[Dr HEMI]

I see the Blackbird is represented in this poster available from the Harold Sullivan site.

http://www.silverbulletgtx.com/store/merch.html

[ANDYA]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

I see the Blackbird is represented in this poster available from the Harold Sullivan site.

http://www.silverbulletgtx.com/store/merch.html

It's funny how of all the cars that the Silver Bullet raced against it's shown right next to the Blackbird (without the gold stripe) in the poster. BTW it is a very nice painting, I might just order one!

[Dr HEMI]

I can't believe nobody's talked Lane Automotive into building
a 1/18 of that 'Bird......They have the mold.

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

I can't believe nobody's talked Lane Automotive into building
a 1/18 of that 'Bird......They have the mold.

Jim Wangers a few years ago must have had a conversation with them and it must not have turned out well. Lane had introduced the '67 Tin Indian Firebird race car and some soild color ones also. I think they even had a soild black. I remember it was at Norwalk. There was a display of their cars and Jim told me to keep an eye out and see if they come out with the Black Bird. He wanted to make sure they had contracted with me for royalites.

So, I think the thought of having to pay a few pennies per car to GM, Jim Wangers and me scared them off.

I do have a sh-- load of ERTL Geeto tigers and selection of '69 Bobcats and '66 Bobcats. This is because I held some Trade Marks. So I got several die casts of each model plus a royality. I must have ended up with over 250 ERTL die cast. I have them stored away. I have a few from the now defunct Classic Metal Works.

It was more trouble and lawyer fees then it was worth going after frauds.

[Dr HEMI]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

I can't believe nobody's talked Lane Automotive into building a 1/18 of that 'Bird......They have the mold.

They have now! Acme is using the LANE Automotive mold to create the Blackbird.

[Dr HEMI]

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Originally Posted by Dr HEMI

Hi Guys,

As you can see a lot has been going on with the Black Bird. The release of the diecast by ACME Trader will be coordinated with an article by Barry Kluzyck in "Muscle Car Review". Both should be coming out in November.

The diecast and box are still being worked on. I set in a sample of the hood stripe that is a better match. The box has it a goldish the cars is a tangerine pearl metallic.

Unfortunately, Jim Wangers and ACME could not come to an agreement so Jim's name does not appear on the box. So make sure you buy the magazine to go with the car.

We shot the car Labor Day Weekend. I brought John "Cheater" Politzer in the Black Bird and met Brian Ballish and Barry on Woodward and Long Lake Rd. The meeting took place across the street from Jim Wangers' old ad agency McMannis, John and Adams office. Later DMBB.

As you may remember Brian built the car with help coming from Tom Nell with an advance cam designed ground by General Kinetics and lots of support from PMD engineering. The Ram Air IV heads that where sent to Butch Elkin at Diamond to do along with the PMD Trans Am groups heads they where trying for the 303 blocks.

John "Cheater" was the Mystery tiger as part of 1966 Geeto Tiger program taking on all comers. Also the subject of Brock Yates' "Car and Driver" article, "Street Racing" that appeared in the Sept. 1967 issue. He was also Royal Pontiac's number one driver.

No matter how hard I tried, I could NOT convince John to slide behind the wheel of the Black Bird with Brain ridding shot gun down Woodward.

But Brian jumped or should I say dove into the passenger seat while I offered him a ride foe the shot. John instead choose to drive the camera car and toy with us and... irritate to photographer. LOL

The stories where a lot of fun. I'm not sure what will be published. I'll give you this one story:

I can't remember his first name but, Zubor had a strong Mopar that he kept challenging the Black Bird. He would spend a lot of money to have Ted Spehar and Tom Hoover work on his car. He'd tell Brian what he was doing in hopes that Brian would tell him what was new. Brian would just say he had the porter washing the car.

Once Brian heard what Zubor was doing. Brian would modify the Black Bird a little more. Zubor never did beat the Black bird.

Brian even worked on mixtures of fuels for the car. He once called Dow Chemical. They asked Brian how many tankers did he need. Brian said he only needed a sample. They said we only give free samples in 55 gal. Brian said, well OK ship it.

There was a lot of laughs. I'm not going to spoil it.

Oh, by the way Lane was prepared to do the car several years ago but they had financial problems. As you know they are no longer around.

I hope you enjoy both the diecast and the article.

[Keith Seymore]

Eric - here are the photos you forwarded from the photo shoot on Woodward.

K