MARTY AND KATHY RISSI'S SUPERBIRD

Text and photos by Marty Rissi

Switzerland, August 1977, I was 12 years old and sitting in the family room with the TV on evening news. It showed a long funeral procession from Memphis, Tennessee, laying to rest Elvis Presley. That started my interest in 1950's Rock 'n Roll music and American cars. Until that time, I had grown up far removed from US cars and NASCAR. My dad was a railroad man and I eventually followed in his footsteps. By that time, I was driving a 1971 Duster to work and a '57 Savoy on the weekends, watching reruns of Bonanza on TV and had met the love of my life, Miss Kathy.

I became friends with the mechanic that helped me with my cars; he kept telling me how fast his '68 Hemi Charger was. After repeatedly mentioning to him that I had never gone 150 mph in a car, he said let's go and we headed for the divided highway. It was my fastest ever on a highway on-ramp as well, as he floored instantly and we came flying onto the highway and kept going. That was exhilarating. I was hooked and started looking for a muscle car to buy.

I found a newly imported 1968 Plymouth Road Runner that in order to be registered still had to pass a rigorous safety inspection, which included a drive-by test to measure the decibel level of the exhaust at a certain speed. Through that car, at that time the only Road Runner in Switzerland, I got invited to see my first Superbird. The car was well hidden away in the back of a dealership whose owner collected rare Mopars. The car was Alpine white, had a 440 6-barrel engine with automatic transmission and black bucket seats with console. I thought it was beautiful.

Fast forward to 1992, Kathy and I got married and applied to move to Montana or Idaho, however, it was not possible for us to immigrate to the USA with opening up a small family business (a guest ranch). Therefore we finalized our move to Western Canada where we built our Ride The Wind Ranch in Alberta, Cowboy Country, living out all our interests and dreams. We brought along our Road Runner, as well as Kathy's '65 Dodge Polara convertible and our station wagon, and started a family.

Through our '68 and the Superbird I had seen in Switzerland (the car is still there), I had become interested in stock car racing history of the '50s, '60s and '70s. We were busy with the ranch and family life, our neighbors called us the "Swiss Kids" and the "only Ranchers in Alberta without a pickup truck." Our '71 Plymouth Fury wagon did the job for us, pulling our matching F7 green stock trailer to horse and cattle auctions.

'71 Plymouth Fury wagon

My desire to own a Superbird grew. I became a member of WW/NBOA and talked to Ed and Sue a couple of times on the phone. In the fall of 2000, we learned through the newsletter of one for sale in Michigan and brought it home in December. It's a 6-barrel car that left the factory Alpine White and was sold new at Byers Plymouth-Chrysler in Columbus, Ohio, one of the oldest Plymouth dealerships in the US.

The first owner was a stock car nut; he knew people at Holman-Moody, and painted the car a dark red color almost immediately and drove it in the Grand National race at Talladega. In 1981, he advertised the car for $5,000 in a newspaper in St Louis, Missouri. He had driven it just over 43,000 miles and sold it for $4,800.

A six-barrell Superbird

I met the second owner in 2004, on our way to Talladega. He drove the car 9,000 miles and offered it for sale in 1990. He told me that the original owner, now in his seventies, came to look at it and wanted to buy it back but thought the asking price was too high. It was eventually sold and painted a dark blue and ended up in a trade at a classic car dealer in Muskegon, Michigan, where we found it. I flew there to look the car over and in December 2000, rented a trailer--that time we owned a Dodge Ram--and got the car. On the way home, I stopped in at Sue and Ed George's in Boone, Iowa. Sue was home and we had a nice visit and on I went.

The original engine and transmission had not been touched and we had both rebuilt after owning the car a little over three years. Everything was back together just a week before we left for the Winged Warrior meet in Rapid City, South Dakota, in June 2004. What a great meet that was. Kathy and I enjoyed it greatly and met very friendly and knowledgeable wing car and B-body owners.

In 2005, we attended the wing car meet in Litchfield, Illinois in conjunction with the Route 66 Festival. We had another grand time, meeting more enthusiasts, revisiting with others and meeting cars and cast members from "American Graffiti." We even rode the hotel elevator with "Milner" Paul LeMat, another cool cat! This time we traveled with our sons Joe and Ben, 7 and 2 years old at the time.

We always liked the non-original color of our Aero Warrior and were not going to paint it back to its factory color, like it is the norm nowadays. We did think overall it appeared a bit too dark for a car built to shine on the Superspeedways, so we decided to make it look like we might enter it to qualify for the Atlanta 500 in 1970. The color wasn't close to a historic racer, except the #42 Petty Enterprises Superbird driven by Dan Gurney at Riverside, however ours had a vinyl roof, so we went with the #70 homage to the 1970 racing season and gave it the Plymouth stripes and contingency decals we liked, and we're happy with it. As far as I know, the #70 never won a NASCAR race at the top level, however, J.D. McDuffie drove with that number on the doors for years and was an independent driver to admire.

Five years ago, in 2019, Kathy and I attended the Aero Warrior reunion again, this time we got to drive on the high banks of Atlanta Superspeedway, a highlight of the event. We had the car right up against the wall, surrounded by nothing but Aero cars, pretty sweet! (We could have gone faster if only the pace car had pulled off the track.)

We reunited with people we hadn't seen for 15 years and it felt like it hadn't been long at all. And we enjoyed meeting others for the first time. We met and spent time with Dave Marcis and his wife Helen, the nicest couple you'd ever wanna meet. Helen told us about seeing Buddy Holly in concert, and Wisconsin and moving to North Carolina and the life of a race car driver's wife. Dave knows as much about racing in general and Aero race cars in particular as anyone, and he has not forgotten anything, that's for sure!

We still talk on the phone and he lovingly looks after Helen now. Dave looked good driving the #71 Dodge Daytona at the event, like he belongs, which he does.

We have truly enjoyed our 1970 Plymouth Superbird for the last 24 years and the adventures we had along the way. We enjoyed driving to places like Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for their big cruise night and car show, coming back through Montana and stopping for Territorial Days in Deer Lodge, driving to car shows across the Rocky Mountains and on road trips into Banff National Park or east into the prairies to sand beach lakes, with very little traffic and even less Highway Patrols. Time stands still for nobody, spend it well and enjoy every minute of it. The Plymouth Win You Over beat goes on.