Winged Warriors/National B-Body Owners Association
Enduro SuperBird

Text by Sue George
Photos Provided by Phil Lagerquist

[The #50 SuperBird Before The Race]
[The #50 SuperBird After The Race]

Who would be crazy enough to drive a SuperBird in an Enduro 250 Race?! Phil Lagerquist of Iowa Falls, IA did just that back in the spring of 1987! So what's an Enduro race? In many ways, it resembles a demolition derby with 100 to 150 cars turned loose on a small dirt oval to run 250 laps or for 2 hours, whichever comes first. There is no stopping unless someone is hurt or in case of a fire. If your car dies in the middle of the track, you have to stay in it until the race is over.

The SuperBird you see here is, fortunately, a phony that Phil built just for the Enduro. It started out life as a GTX parts car and Phil dropped a drivetrain it in and made the wing and nose cone from scrap tin and 2X4s. To the winged car illiterate, at first glance it looks like his real Lemontwist SuperBird with #50 painted on the doors. Before it was turned loose on the track, Phil and his bogus Bird did some back roads racing around northern Iowa with the locals. Too bad we don't have some video of that!

The phony SuperBird did not fare so well out on the dirt....it managed to last through 86 of the 190 total laps run before it broke a ball joint. The nose cone only lasted for the first 20 laps!

After the race, Phil had the bogus Bird parked in front of his service station in downtown Iowa Falls, and several of the local motorheads stopped by to ask what kind of an accident he had with his SuperBird (thinking this was his real car).

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