Alaska Highway Superbird

The Alaska Highway Superbird/Tip to Tip Superbird Story The Alaska Highway SuperBird was built on November 30, 1969 in Lynch Road, Michigan as number 1895 of the 1,920 Superbirds built that one year only by Chrysler Corporation to meet NASCAR requirements to race on the big oval racetracks of the day. The wind-tunnel tested aerodynamic nose, 6-foot rear wing and bold “Plymouth” quarter panel graphics let everyone know what was coming! All Superbirds met instant success on the racetracks at speeds of over 200 MPH, so that by the end of the 1970 racing season Nascar changed the rules, effectively banning the Superbird after one year of NASCAR racing. The Alaska Bird came with Chrysler’s largest ground-pounding 440 cubic inch, 4-barrel engine and the indestructible A-727 automatic transmission hooked to a 3:55 rear end gear for overwhelming power combined with legendary durability. It was delivered to an unknown dealer sometime in 1970 and resided with unknown owners for two decades. By 1991 amateur race car driver “Flash” Gordon Sprague acquired the car and drove it in several nostalgia races, including Daytona, where he has a well-worn picture passing NASCAR legend Bobby Allison’s Dodge Daytona. Mr. Sprague eventually stored the car in his museum in Florida, where it sat for another decade or so. In late 2009, Mr. Sprague auctioned off the museum’s contents, but the Superbird never changed titles and sat with a temporary caretaker in Apopka, Florida. At this point Bob Jennings tried to buy the car, but was, as he says, just one digit short of the asking price, and he was forced to walk away. On December 12, 2010 the caretaker called Bob and asked if he could pay cash (not a check) and get the car by Midnight the next night. The price was 1 digit less than a year earlier. Bob called his bank and his wife and started the 1,000 mile trip to Florida. But first, he had to get a trailer, so he headed 100 miles out of the way to Cincinnati and bought a 20’ enclosed trailer, driving all night to Florida. Arriving around noon the next day, Bob did the cash and paperwork transfer and ran into a problem. The car’s body and interior was in excellent shape, but after 20 years of sitting in a museum it was mechanically unsound, leaked everywhere and was unsafe to drive. Because the car had been sitting so long it barely ran, the brakes did not work, the power steering did not work, and the transmission only worked in 1st gear. With the aid of the caretaker’s sons and a $100 bill, they pushed the car to the foot of the trailer and then had another problem. A Superbird is about 19 feet long and the trailer was only 20 feet in length. Bob is a very big man and immediately realized tie-down of the car would take hours. Finally, around 5 that evening the car was pushed and pulled and loaded where it needed to be and Bob began the very, very slow tie-down at each corner, starting with the worst one in the driver front side. The first wheel tie down took over 3 hours, Bob took a bit of time off to go get something to eat, and then began the right rear wheel tie down, which he finally completed around 11:00 pm About 11:30 pm the caretaker came running out of her house telling Bob to get out of there right now because her very soon to be ex-husband (the caretaker) was coming with a shotgun to take everything still there at midnight. Bob decided the car was tied down well enough for now and high-tailed it to the Georgia line! Over the next 4 and ½ years Bob lovingly rebuilt every component of the car including the suspension, drivetrain, brakes, and electrical system. One evening during the rebuilding process Bob pulled the passenger-side bucket seat out and heard something fall to the floor in his shop. Assuming it was just a screwdriver, he ignored it and went over to the driver’s side to begin removing that seat. About an hour later Bob walked back to the passenger side and lying in the middle of the floor was a 4 square inch, black-velvet jewelry box that stopped him in his tracks. Upon opening the box, a minute or so later, Bob’s breath was taken away because inside the box was the biggest diamond ring he had ever seen, a Rolex watchband and a smaller gold wedding band. His excitement was matched by his concern now for safety-Bob’s shop at that time was next to an isolated part of US highway 31, it was nighttime, the overhead door was open, and the lights were shining brightly on the glittering diamond! Bob rushed to close the overhead door and breathlessly called his wife. One of his wife’s friends was a local jeweler and Bob asked his wife to call the jeweler right now-he needed to know what he had and where to hide it! Bob’s wife