Winged Warriors/National B-Body Owners Association
Special Feature Car - Kenny Brackett

Text and Photos by Kenny Brackett

I'm back in the Bird saddle and it sure feels great to be back in a SuperBird after almost a 15-year absence. I didn't think it would happen so quick after getting back into the club after several years of being idle. The whole deal came about so fast and unexpectedly.

This is a long story, but an interesting one so let's get started...let's go back to 1975. I worked at a supermarket with another guy that was a few years older. I owned a Limelight SuperBird and he was a fan of it and racing. There were several other SuperBirds around the area at that time. One was at a local car lot in the back row. It needed paint but overall it was not too bad. This was gas-crunch time and muscle cars were slow selling. One day I drove by the car lot and the Bird was gone. I thought it would turn up somewhere.

Well, a few weeks later, a SuperBird turned up around town being raffled for the high school Booster Club. It was Petty Blue and a 4-speed. I thought something looked familiar about it and it turned out to be the same Bird from the car lot that used to be medium metallic blue!

They had repainted it and installed a cheapo set of mags for the raffle. There is a photo at the end of this story showing the Bird with the raffle sign on it that read: Donate one dollar to Erwin Boosters Club for a chance to win this car. Erwin HS Homecoming Game Oct. 3rd 1975. Car donated by Faulkners Florist. Oh yeah, the raffle ticket stubs said "Plymouth Daytona RoadRunner". The raffle tickets were $1 each, I bought ten tickets. My buddy from work bought one ticket. They were going to give the car away during half-time of the football game during that October night in 1975. I went to the game, as my alma mater was playing the school that was raffling off the car.

I knew I had a good chance as I had ten tickets. I was only 19 years old and the thought of owning two SuperBirds was very intriguing. Well, needless to say, I didn't win but my buddy did with his one ticket!

He didn't attend the game, so I went to his house to tell him he had won the car. He didn't believe it but called the school to find out it was true.

The SuperBird had 49,000-plus miles on it and a Petty Blue Maaco paint job. My buddy didn't have a lot of money but he had a Maaco paint job put on to get the Bird back to it's original color and replaced those cheapo mags with '72 style factory Road Wheels. The engine smoked, so he picked up a highway patrol block with only 10,000 miles that had a spun bearing. He couldn't afford to rebuild the original block.The highway patrol block was free so he put all the original items from the Bird's engine on the H.P. block and unfortunately he discarded the original block...boohoo now, but in 1975 that was no big deal.

My friend drove the Bird for about a year and then parked it in his basement for no particular reason. He did bring it out once in a while to keep the juices flowing. About five years went by and I went to work elsewhere and so did he, and we lost contact with each other.

Around December 2001, my friend and my Dad ran into each other and he gave my Dad his phone number to give to me so I could call him. I did just that and asked if he still had the Bird. He did, and I asked if he wanted to sell it and his answer was no. I told him to call me if he ever decided to sell it.

In the meantime, I was really getting the itch to own a Mopar again. I had a good side business of selling racing collectibles and last winter, I bought a 1969 GTX clone to make a street machine. A few months later, I bought a 1970 RoadRunner that was advertised in the newspaper. I bought it and drove it home and then restored it. It was done in time to make it to the Winged Warriors National Meet in Pigeon Forge in 2002. The winged itch really got going but I thought I could never afford one again.

I had collected racing memorabilia for 33 years and was thinking about selling some of it with hopes of buying a Bird someday. I put my collection on eBay and got an interested party. We made a deal. Just before that deal was made, my friend called and said he had decided to sell his Bird and wanted me to have it! I told him I would love to have it if I could sell my racing collection. Well, the collection got sold and I called my friend and the deal was made! I had the Bird flatbedded home the day we made the deal. The title was changed over exactly to-the-day 27 years later! I definitely appreciate the car more now.

The SuperBird needs new paint. It has a little rust in one quarter but the trunk area is solid and it has never been wrecked. The interior is excellent. It could use carpet but I probably won't replace it as the interior is so nice and original. The color is medium metallic blue. It is a 440 4-speed with black buckets, no console and tach delete.

The engine has 70's Cal Custom valve covers and a chrome breather...a true 70's time machine! It still has it's original paint under the hood, inside the door jambs and in the trunk. I now have the nosecone off and apart and am getting the car ready to go to the bodyshop. I was taking out the back seat, which had NEVER been removed and found a broadcast sheet, but the part with the serial number is missing. Then I started removing the carpet which is also original and had never been removed and found another broadcast sheet, folded in half and still in good shape. It had yellow grease pencil highlights and red grease pencil highlights, with the word "NASCAR" across it.

I have decided to go with Petty Blue. I figured this was the color it was raffled off with and I really like that color. I am also ordering a new Crate Hemi for the Bird since it does not have the original 440. I have recently sold my RoadRunner to finance the project.

Click On A Photo To View The Full-Size Version

[Kenny
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