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By MarkMontereyBay - 10 Years Ago
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I went to the informal gathering early this AM and after a couple hours was getting ready to leave. In drives this black Tbird with what looked like Hallibrand wheels. I walked over and began a conversation realized this was the Doane Spencer Bird owned by Kirk White, car collector and seller, in Florida. The owner purchased it at auction. If you read Hemmings Motor News, Kirk White is known for his long and superlative-filled ads. He had been advertising this Bird for a year or so saying it had been his personal driver for many years. The story of the Bird, as told to me by this new owner, is that Spencer had raced his modified Tbird at Bonneville and decided he wanted to rebuild it with more dramatic improvements. So he dismantled the car and built another fabricating a tube frame, etc. The parts from the racer were stored in his shop. A customer wanted him to build a car like the first one, so he used another and built it using the parts and design of the first racer. How it got to Kirk White I don't know. I found it a bit amazing the owner was driving it, over the mountains from San Jose to Santa Cruz. I took a lot of photos and he gave me permission to post them here.
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By miker - 10 Years Ago
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Mr. White had a lengthy article on the car and it's history posted when it was for sale. Last time I looked he'd taken it down.
Working from memory, which is dangerous at my age:
The motor was highly modified, with the exhaust valves relocated.
This is the motor that went 150+ at Bonneville.
Custom pistons.
Cam ground to Spencer's spec.
It regularly turned 8000rpm.
The story was he bought the 'bird new, and modified it over time. When he decided to do a major make/over upgrade, he built an independent rear, and put a very hi-po 302 in it.
The removed parts went into a one owner CA. car, as seen here.
Both cars sold in the last few months. This bird was in the 100k, bracket, the original Spencer bird in the low 90's.
Hopefully, someone who saw the article copied it. The pictures of the headers under the car alone are priceless.
I think its great the new owner had it out.
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By lyonroad - 10 Years Ago
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I love the cooling system modifications. We've talked about them before, but does anyone know how effective they are?
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By miker - 10 Years Ago
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Well, that knocked another memory loose. The article mentioned something about Ford having built 7(?) of those radiators for the racing cars, but I don't remember which ones. How it ended up on this car wasn't really addressed, as I recall.
Growing up reading the hot rod magazines, I always thought of Doane Spencer's 32. But he was apparently deeply involved in the sports car racing, also.
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By glrbird - 10 Years Ago
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Here is a little more info.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/08/09/a-bird-in-the-hand-both-doane-spencer-thunderbirds-head-to-auction/
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By lyonroad - 10 Years Ago
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Miker, if you scroll through the Hemmings blog that glrbird just posted you will see a comment by Steve. Sure seems familiar to me.
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