heard the excitement in his voice and immediately became concerned and called her friend right away, and they drove to the jeweler’s home for his examination. Would it be enough for a vacation? Would it be enough to buy his dream car? Heck, would it be enough to retire? The jeweler examined the wedding band carefully, then looked at the watchband with interest and then got to the diamond. Visions of wealth danced in Bob’s eyes and sweet music played in his mind! The jeweler returned and Bob could not contain his excitement. Was it worth thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, maybe even, pretty please, hundreds of thousands? The jeweler calmly looked at Bob and stated it was the finest cubic zirconium fake ring he had seen in years, mounted to a cheap 14k plated steel band, accompanied by a fake Rolex watchband and a fake wedding band. What cruel twists of fate propelled the Superbird Gods to their revenge on Bob’s greed! The jeweler told Bob he would give him $10 for the box! By mid-summer 2014 the car was complete, and an idea began blooming in Bob’s mind. He had always wanted to drive the Alaska Highway and the idea of doing it in a 50 year old Nascar racecar appealed to him because of the challenge, unique idea and the memories and pictures that would last for generations, and thus the planning began. Having survived multiple life challenges including open heart surgery, Stage 4 lymphoma and 2 other types of cancer, Bob relished the head-on confrontation of an impossible trip in a 50 year old race car that everyone told him should not and more importantly, could not be done. On April 19, 2015, the car was finally ready for a test drive, and Bob took a 250 Mile round trip test drive to the Illinois state line and back, stopping once at a Flying J truck stop for gas. There were no problems, no leaks and the car averaged 13.58 MPG. Bob’s son Ryan made a 3D custom tail mount for GoPro camera, plus he had a passenger window mounted GoPro camera snapping pictures. Pictures were hit and miss for entire trip because of driver incompetence with the technology and fatigue. In June of 2015, unaccompanied by anyone or any chase or other vehicles, Bob drove this car from Jeffersonville, Indiana to Fairbanks and then on to Whittier, Alaska as a 1-man, 5,000+ mile journey across the gravel roads, mountain passes and untamed wilderness of the Yukon and Alaska. The historical trip of this Nascar race car was memorialized by Chrysler Motor Company writeups, Hemmings Motor News articles, numerous industry publications, and by Anchorage Alaska Chrysler-Plymouth’s “Crazy-Brave Bob Jennings completes his historical trip” advertising and Facebook promotions and photographs. Mechanical issues during the trip included a split gas tank near Dawson Creek BC; overheating on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago; a blown oil sending unit near Whitehorse Yukon; having the wiper motor fail in driving rain near Denali Alaska; splitting a power steering hose at Destruction Bay Yukon; losing a disc brake caliper at Haines Junction Yukon; blowing the radio near Columbus Indiana; frying three separate electronic ignition control modules in North Dakota; blowing an exhaust gasket in Saskatchewan; and many minor issues associated with bad gas, frost heaves, gravel roads and poor aftermarket parts. Surprisingly, not one thing that failed was an original 50-year old part, they were all replacement parts installed during the restoration! Bob was able to personally repair every issue during the trip and ventured on. During the odyssey, Bob encountered moose, bison, a rare pair of Trumpeter Swans, mountain goats, numerous bears, caribou, elk, and just west of Whitehorse Yukon a herd of wild horses ran across the highway, forcing the car into a 360-degree spin off of the gravel highway into the summer-thawed tundra, followed by a 4-hour hike and repair in the mud to be able to drive once again. The trip was positively marked by hundreds of waving and honking cars, dozens of picture-taking sessions, and, most-memorably, incredible vistas of verdant forest waves to the distant horizon, interspersed with snow-capped mountain passes, azure lakes, and magnificent bridges and rivers. Along the way, Bob posted his “Sbird 70” license plate in the Signpost forest outside of Watson Lake, Yukon; drove the harrowing 1-way Whittier, Alaska train/car tunnel; visited a cruise ship in Skagway, Alaska; was chased for over 20 miles by a family for pictures; was handcuffed at a customs port in Canada for calling a customs officer a moron when the officer called the car a Superbee; had an impromptu car show outside of Saskatoon with a dozen car buffs who followed the journey online; and basked in the joy of this once-in-a-lifetime trek through the wilderness. At the conclusion of the trip when asked the question “Did all of the mechanical problems, weather issues, lack of radio or air-conditioning or cruise control, 200-mile gas station intervals and 45 year old car seats cause you problems?” he summarized his joy of the experience by answering “What Problems?” After the trip, the car had been literally shaken to death. Within 2 miles of returning home the brakes failed and Bob decided it was time to treat the Nascar legend to a restoration, sending the Bird to Magnum Restoration in LaSalle, IL for a complete nut and bolt makeover. 