Car Feature: Gary and Pam Beineke's Awesome 1971 One of None SuperbirdBy Brian Lohhnes Posted 07/04/09
A car feature on a 1971 Plymouth Super Bird? You got it. So what if Mopar never built such an animal, Gary and Pam Beineke did, and this one's loaded with a 472ci Hemi wth a Six Pack. Yeah, Chrysler never made a Six Pack Hemi, either.
If you're hungry for details, jump here for a photo gallery of the 1971 Super Bird, or watch the video below. Meanwhile, here's how it all began.
The vaunted “aero wars” in NASCAR came to a crashing halt in 1970 with the announcement by Bill France that all of the “special cars,” or those that had factory aerodynamic enhancements would be limited to a mere 305ci. Fielding a miniscule small-block in a field of big-inch stompers was not going to be productive, so the manufacturers killed their aerodynamic projects and went back to big cars with big frontal areas and big motors to punch through the air.
What gets lost in the mix is the simple fact that everyone, Ford, Chrysler, and GM, had skunkworks programs well in progress for the 1971 season and beyond. Although they were stopped after the announcement, testing had been done and documents created about the wind-tunnel prowess of the cars.
This is where Gary and Pam Beineke come in. After learning of the existence of Chrysler internal documents showing the wind-tunnel performance of a 3/8-scale model of a Plymouth 1971 B-body aero car, they became fixated on the idea of actually building it. To say they pulled it off would be an understatement. Maurice Petty, who knew the model was tested in the wind tunnel, was left awe-stricken after seeing the Beneke's clone car back when it debuted in the early 2000s.
Gary and Pam take this stuff seriously and have literally built this car and their others while method acting as Chrysler designers and engineers. It’s all in the details, and that’s what the couple works so hard to achieve.
This car and matching 1971 Charger Daytona launched Gary and Pam’s G-Series Collection. We were lucky enough to shoot four of their cars and will be bringing you the skinny on all of them in coming weeks. We already had feature and video on their Buick GNX, the only non-Mopar in the fleet.
Click here for the photo gallery on the 1971 Plymouth Super Bird. After you finish the gallery, watch the video below to hear that big Hemi bellow and wreck tires.
Click the button next to the time counter to watch in fullscreen mode.
Comments + Post your comment!
Written by G-SERIES
Jul 08 2009
BBR: The body mods were wind tunnel tested back in Jan-Mar of 1970. What you see is the final, and recommended modifications for optimal downforce. When I first built it, I too thought the nose would lift something awful..but it acts neutral and cuts through the air as it was designed to, no matter what speed. And yes, we've used the .68 OD 5th gear to test the theory/conclusions of the aerodynamicists.
Written by BigBlockRanger
Jul 08 2009
Nice car, but jacked up aerodynamically. I doubt you could get anywhere near 200mph and keep it on the ground with that air catching high nose!
Written by Rebeldryver Jul 06 2009
I've said before that I am big fan of those 71-72 Road Runners, Satellites, Chargers, and such. That car is very cool.
Written by Monk Jul 05 2009
[quote author=DanStokes link=topic=13443.msg263729#msg263729 date=1246751020]
While I'm a BIG MOPAR fan, I never cared for Superbirds. Just too much, in my opinion. I think they've done as fine a job as could be done. Pam ain't too bad, either!
Dan
[/quote]
Yeah.....ditto on the too much
I still remember when they came out.....most of my buddies and I thought
the car brought too much attention
cool factor today can't be denied
Written by Brian Lohnes
Jul 05 2009
[quote author=NMCA_Ron link=topic=13443.msg263661#msg263661 date=1246718965]
That was a cool video. Are we going to see more like that on BS?
Ron
[/quote]
This is the latest of our car featrures...sounds like you need to catch up! :D
All of the features have a photo galllery and video.
http://www.bangshift.com/blog/car-features/chevy.html
http://www.bangshift.com/blog/car-features/ford.html
http://www.bangshift.com/blog/car-features/mopar.html
http://www.bangshift.com/blog/car-features/buick-olds-pontiac.html
Brian
Written by DanStokes Jul 04 2009
While I'm a BIG MOPAR fan, I never cared for Superbirds. Just too much, in my opinion. I think they've done as fine a job as could be done. Pam ain't too bad, either!
Dan
Written by FuryUs Jul 04 2009
[img]http://www.71wingcars.com/graphics/products/P7010005C_xLarge.jpg[/img]
You can't talk about Dayclona without a pic of Pam!
Written by NMCA_Ron
Jul 04 2009
That was a cool video. Are we going to see more like that on BS?
Ron
Written by 67pete300
Jul 04 2009
I'm usually not a huge Mopar guy, but that car grabbed me. That thing is fantastic. Wow! I like it about 8 million times better than the 70 version. In general, I like the pre-71 styling of any musclecar better, but not in this case.
I was thinking the nose is similar to the super birds, etc and those ran pretty quick on the track.