[Jeff Hamlin]

Submitted online on 01/16/05 by RICK.

First a little background on John Fitch. John is about 87yrs old. He built his first car in his college years, it was a tube chassis with a Desoto flathead. Then he was off to Europe for WWII as a P51 fighter pilot. After the war he
built his next cars, a modified Crosley Hotshot body powered by a Ford flathead, and then a rebodied Jag XK120.
He was the 1st SCCA national champion driver. Drove for Briggs Cunningham in the US and at LeMans.
In the early to mid-fifties was a driver for the Mercedes factory sports car team.

Ed Cole at GM hired him to run a factory Corvette race team at Sebring in 56 and or 57. After that he started John
Fitch & CO. in Falls Villiage CT, his big thing was making modified Corvairs called Sprints. They were availiable
throught certain Chevy dealers, similiar to Yenko's. He also tweaked other cars such as a 67 Olds, some VW's.

He later became involed in automotive safety barriers. You may have seem the yellow crash sand barrels along
roads in a triangle arrangement, that's one his inventions. Today he's still an innovator working on more crash
barriers, fuel catalyst,and liquid cooled brakes among other things. I've glossed over alot of thing here, he's quite
an interesting man.

Fitch knew John DeLorean who was running Pontiac in 1967 and DeLorean sent Fitch 1 400ci Firebird and 1 OHC
6 cylinder with a four barrel (Pontiac Sprint engine) to play around with as an engineering exercise. When he was
done with the 2 cars they where brought back to Pontiac for the evaluation and also to Lime Rock race track in CT.
The Fitch cars ran back to back tests with Pontiac engineering dept cars called PFST. At the end of the tests Fitch felt his car was better suited for everyday street driving while the Pontiac PFST wasn't real a street car, more of a
race car. I think after the test Pontiac gave Fitch the cars back and they kind of parted ways the way I've heard the story. Fitch said in a old Special Interest Auto interview "Herb (Adams Pontiac engineer in charge of the
PFST program) still liked his and I liked mine.". I think Fitch felt his cars worked fine for what he intended them to be,
more of a sport car then a race car. My understanding is Pontiac never backed the Fitch car program other than send
Fitch the first 2 cars, and Fitch busy with his other projects at the time, never really marketed them other than a few
magazine road tests. Fitch doesn't remember how many cars he made in the end, it seem to be around 6-8 cars, all 400ci engines except the 1 OHC Sprint.

My car is the OHC Sprint engine car. For factory options my car has rally gages, console, tilt, wood wheel, deluxe
interior, 4 speed, am/fm, hood tach, rally wheels, tinted glass, power disc brakes, and radial tires (actual option
on Firebirds in 67). For Fitch mods there's Koni Front shocks, Lucas Flame thrower driving light, mesh in front of
the light/grill, adjusted caster, rubber bumpers on the shaft of the front shocks (to change spring rate), re-valved
steering and brakes, headlight flasher switch, one time wiper switch, light monitoring panel, leather steering wheel
cover, Judson coil, dual exhaust, and the fins an the quater panels (they were to cooling the brakes and let air into
the interior but never developed). Also for the 6 cylinder car Fitch want to supercharge it, but never actually
developed it. A fitch opted car would sell for about $1000 more than the sticker price on a car.

The car was fairly solid when I bought it in the late 80's except for the trunk which was rotted bad because the fins
let alot of water leak in. The floors and doors were good.I had to replace the roof skin because someone put a moon
sun roof in at some point. The interior is all original except the rug and headliner. The car was missing the mesh covers and light monitoring panel, I recreated them from pictures and by talking to Fitch.

I found 2 broadcast sheet in the car both say "Tag Fitch & Co." and the Pontiac PHS billing card shows it was
paid for by the Engineering department of Pontiac.

-Rick


I know this might have been placed within The OHC History Topic but thought it should stand out.
We would love to see/hear more about this rare bird.

[Sidponcho]

Cool car!
In MA there is a city named Fitchburg and a main street named the John Fitch highway. I wonder if these are named for him, or a different guy?

