hagerty does post the Video and the article and not just shelve it.
I have not seen the video or any of the pictures of the shoot. But I did take a few of my own. I'll post them when I have a chance.