18 months later the car was once again complete and it was debuted at the Mopar Nationals in June 2017, winning the “Best Wingcar” national show award. In the Spring of 2018 the car was taken to the huge “Mopars at the Battleships” show in Mobile, Alabama where it was awarded the prestigious “Best in Show” award, followed by several “Best in Show” awards at multiple Midwest and southern car shows. But another idea was forming in Bob’s head: the Bird had already been driven as far north and west as possible in the continental US, what about the other end? In the Spring of 2019, never one for liking the moniker “Trailer Queen”, Bob began planning for a Key West, Florida trip to the literal end of the road in the United States, Mile Marker “0” in Key West. In late June 2019 the southern trip began in torrential rain from Bob’s shop in Jeffersonville, Indiana to Key West. After 7 straight hours of driving rain and blistering heat the car and its driver arrived at the Wellborn Muscle Car museum in Alexander City, AL for several photos before the skies once again opened. The next day the heat was so bad Bob continued the drive at 5:00 am to try to avoid the incredible heat and humidity conditions in the inverted black bathtub of an interior and around 11:30 am Bob was forced to stop for the day in Bradenton, Florida. That afternoon, a complete clean-up and check of the car resulted in no noted damage or broken pieces, just lots of water because of the previous day’s rain, and at 5:00 am the next day Bob and the Bird rolled on towards Key West. The heat continued to build, combined with the humidity and by the time the duo reached Islamorda, Florida on the Overseas Highway pavement temperatures were approaching 145 degrees. Upon arriving in Key West around 1:00pm, the car hit bumper to bumper traffic, and overheated for the first time, as did the driver, and they pulled aside by the Gulf of Mexico under a palm tree to cool down for an hour or so before continuing the last couple of miles to the “Mile 0” signpost in the broiling heat of the black interior and the baking sun. Several police officers and 20-30 car enthusiasts stopped to check on the car and, indirectly, the driver! Around 2:15pm on June 27, 2019 the Alaska Highway Bird changed its official name to the “Tip to Tip” Bird when the car and its forever driver Bob Jennings reached Mile 0 at the end of the southern tip of the United States, becoming the world’s most traveled Nascar Superbird. Without fanfare and because of the extreme heat, Bob turned the car around and started back home. The heat was not to be taken lightly however, and while driving across the 7-mile Bridge in the Southern Keys Bob realized he was losing his vision because of heat stroke and pulled to the side for 2 hours to cool down. Finally, 17 hours after leaving Bradenton, he got back to the day’s starting point in Bradenton Florida. The Superbird wasn’t done though! The next day Bob lovingly wiped down every exterior and interior surface, the engine bay and the underside, while vacuuming and cleaning the interior, and that night the newly named “Tip to Tip” Bird won another “Best of Show” award at the annual Southwest Florida car show in Bradenton before going back home again to Indiana. After returning from Key West the Tip to Tip Bird won another “Best of Show” at the Midwest Muscle Car Show! Residing permanently now in a heated garage in Indiana, Bob still occasionally drives the car, and once or twice a year takes it to a car show and took it to the 50-year Aerocar reunion in Talladega, AL in October 2019. Never a trailer queen the car awaits more future adventures! Next up is a trip to the southwestern-most driving point in San Diego to fulfill a promise to appear in the “Super Show’”, then to the easternmost driving point in North America-Newfoundland! As Bob has always said, the car is the star, he is just the driver, and he believes he is a caretaker of history for the future of this rare glimpse into American automotive and racing lore.