Firebird Quiz. What is this car?

A Firebird? :P

Yes, lol, but what is this special Firebird? What type of Firebird is it?

Fitch Firebird. Black grilles on the inboard side of the 'flying buttress'es are air extractors. A few years ago I sold the guy who owns it a used factory firebird dual exhaust system that I assume is on the car today.

Trust Balthazar to get this one. I didn't think anyone had ever heard of this. I don't know a lot of details, but I understand that Fitch was a race car driver and was asked by GM to work on the Firebird.

He's prolly the same guy who made some hot Corvairs.

Yes, Blu, I understand that he also worked on Corvairs.

Yes, he built and sold hot rodded Corvairs as new cars, I think they were called Fitch Sprints, or something like that.

That's it Blu!....I can't believe I had never read about or heard of him and his involvelment with GM. It's something I just recently discovered.

About a "few hundred" Fitch Sprint Corvairs were built by John Fitch & Co.

It is believed that only 2 of the Fitch Firebirds were built, the surviving OHC-6 and the now-lost 400 CI car. These FFs were built in '67 with both performance & handling modifications. The subsequent Pontiac in-house Firebird Sprint Turismo engineering package built upon Fitch's efforts and led to the '69 Trans Am package. One source says he sold Firebird modifications packages for $1000, but I have no verification of that.

Earlier, Fitch had built a sports car circa '49-50, simply called the Fitch. Using the smaller Ford flathead V-8, a fiat 1000 chassis and a highly modified Crosley Hot Shot body, his 1520-lb roadster did 0-60 in 6.3 seconds!

Fitch built a "Toronado Phantom", tho I have absolutely no further info as to what that encompassed.

He also built a single prototype of the unique Fitch Phoenix in '66, another sports performance car intended for limited volume production, but when he learned of the impending federal safety requirements, he abandoned plans to build any more. It was based on the Corvair & used a modified 'Vair flat 6. The one '66 is alive & well tho:



More pics at: http://www.coolcatcorp.com/limerock/fitch.html

Fitch is an interesting & innovative guy, as of '99 (at age 82) was working on liquid-cooled brakes whose benefit was greatly reduced unsprung weight.

Edited August 31, 200519 yr by balthazar

Balthazar, great stuff...thanks....I'm going to do some reading up on him...and that sports car of his is very nice...wow.

That being said those flying butresses on the Firebird are Hideous!

This I'd love to own however: Yenko Stinger.