Thanks Bert for posting the article. The original 396/350 and Muncie are (I'm guessing) long gone, but I've always said "you just never know". Bill Izykowski (original owner/driver) told me "hurt" the original engine (which by the way, was done at Duffy"s Performance immediately after getting home from Reedman Chevrolet) so they bolted in another as they were in the NHRA points chase. You/We have to remember that the only "matching numbers" racers cared about were the ones the NHRA tech crew scrutinized. Same for the original Muncie (also worked internally with the only street miles from driving back to New Jersey). Spares were always ready and were changed quickly and often. Bill I. was no stranger to the hectic drag racing lifestyle as he campaigned a few 427 Biscaynes (and won class at the Winternationals among others), his last being called "Paranoia", hence the name for the new Camaro Super Stock...."Super Paranoia". I asked him (Bill) why he didn't want to run a COPO with a 427 as he was so used to them (427s).......quickly he told me to "stay away from Jenkins......we were all buddies and we didn't want to face each other". I asked why he chose the 396/350 combo. and he said " the 350 horse and the 325 horse both fell into H (SS/H) so I had a 25 horsepower headstart". He also told me "We went over Jenkins' and studied his car (the '69) and set this one up with a lot of the same stuff". I asked why he sold the car after only one season and he explained to me that rarely did he keep a car too long and he was going to be driving for Joe (Scotto). Bill and I have become good friends and he is a walking wealth of drag racing knowledge, a true gentleman, and a fine human being. I'm honored to call him a friend. Another good one...."We were selling the car and kind of had it sold to a guy from down around Maple Grove (Barry Curran), and we both agreed that he'd take the car if he could see it run and compete. So we go down to Reading for one of Darwin's Stock/Super Stock shows (Darwin Doll ex NHRA Division 1 Tech Director ran his own series of races independent of NHRA points) and the guy is there watching us do real good, REAL GOOD, I won the darn thing and had second thoughts about selling it, but I told Joe I'd drive for him so I went ahead and sold it. That was a real good car, and the guy put a 427 in it and changed class".
I hope I'm not boring all of you with the stories of the car with Bill and his antics, but I'm pretty involved with the nostalgia stuff (I also own a '69 Olds that was an original dealer-sponsored F/S) and frankly, I'm addicted to it! Gotta run for now, but I'll connect some more of the dots if anyone is interested.