When Werst sold the Bird, the original Firestone slicks had so few passes on them, that Jennings didn’t even change ‘em.

Chrysler engineers put together two SuperBirds for Indy--an automatic, that would be driven by Jack Werst, to compete with Ray in SS/EA and a 4-speed which would be campaigned by Ronnie Sox in SS/E. Werst's Bird came to the race shop as a radio-delete 4-speed car, that the engineers converted over to a 4-speed, swapping out the Dana rear for the auto-correct 8-3/4.

Interior reflects a 1500-mile car. Hurst built the woodgrained console to match the dash. The Hurst blue foam Sure-Grip handle was a 1970-only offering.

There is still plenty of mystery surrounding Werst's ride, and no one seems to have all the answers. Maxwell, if he had them, recently perished in a motorcycle accident. For example, did the car start out as a production B5 blue SuperBird, or as something special, like a body-in-white? Some say the car came from Petty Enterprises, but this has not been confirmed by them. Was this car originally slated for NASCAR duty? The fender tag, as decoded by Galen Govier, indicates  a special-order car for the sales bank. According to Jack Werst, the Bird was delivered to the race shop with no vinyl top--something that all SuperBirds came with in order to hide the filler panel for the smaller rear glass. The shop installed a vinyl roof to meet production specs. The NASCAR Birds had no vinyl roof. What we do know is that the engineers pulled out all stops in their creative modifications. More on this later.

The 426 Hemi that was in the car at the time it was dropped off at the race shop was built by Frank Bash--considered to be the Ray Barton of his day. According to Werst, the Bash powered Bird ran a best of 11.03 at 118 mph. Good, but not good enough to beat Ray Allen. But, Plymouth was holding a trump card.

According to Werst, "when you worked for Chrysler, you did what you were told." So, when the trucking company dropped off an engine that was shipped from Chrysler, nobody asked any questions. The Bash motor came out and the new engine went in. Now, this was no ordinary 426 Hemi, but a well-tuned 512 cu. in. Hemi cheater motor. If Werst went to the finals, how would he get through teardown? The answer was, he wouldn't. The plan was to take out Ray early in the program, then lose and get the hell outta there. Once Allen was out, the regular contingent of Mopars would take it from there.

So, just how quick was this 512 Hemi SuperBird? A week before Indy, Werst made one time-trial pass at Atco Dragway in New Jersey and clocked a 10.39 at 122 MPH--a track record.

Word of the run must have leaked out, because the following week (Labor Day weekend) at Indy, the tech guys were all over the SuperBird. They spent an hour going through the car, even pulling out the floor mats. There were rumors to the effect that NHRA had made noises that Werst would never race again if he was caught cheating.