If I ever go back to Sweet Home Alabama it will be too soon. The darn SuperBird broke down every day, sometimes twice. We arrived Thursday with no trouble.
Friday we go to leave for the Motorsports Museum and hall of Fame on the grounds at Talladega 45 miles away. The battery is dead, so we push start it. Have to do the same throughout the day. Wing cars everywhere. Get to go up on a scaffold and get an elevated shot of the show field. Too cool. Get to meet Dennis Gage of My Classic Car, very cool. On the way home it just dies. After extensive troubleshooting we deem the fuel pump dead. Alabama State Police REFUSE to stop for us, even though we waved them down. 6 of them. We have it towed back to the motel and borrow Lee Kapustka's spare fuel pump he brought with. Go buy a new battery.
Saturday we all start a huge caravan back to the Museum, halfway there Glen Peters (Petty Bird replica) pulls up next to me and tells me our brakes are smoking. Locked up right front caliper. A bunch of people pull over with us to help. We pry the caliper loose while it's still hot and pinch off the line with vice grips just to get it to the track. Get 200 yards away from the entrance to the track and the car dies. No fuel in the carb. Looks like fuel pump again. Well it was an old pump. Push it in to the show. Take the front brake apart and realize we pierced the brake hose with the vice grips. A guy in a VW drives us all over creation to find all the parts we need. Can't find the hose or a caliper or a caliper rebuild kit anywhere. Put a NEW fuel pump in. Car starts but won't brake. Galen Govier trailers it back to the motel. We call around and find a caliper rebuild kit and a brake hose that's 3" too long. It's in the bowels of Birmingham, it's dark, and they close in 1 hour - off we go hoping to not get shot. We live to tell the tale and get help from Harry Lee Hyde (Crewman and son of crew chief for Bobby Isaac's 1970 championship winning Daytona) and Dr. Don Tarr, wing car racer from 1969 & 1970, and Gary Romberg, Chrysler aerodynamicist and designer of the SuperBird. Redefines Cool.
Now car stops and goes. We load it on the trailer to at least get it to the track on Sunday for the Parade lap. Suppose to be 2 laps at 80 MPH.
Get to the track no problem. Pull on to the track and go 10 MPH around turns 3 & 4 and park with 150 aero cars on the front apron. Very cool. Word comes down our 2 laps @ 80 is now ½ lap at 10, park for an hour, then finish lap at 10 MPH. So we start again, make it to the turn off where one is suppose to climb the bank entering turn 3 to leave the track, and the F'IN THING DIES AGAIN! NO FUEL! Many guys and NASCAR officials push the car up the bank and off the track, into the parking lot, and onto the trailer. It's now in my garage, still dead. In the 14 hour drive back home we realize it's probably the "sock" over the fuel inlet in the tank causing our no fuel problems.
I hate this car.
To sum it up: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And I'm probably dumb enough to do it again.