The 1967 Firebird was my first street car. I drove it all over the place. It ran high 12s in the quarter mile on Goodyear Eagle street tires with a 400 CI with a RA IV cam and a Holley 750 DP. It also had a 350 turbo transmission with 3:73 gears in a 12 bolt rear. I wanted to go a little faster so I built a 428 CI with a flat tappet cam and #48 heads that I ported. I also used a Holley Street Dominator intake with a Holley 850 DP. I used the same transmission, but with a 3800 stall converter.

Now I had a different problem, the car just did burnouts! So my good friend Wes Cator and I backed halved the car with ladder bars and coil over shocks; then the Bird hooked! The Firebird ran a consistent 9.80 at 137 MPH. That engine combo was good for about a year but I still wanted to go faster!

I ordered a tube chassis kit from Vanishing Point Race Cars. It took about 3 months for Wes and me to build the chassis, put the 67 Bird body on it, and finish the car. The Firebird received a new power plant at the same time that we stepped up to a Butler Performance stroker kit and a set of RA-II heads that were ported by Butler himself. This time I switched to a Powerglide transmission with a 4500 stall converter. I also put 4:11 gears in my new 9 inch Ford rear. Now the Firebird ran 9.05 @ 154 MPH.

I ran that setup for 2 years until that cold October morning in 1996; we went to 75-80 Raceway in Maryland for their nostalgia race. I asked the track owner (Bill) to run the slower cars first. Bill said you won't have any problems and that the track was in great shape. The first set of cars got loose and lifted and a Corvette and I were the next set to go down the track. I let go of the trans-brake button and held on. As soon as the car came off the concrete pad, it went hard left. I realized I was going to hit the Corvette broad side so I lifted off the throttle. The car made a hard right turn and the left rear slick hooked me into a roll.

I ended up rolling 6 times before it stopped at its final resting place in the grass.

I got out of the car and walked away, thanks to the NHRA safety equipment that we must have in the car. (Just look at the picture of my head hitting the window net instead of popping out and off.) I was just glad Tina was in Ocean City, MD for the weekend and was not present for the crash.

Wes and I started conceptualizing the new Firebird before we even left the track that day! And look where we are today . . .

Thanks for reading, John and Tina Gaydosh.