as i looked back over the flack i got from the race forum boys, i noticed 1 item that i forgot 2 comment on(i think). somebody pointed out my obvious lack of intelligence, indicated by my sacreligious use of a '68 bird for dirt racin. well, as i pointed out in my story, i did not convert the car 2 dirt racin. i bought(or inherited) it after it had won many races & made lots of chevy boys mad, 2 the point, as i mentioned, that they protested his use of a second rad behind the seat, which caused him 2 stop runnin that track. so, when i got it, it was a veteran of many sat nite dirt battles against the chevy boys. i've mentioned this, but its hard for younger folks today 2 realize how thangs were back then. nowdays, almost any scrap of usable metal off an early bird is considered almost precious metal. but back then, they were just old wore out, rusty, beat up cars that nobody(except me) wanted. the most i ever remember givin for 1 was $350 for the very 1st 1 i bought 2 build TJ's 1st racer with. after that, the price was $300 for a runnin 400/th400 & less for those not runnin or less motor/trans. so, i wound up with an early bird junkyard. sure wish now id'a took some pics of it. but at the time, who wanted pics of a bunch of old junk cars? i ask TJ 2 look thru some of our old pet scrapbooks--we may have a few pics with glimpses of a junker or 2 in the background. mb's 2nd dirt car was a 2nd gen. he'd found out from the chevy boys that the suspension on a 2nd gen was much better suited for dirt racin than a 1st gen. this is the car he won 3 point titles in. i'll show the pics again. these old 2nd gens were just as cheap as the early birds, so i stacked em up in my yard as fast as i could. we raced em, sold em & used em fur parts--nobody cared. i had so many birds settin around that when i sold "oogene" the '68 i have now, he said i gave him a couple of '68 parts cars 2 go with it in case he needed em 2 help get his car on the track. i know a man that bought a super nice '68 a few years back. it was very streetable & ran 12's in the 1/4. but he cut it up & had it backhalfed. i think its been in the 10's & goin lower. i personally, nowdays, would not consider cuttin up a '68 that nice, but people still do it. i suppose, 2 some extent, history repeats itself in every generation. whats trash 2 some is treasure 2 others.
ps: 1 more thought on the '68 dirtbird. i put a 428 out of a drag goat i bought, in the bird. it won its 1st heat race, easily whuppin all the chevys. but it apparently blew a seal in the mallory dual point dist that was in it & got oil in the cap, which as you can imagine, caused a significant misfire & smoke(which i thank you can see in the last pic), resulting in a poor finish in the feature.