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.

57 Black Tbird 312/auto