[455firebird1969]

Originally Posted by 63Banshee

This is how the car looks today.



Was found 2 years ago by a friend of mine, Brad Thompson. He has spent that time rebuilding it to this point. The Don Hardy chassis was updated and certified to 6.0.

This is how the car looked when he got it.

[IMG]http://i566.photobucket.com/albums/ss101/Vintage_Warrior/Tyree-
Hardy/Tyree_zpsxz1lygxk.jpg[/IMG]

My plan is to preserve the original body, use it as a plug and have a body or two made for racing use. Bart Tyree says he can get me good pictures to work from to replicate an original paint job, which the new bodies will get. Jess went through so many bodies and paint jobs in the 70s. It's difficult to match this particular body to a particular paint job. Jess seemed fairly certain this was his last body.
This is the paint scheme I'm likely to spray on the first body repop.



At some point it'll go nitro. No plans to stray from the traditional body configuration, so I expect 1/4 mile trap speed will be limited at some point.

Nice car. It's great that you are keeping it Poncho powered... I caught a glimps of a second gen. Firebird or T/A funny car in Coos Bay Oregon back in mid to late nineties. I made a u turn and went back to look at it and it was gone. It's like a saw a ghost, it vanished. Is there a chance this car may have been in or through Coos Bay / North Bend Oregon twenty years ago?

[63Banshee]

Originally Posted by 455firebird1969

Nice car. It's great that you are keeping it Poncho powered... I caught a glimps of a second gen. Firebird or T/A funny car in Coos Bay Oregon back in mid to late nineties. I made a u turn and went back to look at it and it was gone. It's like a saw a ghost, it vanished. Is there a chance this car may have been in or through Coos Bay / North Bend Oregon twenty years ago?

A lot of guys, Jess and Arnie included, went with BBC and Hemi around this era for cost reasons. That was then, this is now. Burry me in it with a Pontiac bullet.

I don't know about it running 20 years ago, but for sure 25 to 30. It was off the track by the early 90s we think.