Trans-Am Racing 66-72

[michael_a_l]

As a young fella I always loved the mustang(really who wouldnt).

I recently here in Australia saw what we call the Touring Car Masters live on track.and obtained a few posters of the couple of Trans Am mustangs that raced.(and won)

Since then I have read a lil about the Trans Am series and am really keen to learn about the Mustangs that participated and who drove them.And how many races they won.

So does anyone out there have any info,maybe a list of who drove mustangs.or have pics.(that i could have permission to print for wall).

Also do anyone watch or participate in the Historic Trans Am series?Do they have posters or driver cards or maybe I could arrange with someone to get a program.

And Are race programs,posters etc from that era hard to come by?Do they fetch a high price?

Perhaps people know of some good books?

Thanks for reading

And

[chunterer]

Nice intro and welcome!!

I have often wondered if there are any books dedicated to the series, only found one so far and it was 400 odd dollars on an ebay site so I passed on that one!!!

Mark Donohue was the major attraction in the series heyday of the late 60's early 70's and I think he started with a Mustang before he moved onto Camaro and AMC Javelins?

George Follmer, a very underrated American and Parnelli Jones became his main opponents in Mustangs IIRC but there were some other quality drivers who were in it like Dan Gurney, the F1 star, his protege Swede Savage, who was tragically killed at Indy before he hit his heights, Sam Posey and Peter Revson.

One A Moffatt also appeared at certain events early in the category's life!
I think nearly all the drivers has a go in Mustangs at some point or other.

[DAVID PATERSON]

http://www.historictransam.com/home.htm

[chunterer]

Thanks David, I was hoping this thread might turn into a bit of a discussion for the guy though?

Come on folks, any memories of the Mustangs etc?

[Moosehead]

Lots of information on the cars' history on this German site in English!

http://www.ponysite.de/

[Moosehead]

And there are plenty of videos on YT of both the original '60's & '70's events and the current vintage events.

[grantp]

I remember as a young person 'back in the day' seeing infrequent copies of American magazines ("Road and Track"?) and thinking how fantastic the American scene seemed to be. Of course all the colour photos taken from optimum angles in bright sunlight helped no end ...

Of course American muscle cars on their local tracks (often I now realise about 1 step or less removed from the 'dirt track' scene that I don't recall ever seeing reported) seemed incredibly 'solid' compared to the events I had attended in the UK at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. The impression was that all of America was utterly involved with motor racing, especially Can-am, Trans-Am and a few other events, like Indy, that we had heard about here in the UK. Of course it was just an impression.

If you can find someone selling a collection of US magazines from those times you may find some satisfaction for your craving. Also maybe make contact with the people who wrote the reports if they are still around. They may have memorabilia from back in the day.

[Gerry Taylor]

I remember that I was going to buy the David Howes AMC Javelin, and enter it in the new Trans-Am series. The car was going to race under the JERRY LEWIS FILMS INC: banner, as I am connected with the industry. But, it all fell away, and nothing came of it. Bit like the series I guess.

[michael_a_l]

Thanks for the website links,They are great reads and have some terrific pics.....and it looks like there is a book coming out in a couple months

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by michael_a_l

Thanks for the website links,They are great reads and have some terrific pics.....and it looks like there is a book coming out in a couple months

Michael, I just noticed that you are in Australia, so you might be interested in this.

http://www.transamracing.com.au/

[michael_a_l]

Originally Posted by DAVID PATERSON

Michael, I just noticed that you are in Australia, so you might be interested in this.

http://www.transamracing.com.au/

Thats awesome that they have their own series in Queensland(Shame its only in queensland)

Would be great to go watch

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by michael_a_l

Thanks for the website links,They are great reads and have some terrific pics.....and it looks like there is a book coming out in a couple months

Yes, on that historic website is the Friedman book I referred to earlier, it is helluva expensive on ebay and i'm a little surprised there's not other volumes knocking about anywhere?

[Moosehead]

I have the Friedman book, never realised it was worth so much

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Moosehead

I have the Friedman book, never realised it was worth so much

I suspect in real terms it isn't, but in the absence of many tomes on the subject maybe he's sitting on a relative golden egg?

[Jesper OH]

http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...s/TransAm.html
http://www.scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=111

..for a couple of usefull links.

I have the Friedman book, but never realised the "value" it apparently has! It's main feature are the pictures covering each race with an informative caption. Before each season a short text describe the developments for the season and at the back full results are to be found, but nothing new here. Not the ultimate book about Trans-Am 1966-1972, in my oppinion, but that book has not been written yet.

Jesper

[chunterer]

Thanks for that helpful post Jesper, wonder when we'll get a new book out about the category, surely there's enough interest?

The series in it's heyday was arguably bigger than NASCAR, the makes certainly felt so according to the Donohue book.

[Al Weyman]

There is a revival series in the STates now.

[Jesper OH]

I saw the historic Trans-Ams as a support race to the 2008 Sebring 12 Hours and with the track being on the longer side of your average track, you could still follow the 30+ pack around the place by the sheer thunder!

Jesper

[Al Weyman]

I have a car at home i am told maybe elligible for that series, one day I will resurrect it.

[wollek1]

I have a great book by Al Bochroch that majors on the "Pony War" years but also covers the later years briefly - full of great stuff like Jochen Rindt winning the first Trans-Am race in a works Alfa - probably worth a bit now too, we must all be sitting on a fortune

[chunterer]

Hi wollek1, great username!

Welcome and thanks for the entry - what's the book's title by the way?

[wollek1]

thanks for the welcome Chunterer and apologies for the delay in responding, been off-line for a few days

The full title is "Trans-Am Racing 1966-1985, Detroit's Battle For Pony Car Supremacy" - by Albert R. Bochroch with a foreword by Parnelli Jones

It's a smallish format hardback book with hundreds of photos, tho' no colour - ISBN number if it helps is 0-87938-229-5

Just done a search on BookFinder and came up with two copies, both in the States, neither exactly at bargain prices - but if you see a copy at a reasonable price I recommend it strongly

[chunterer]

Belated thanks wollek1!! I'll look out for that...

General question to all...

Wwhich was the best car from the period. Numerically I guess the Mustang or Camaro featured most strongly but Penske & Donohue didn't half turn the Javelin from an almost also ran to very competitive beast didn't they?

I' would have paid good money to see a Mercury Cougar driven by Dan Gurney as well, fantastic!!

[Bob Riebe]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Belated thanks wollek1!! I'll look out for that...

General question to all...

Wwhich was the best car from the period. Numerically I guess the Mustang or Camaro featured most strongly but Penske & Donohue didn't half turn the Javelin from an almost also ran to very competitive beast didn't they?

I' would have paid good money to see a Mercury Cougar driven by Dan Gurney as well, fantastic!!

If you wanted to go racing and have a car where the how to make horsepower items were already a done deal-- the Boss 302 Mustang.
Now chassis mods and other such creative thinking items-- cannot really say.

Ronnie Kaplan and the Javelins suffered from a budget tiny compared to what Penske got, and a lack of homologation from AMC in 1969. He had abundant HP which was unusable when the SCCA banned his stud-girdle.

[chunterer]

This might be asking the obvious but for the benefit of the uninitiated, how come Kaplan lost out on the AMC deal before his cars were able to become competitive and why did Penske get the gig?