BFGoodrich Radial Tirebird

[Bruce302]

How about this ?

[group/7]

Sad news in relation to the above post of the Larry Dent Camaro by Bruce, also seen earlier in this thread, post # 7 as a negative from Jon.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?n=lawrence-w-dent-larry&pid=185055246&fhid=32557   


Mike

[group/7]

Jon in that pic of the Larry Dent Camaro ? wonder why it says "BFG TireBird" on the side ?
didn't want to ask the question in my above post.

[69Z28-RS]

It would seem he had a little sponsorship money from BFG...? 

[Trans Åm]

Would have loved to have met this gentleman, really cool cars was this guys life.
Just for memory:

LAWRENCE W. "LARRY" DENT, 83, of Auburn passed away peacefully on Monday April 10, 2017, at home. Born in Ashland, Ky., he was the son of the late Leo and Martha Dent. Larry worked at WKJG as a TV weatherman. He was the Vice President of K&K Insurance. He retired from 3M as a technical sales representative for the printing products division. Larry loved sports cars and was a 55 year member of Sports Car Club of America. He also was an area director. He was inducted in the SCCA Hall of Fame and earned the Woolf Barnato Award. He was a past Executive Director of NATMUS Museum. He was a volunteer for Junior Achievement. Surviving are his wife, Linda Dent; and one sister, Judy O Connor. He was preceded in death by one brother, Leo Dent II. Memorial contributions can be made to Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, Hope for Animals or Black Pines Animal Sanctuary. Arrangements by FairHaven Funeral Home, 6557 N. Clinton St., Fort Wayne. To send online condolences, visit www.fairhavenfortwayne. com - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?n=lawrence-w-dent-larry&pid=185055246&fhid=32557#sthash.PjaWuzTo.dpuf

[Jon Mello]

Sorry to hear of Larry Dent's passing. He had a very good sense of humor and was a great story teller of some of his racing exploits. He wrote a funny story about co-driving the Larry Bock/Larry Drover Camaro at Sebring in '69. I thought I had saved it but unfortunately can't find it on my computer.

Below are some links with info about the Tirebird which began life as a T/G Firebird.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/21/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1970-pontiac-firebird-tirebird/

https://myclassicgarage.com/social/posts/131418-1970-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-at-canepa

[Bruce302]

It would seem he had a little sponsorship money from BFG...? 

T/G Racing were paid something like $ 0.50 per lap to test the T/A Radial, as well as the race sponsorship.
Bruce.

[Bruce302]

Just to clarify, this is the negative used in the Walter Parkin thread, I just 'un-negatived' it.
But great subject matter.

 

How about this ?

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Bruce. Can you "un-negative" the other one in the Walter Parkins thread and post both there? I don't have the capability to do that.

[Trans Åm]

Last try. By the way Jon, I simply copied the image from your thread, pasted it onto Microsoft Paint, right clicked the image in MS Paint and at the bottom of the dropdown menu, it says "Invert Colors".

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Nick!

[oldtransamdriver]

There is more to the Tirebird story after Don Clement - passed thru my hands at one time.

Robert

[Trans Åm]

No problem Jon.
Got any more to that story Robert, like about when that was, condition of chassis/drivetrain, future after your ownership. Maybe something like pictures?

...and how you could be crazy enough to let it go.

[Jon Mello]

Thanks to Steve Francis for sharing this recollection with us...

"The thread on the TireBird takes me back to how I got Minilite UK to put into production the aluminum version of the 15”x 8”T/A wheel.
 
Back in the 1990s I purchased a used set of four magnesium 15”x 8” Minilites from an eBay seller that owned one of the BFG TireBird show cars.  Along with the wheels he included some BFG papers (complete with greasy fingers prints from prev owner) which I scanned and have attached to this email. At that time I was already the primary North American Importer of Minilites and was not happy with Minilite’s 15”x 8” “Sport” style wheel.  So I asked the UK factory to consider a run of aluminum 15”x 8” T/A style in heat treated aluminum. They agreed but didn’t have the old blueprints so I shipped one of the magnesium wheels as a guide for new tooling. Once the tooling was finished I got word that the factory “lost” the single mag wheel but they gave me a set of the alum version free of charge for the error. I ended up selling the other three mag wheels to one of the HTA guys, I think they ended up on the 2nd Gen Warren Agor Camaro.
 
So all the aluminum 15”x 8” wheels that are out there on the race track and the street owe a big thanks to that TireBird show car."

[oldtransamdriver]

Nick, this car came out west to Vancouver BC in 80.  I had told a local racer about this car and he
made the purchase - was raced for a few years at Westwood, then sold to a local stock car racer who
made a few mods but don't know if it actually went oval track racing.  Then was sold to another Westwood
racer who cleaned it up and added some IMSA flares, but decided to sell it to me as a roller - I have a pic
somewhere.

I knew the history of the car but any restoration work was beyond my financial capabilities at that time. Bear
in mind I have no mechanical or fabrication skills, so the car was sold to David Tom of the Historic Trans-Am
Registry.  Not sure of the year but probably in 93/94.  He did restore the car but don't know if he raced it.
Last time I saw the car it was displayed at the Peterson Museum LA Tribute to Tran-Am event in 97. Don't know how it ended up at the Canepa enterprise.

Robert