January-February 2008 www.superbirdclub.com Would You Like Your Entire Newsletter in COLOR? We have the last several newsletters posted to the club website in full color. If you have internet, go to www.superbirdclub.com/downloadpage.html Then click on the newsletter issue you want to save it to your computer, or open it up and print it. Also, starting with January 2008, we can email you the newsletter in addition to your hard copy you get through the postal service. You’ll get your newsletter several days sooner. There is a space on the membership renewal form included with this issue to write in your email address if you would like this option. Either way, you will still receive a printed issue in the mail. 2008 Member Renewals are Due - It’s membership renewal time. 2008 membership dues remain at $20 or $22 outside the U.S. Club dues run on a calendar year basis from January to December each year. Check your mailing label. You can tell if you need to renew your membership by looking at your mailing label on the back of this issue. If at the top, it says “07”, you are due for renewal. If it says “08”, you have already paid for the upcoming year. The membership renewal form is on the inside of the back cover. If you outside the U.S. please use Pay Pal (send to [email protected] or send check/money order in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Call or email if you have questions. 2008 National Meet News – Hotel Info Added Mark your calendar -the dates for the 2008 club national meet are set. The dates are September 17-21 in the greater St Louis Missouri area. Our hosts are club members Rich Bolzenius, Gene Lewis and Sherri Evans. The 17th & 18th will be spent touring in the St Louis area and on RT 66. Friday the 19th will be a gathering at the home of Rich & Judy Bolzenius in Union Missouri. Rich typically has some interesting guests at the Friday gathering. Past guests have included Cotton Owens, Charlie Glotzbach, James Hylton, Neil Castles and Harry Lee Hyde Jr. Celebrity cars attending have included a real Chrysler Turbine car. It’s also common for St Louis assembly plant workers from the muscle era to stop by. Saturday & Sunday the 20th and 21st will be spent at Gateway Raceway inside the oval track for the Monster Mopar Show & Swap. Ford and Mopar Aero cars are a feature of the show. The organizers have made it clear they want all the Aero cars, including the Talladegas and Spoilers, and are creating a judged class for the Ford cars as well. Plans are that there will be track touring sessions on the mile high banked Gateway oval tentatively on both Saturday and Sunday. This will include all the aero cars and is done at a faster speed than the crawl of a typical parade lap. Hotel Info: Since we will be on the west side of St Louis, we have a deal with the Super 8 motel right in Union Missouri. This is where you will want to be through Thursday night. Phone is 636-583-8808. Rate is $69 plus tax. Mention Aero Car Reunion For Friday & Saturday night, we will move close to Gateway Raceway to the Four Points Sheraton in Fairview Heights Illinois. The phone number is 618-622-9500. Mention Aero Warriors and the rate is $89. Since people will be coming at all different times of the week, if you are coming in later in the week for the track activities, this is the place to stay. Page 2 More Milwaukee Meet Event Recap Saturday afternoon, we headed over to the Milwaukee Mile for our track display, which was a lot of fun. The cars were positioned outside the main entrance. We were scheduled to get inside on the track as soon as the on-track activities were finished about 6:30 pm. But things were way behind schedule. Unfortunately we did not get inside until the sun was going down. The Milwaukee Mile held a USAC and ARCA car owner and driver reception inside the media center which we were invited to. Below are the drivers who were present. Top row (left to right): Herb Shannon, George Giesen, Bob Brevak, Bill Schwister, Lou Burmeister, and Tom Jones. Bottom row: Bay Darnell, Terry Ryan, Ramo Stott and Sal Tovella. Both Ramo and Terry Ryan spent quite a bit of time speaking about how racing “used to be”, and it was enjoyed by all. Sunday morning, we awoke to more nice weather and were back at the track for more fun. Our morning display on the outside of the track moved smoothly to the