https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-battlebirds.558386/ original post Ryan Hello, The Battlebirds were popular in our Long Beach neighborhood. A local favorite, race car driver, Chuck Daigh, was one of the drivers of the Battlebirds. We always associated with drivers from Long Beach, then as we got older, our favorites were the drag racers and companies, also from Long Beach. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-9-7-18.1121101/#post-12727554 T -bird variants A friend of my dad had purchased a new Thunderbird for his daily driver. My dad had some envy as his friend was able to cruise around in the new T-Bird. The thing that kept my dad from buying a T-Bird was the lack of space for the whole family and it being so low with almost flat seats. He had a bad back from his 20 something days and could not squeeze into the low slung T-Bird. So, his big, Buick Roadmaster fit him just fine. The Buick’s big, comfy seats and all, plus, room in the back for two growing teenagers worked well for the family. As teens, we had read all about the Battlebirds and loved trying to make duplicates of them in our plastic models. But, not being skilled designers or builders, they ended up in the box, unfinished, for future projects. My brother and his friends knew where they were being build and tuned, in Signal Hill. (about 4 miles from our house) So, on the way home from East Long Beach, we used to purposely go in that direction to see if we could actually spot a real Battlebird in person. Jnaki Besides being near Lions Dragstrip, there were some advantages to living and growing up in the Westside of Long Beach, with access to all sorts of hot rod, sports car, drag race, custom car designers, builders and speed shops. (all within several miles of each other with our high school being the centerpiece)
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