STORY LINE: PONY CARS-TRANS AM RACING           

I have enjoyed most forms of motorsport from the highbanks to the dragstrip, to blown alcohol drag boats and serious street cars … and Cadillac convertibles. My favorite driving sport is high speed road racing where the straightaways allow speeds in way big excesses of 140mph. And it doesn’t really matter whether I am driver or spectator.  I just like going and/or watching … very fast. And my favorite driving cars … are bone stockers, and full customs.

Drag racing is entertaining both as a spectator sport and as a ‘combatant’. NASCAR racing is typically pure spectator sport akin to ‘Big Time’ wrestling …. as only the big guys get to play in the ring. In the ‘60s a new kind of racing was brought about from the birth of the ‘Pony Car’. TRANS AM.

Pony cars were born when the first Mustang hit the streets April 17th of 1964, with Lee Iacocca  somewhat responsible for the phenomena as the man behind the car.. Caroll Shelby modified the Mustang for SCCA/SAAC racing. Hmmm, Shelby American Automobile Club. A new kind of club sports car racing was … born. It wasn’t long before the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird models entered the pony car frey(1967 models)along with Mustang’s sister car, Mercury Cougar, on a slightly longer wheelbase than Mustang. The Plymouth Barracuda/Dodge Dart were not quite the match until 1970’s new (Challenger/Barracuda) body and interesting to note, is that the fish-Barracuda-was introduced before the Mustang by some 17 days, April 1, 1964 … seems nobody remembers that particular fact though. Even AMC was into TRANS AM with the Javelin

This new racing category/style/class with pony cars was catching on as the TRANS AM Series of the Sports Car Club of America, with the ‘BIG 3’ American car manufacturers participating.

With engine displacement  capped at 305CID for the TRANS AM series American cars, Ford was in early on with the Mustang modified for racing by Shelby American(a 1965 R Mustang is worth over a hundred big ones today) and Cougar joining in 1967. Engines were highly modified road racing Ford 289 high performance initially, followed by the 302 in 1968 and the BOSS 302 car in 1969(Cougar ELIMINATOR). Chevrolet Camaro, as introduced for 1967, built the Z/28 302 specifically to battle with the Ford cars in TRANS AM-the 1969 Penske/Donahue Blue and Gold SUNOCO Camaro is likely the most remembered of TRANS AM series cars. Pontiac/Firebird will most likely be remembered as the company that enrichened the Sports Car Club of America coffers by paying royalties to the club at the rate of  somewhere between $1 and $5 for every Firebird TRANS AM that rolled out of the factory. In late 1969 Pontiac introduced the Firebird TRANS AM model with 697 built for the year(eight convertibles-worth in excess of  $150,000 each today)paid the ransom to the SCCA … not knowing, what a hit the car would be. You do the math for 30 years production. The Firebird cars though, carried the name but did not qualify for TRANS AM racing as they were all 400CID … unless it was a Canadian Pontiac … with Chevrolet 302 Z engine. Pontiac did attempt a 303 engine but Smokey Yunick could not make horsepower with it, or keep it together. With the new design/bodied 1970 Barracuda AAR/Challenger TA, Chrysler went TRANS AM racing. The 340 was destroked and … AAR stands for All American Racer, T/A for-go figure-Trans Am. Peter Revson drove factory AMC cars along with Donahue in 1970/71 with AMC setting records and Donahue securing the Drivers Championship in 1971.

Billed as the TRANS-AMERICAN Sedan Championship, the series held its first race March 25, 1966 at Sebring International Raceway in Florida and, since it’s debut in 1966 TRANS AM racing has made the likes of Mark Donahue, Paul Gentilozzi, Jerry Titus, Parnelli Jones, George Follmer, Sam Posey, Scott Sharp, Peter Gregg, Ron Fellows, Scott Pruett, David Hobbs, Tommy Kendall, and many others into legends. Some notable first year drivers in 1966 included A.J.Foyt, Richard Petty and Jackie Ickx. TRANS AM racing will celebrate its 40^th Anniversary in 2005 as America’s oldest continuously running road race series.

TRANS AM racing is alive and well and if  your interests are in the historic T/A cars look into this summers historic racing calender at nearby Waterford Raceway.

FROM CHARLIE WINKLER:  You really only need two tools; WD40 and duct tape. If it does not move and should, use the WD40. If it does move and should not, use the duct tape.