Robin Roberts Reveals New RJ-Built “No Prep Kings” ’68 Firebird

Street Outlaws star Robin Roberts has unveiled his gorgeous new 1968 Pontiac Firebird in the lead up to season five of “No Prep Kings.” Coined “High Velocity,” the brand new machine was built by RJ Race Cars and features a whole host of Quarter-Max components and other world-class parts and pieces that are sure to make it a bonafide championship contender.

A project two years in the making, the ’68 features power from a new Pro Line Racing Hemi with a Hart’s Charger centrifugal supercharger, all controlled by a FuelTech ECU.

“I met Robin four years ago at the PRI Show and we got to talking,” Rickie Jones of RJ Race Cars says. “We got to be good friends and started working with him, and in the years since, we’ve pretty much redone everything on his old Firebird — we’ve front-halved it, mostly back-halved it, put all new suspension and four-link in it, new housing, anti-roll bar, redone the pedals, the seat, some of the roll cage stuff. So that car is about 75-percent RJ. He went out and was doing well and winning races, and every time we did work to it he saw that it was going faster, so when it came time for a new one, he turned to us.”

“When I met Rickie I told him, ‘hey man, give your phone number, I promise not to bother you.’ Two months later, we’re like pen pals texting each other,” Roberts says with a laugh.

“The relationship we had with Rickie with updating the old car really led me to have the confidence they could build me a car that would keep me around for a while,” Robin adds. “I told them I wanted to build a new car and I had three goals: I wanted the baddest car in no-prep, it’s got to be safer, and it’s got to be lighter. And I think that’s what they did.”

“Robin had some ideas of what he wanted,” Rickie echoes. “He wanted a purpose-built “No Prep Kings” type of car, and he wanted to stick with that Firebird; there’s so many Camaros out there, he wanted to stay true to his Firebird roots. He’s a Pontiac guy. Everything we learned on the old car, we thought abut how we could make it better, and build the best no-prep car that we possibly can. So between that and his new engine condition with Hart’s, it’s a pretty exciting combination and I can’t wait to run it.”

Rick Jones, a veteran of the industry who has seen and done it all in his time as an elite chassis builder, had to reach back into his repertoire of years-gone-by to construct a car around OEM steel panels.

“We started with panels from a donor car that Robin brought to us. It’s pretty well a steel body, but we modified everything and built everything else on the car,” Rick said. “We put it up on our surface plate jig and we just have a design in our mind of what we want it to look like. You start cutting and fitting everything to make it look the way you want in the end.

“It was a big feat…a lot of work. Steel is more work than building a carbon-fiber body, for sure,” Rick continued. “We used to do it all the time with Pro Stock cars. Everything is customized, so it has more tire clearance and all that, but it still keeps the look of a ’68 Firebird. We wanted to keep it very stock-appearing. It’s got carbon-fiber doors and front end. We put a different cowl hood on it to clear the engine, and we made new valance for the front end to make the car well balanced and better aero-wise. The hood and front end combination is all completely modified and custom. We wanted it all to look right and fit the rules.”

“It was nice to build something with some steel on it,” Rickie commented. “We do a lot of carbon-fiber bodies, so a steel roof and quarter car coming out of our shop is pretty cool.”

To the untrained eye, the basic chassis is very much in line with a modern Pro Modified car, minus the requirements on wheelbase. Minute differences like engine placement and chassis configuration pose the subtle variances between them.

The car sports Penske shocks and struts, Strange Engineering carbon-fiber brakes and axles, and Quarter-Max’s 2-inch Extreme anti-roll bar, adjustable four-link system, custom fabricated full floater rearend housing, and adjustable strut mounts. Titanium is also utilized throughout, including front control arms, window frames, driveshaft tunnel, pedals, wheelie bars, and more.

S&D Enterprises in Michigan, RJ’s exclusive painter for more than two decades, applied the striking color scheme.

Roberts took delivery of the car last year, and strategically waited for Hart’s to finalize its new supercharger — he used the company’s turbos and says it really changed his program, and so he “learned to love those guys…it’s the same relationship we have with RJ. We rreally believe in who they are and we’re excited about what this new product is going to do.”

For Roberts, a new car was as much about leveling-up in the no-prep game as it was introducing efficiencies in his program with two cars permanently set up for their own purposes.

“We either had to build a a street car, or take the old car and make it a street car. The old car wasn’t really built to go as fast as we’re pushing it, so it made logical sense to take it and convert it to a street car,” Robin explains. “We would spend 20 hours converting a car from track to street, 25 hours to take it back to track, and three test runs to get it square again. So it’s hard to go back and forth, because the setup is so different. So we decided we were going to take the old car, put it in street mode, and leave it. Then it’s always ready…you get the call, you want to go do something, you load up and go. I started out street racing…that’s my favorite thing to do, so we need a car ready for that every time.”

A fact that’s been under wraps until now is the Jones’ involvement in Robin’s racing program to this point.

“We have our consulting service where we tune cars, not just the Pro Stock stuff, but even no-prep cars,” Rickie says. “I’ve been part of Robin’s team for about four seasons now. I’ve been helping him tune his chassis over the phone, and so we’ve established a great partnership.”

Roberts plans to test the new car “at a private place, away from all the eyes” within the next week.