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Werst maintains that Allen wasn't aware of his ringer Bird, but it's unlikely that Werst's pass at Atco could have remained a secret. Werst waited in the staging lanes for a chance to pull up next to Allen during eliminations. But, someone else got in ahead of him. Allen was
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on the line, the lights came down and Allen red-lighted--whether by accident, or on purpose--to avoid the defeat he knew would be coming sooner or later at the hands of this Mopar. When Werst got his chance on the line, he turned on the red bulb, motored down the track, put the car on the trailer, and hightailed it outta there.

Once back at the shop, the evidence was obliterated. The 512 was shipped back to Chrysler and the 426 Bash motor reinstalled. The Bird was stored at Werst's facility for a couple of weeks, and Chrysler sent him the car's MSO, selling him the 1500-mile Hemi SuperBird for a dollar. On October 2, 1970, Werst flipped the Bird, with the numbers-matching Bash 426 Hemi, to Ken Jennings, in Delaware. According to the Bill of Sale, the car sold for $7500.  Werst said the car, plus the original 4-speed, Dana, and trailer, came to 12 grand. Part of the agreement was that Jennings had to paint over the "5 & 50" lettering that Werst ran with.

Jennings, with driver, Roy Tolsten, successfully campaigned the Bird for a season, won a bunch of money with it, and then parked it in his shop. The car then fell off the radar screen.

The stories began circulating Aberdeen, Maryland. There was a car in town, someplace, that supposedly was the "5 & 50" SuperBird, and the car had run 8s, and people had offered a million bucks for it, and on and on. Jennings kept the car under wraps.

Neal Johnson, who lived some seven miles from Jennings shop, had heard those stories, and started looking for the SuperBird--a quest that, he says, took 12 years. He did eventually locate the car and talk to Jennings, but the Bird wasn't for sale. It wasn't the money. Jennings had bought the car for his son, who was killed shortly thereafter by a drunk driver. Sure, Jennings said the car was for sale. If you came up with an offer, he'd always say he'd get back to you. But, he never did.

Jennings died some years later, and he had an interesting last request. He said that he wanted to be taken to the cemetery in the SuperBird. Since this was a physical impossibility, the family did the next best thing. They put the Bird on a rollback trailer, and slid Jenning's coffin underneath for his last ride.


Fender tag shows a late (12/15/69) build date. The last digits of the VIN are 181257. According to Johnson, Galen Govier says it’s one of the last SuperBirds built. The winged Warriors say that they haven’t seen a Bird with a later VIN.








 

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