[Rick]

I'm running short on time tonight. Tomorrow I'll try post some info.
Rick

[Rick]

Here's an article From Special Interest Autos 1986. This John Fitch in his own words.
I get a kick out of his big cubic inch comment at the bottom.

Interesting thing, he was developing a super charger for the OHC car but never finished.
to bad...

[Rick]

Here a Pontiac Enthusiast 1995 article by Don Keefe.

I've had the car since 1988. Finished restoration in 1993. Haven't had time to much with it in the last 10 yrs. John Fitch is still alive today at age 1994. He was battling an illness late last year but last I heard he's recovering. I saw him last Sept at Lime Rock Park race track.

I have a couple more article I can dig out, plus other cars that John did.

-Rick

FYI, a couple parts on my car can from Cammer-6, fuel lines and a 67 Sprint saginaw 4 speed. Thanks again Cammer.

[boater bill]

I noticed the power steering cooler in the engine pic.
Was it added in 69 when available on the TA's and Ram air cars or in 67? I didn't think they came out until 69.
Reason I'm asking, I have one and have thought about putting it on, but don't want the grief about it not being "original". It is "original", just not to this car.

[Cammer-6]

Originally Posted by Rick

Here a Pontiac Enthusiast 1995 article by Don Keefe.

I've had the car since 1988. Finished restoration in 1993. Haven't had time to much with it in the last 10 yrs. John Fitch is still alive today at age 1994. He was battling an illness late last year but last I heard he's recovering. I saw him last Sept at Lime Rock Park race track.

I have a couple more article I can dig out, plus other cars that John did.

-Rick

FYI, a couple parts on my car can from Cammer-6, fuel lines and a 67 Sprint saginaw 4 speed. Thanks again Cammer.

Welcome Rick,
Wife still reminds me of hauling that crate to be shipped.

[Rick]

The power steering cooling line are not original to the car. I have been told by a couple people they were availiable in 67, never seen them on another 67 though.

I had an extra set from when I had my 69 TA so I put then on this car.

I'll have to dig my 67 part book out and try to find them.

Cammer, I bet she does, that was heavy...

[Rick]

Here's another article from Science & Mechanics Feb 69. The car used in the article is the one I currently own.

It's estimated Fitch built about 6 cars. 1 OHC Sprint (mine) and the others 400 cars. From pictures I've seen over the years in different articles there was atleast 3 400 cars.

Color breakdowns:
My car was a single color (Mayfair Maize), a single color white car (may have black quarter panel buttress in the SIA article above, was all white in early 80's). Fitch had his own 2 tone scheme (similar to what Foose does now a days. I can post examples). There was at least 2 cars painted 2 tone, one white & gold (in SIA article above, hard to make the colors out) the other white & red.

The all white 400 car last I knew was last seen for sale in southern Calif. in the early 90's at the Pomona swap meet for around $4500. I spoke to the original owner of the white & gold 400 car, she sold it to someone in Minn. in the late 80's, it was listed for sale in Marty McDaniels news letter (Haven't been able to find it). She also said the white & red car was sold to someone in Italy.

[Cammer-6]

Rick,your car was for sale in Central Fla sometime in early 80s or maybe late 70s.
I also have a note that someone named "Bob" with a 203 area code had it for sale but dont know what that date was.
Just an FYI I also saw a Banshee for sale in the local auto trader around that time.
This was before they went national with the coverage.

[Rick]

I'm the 6th owner of the OHC car. I bought it in 1988. The husband (past away before I bought it) of the lady I bought the car from was named Bill. If I remember correctly he purchased it in early 80's from Marty Motors in CT.

[Cammer-6]

Originally Posted by Rick

I'm the 6th owner of the OHC car. I bought it in 1988. The husband (past away before I bought it) of the lady I bought the car from was named Bill. If I remember correctly he purchased it in early 80's from Marty Motors in CT.

maybe Marty motors was the 203 area code