infield and we wound our way through the crowd to the inside of turn four. At the appointed time, our forty cars were led out onto the track for our lap of honor. Dan Vassh led the way in his replica of Roger McCluskey Superbird. It was very appropriate as the McCluskey / Norm Nelson prepared car remains a fan favorite to old-timers at the track to this day. It was also great to see the ARCA teams come over to the edge of pit road to see the cars go by. A big highlight for us was getting the Ramo Stott Superbird and Benny Parsons Talladega to lead the first pace lap of the ARCA race. It was a very tight schedule because of live television, but thanks to the Milwaukee Mile staff, we were able to get the race cars on track. John Roberts drove Ramo’s car and Barry Miller drove the Parsons car. All our folks lined the fence to see it. The ARCA 200 mile race was won by Frank Kimmel and the following Governors Cup 50 miles race was won by Matt Kenseth. Milwaukee in 2007 was a fine time, and we thank all of you for coming out to support the event. On the next pages are some additional photos of the event. If you’d like to see these in color, you can view and print them from the club website. www.superbirdclub.com/downloadpage.html Photos from the Milwaukee National Meet (photos courtesy of The Milwaukee Mile) Page 3 At left, the Limelight Superbird belongs to Rick Edwards of Kentucky. Rick is the original owner of his Bird. At right is the Cale Yarborough Spoiler II of Ron Voyles of Sycamore Illinois. It is super sharp with the lowered stance and front spoiler. Left: Hot Rod Power Tour veteran JoAnne Nabor owns this silver Daytona. Right: Dave Poppe of Cudahy Wisconsin owns this B5 Blue Superbird. It has a white bench interior. Jim McCauley of Nixa Missouri owns this F8 dark green Daytona. Jim’s car is literally a one-hundred percent original survivor as delivered new. The white Talladega belongs to Jim Plimpton of Milwaukee Wisconsin. Jim restored this car from a total basket case, and it is a really nice piece. More from Milwaukee Page 4 Tom Kau from Waterford Wisconsin owns this Cale Yarborough Spoiler II. Tom and his friends worked on this car for a couple of weeks solid to get it up and running for the event. It had not run in many years. The Charger 500 cruising down the backstretch is owned by Phil Borucki of Milwaukee. Phil’s brother Mark also brought a Superbird to the event. (photo by Tom Kierzek) Alan Seigworth from Pennsylvania brought this low-mileage Tor-Red Superbird to the event. At right is the B5 Blue Bird of Greg Scott from Dallas Texas. Mike Totero of Milwaukee Wisconsin owns this 1970 Plymouth GTX. At right is Governor’s Cup race winner Matt Kenseth and his family in victory lane. Matt is third from left. Matt’s 14 year old son Ross (second from left) is almost taller than his father. Ross is now racing locally here in Wisconsin. Page 5 Superbird Rear Window Trim Planned Page 6 Mike Ross of B/E and A Parts has been discussing the idea of reproducing the much needed Superbird rear window trim. If you are not familiar, the company has introduced a whole slew of super accurate and needed items for Mopar B bodies, E bodies and A bodies. Mike has indicated if they go ahead with this, they would be available in late 2008. When I corresponded with Mike about this last year, the target price was in the $1000 to $1500 range, but it was really up in the air, depending on how many folks get on board. If this is an item you need, you need to contact Mike Ross as soon as possible. His phone is 330-725-3990 and email is [email protected] You can check out the company website and their parts at www.BEAparts.com Thanks to DSAC member Stafford Davis for writing in about this. 2008 Events Calendar March 28-30 – Las Vegas Nevada, Mopars at the Strip, info: 714-884-1707 April 5-6 – Columbus Ohio - All Ford swap meet, over 1000 vendors indoors, www.swingswap.com info: Richard 614-475- 7774. April 13- Elmhurst Illinois – Car show and swap meet sponsored by Walter P Chrysler club at Larry Roesch Chrysler, 200-260 Grand Ave, Elmhurst IL All makes welcome. For info, call 630-721-0662. May 3-4 – Van Nuys California, Spring Fling, info: 818-759-1779. May 18 – Naperville Illinois – Mopower Madness, at Naperville High School, sponsored by the Chicagoland Mopar Club, www.chicagolandmopar.com 847-815-2891.