Engine photos

[Sixteen Grand Sedan #56]

If you look real closely over Bucknans collar on his jacket you can see the Traco logo on both the door and the toolbox of the ramp truck in the background.

[Bruce302]

Bruce,

That is the engine compartment of the first '67 Penske Camaro (the car that Mark drove through the first 8 races of the '67 season) but it is after the car went to Europe. I believe the photo may be from 1969. I received that photo from Jeff Barley in England. I'm not sure if you received it from the same source or if I may have forwarded it to you.

-Jon

Hi Jon,
i don't think I got anything like that from Jeff, We crossed paths on may forums and I have pics of his car but they didn't come from him.
 So this was the Camaro that suffered the trailering accident then ? It was rebuilt piece by piece according to Donohues book.  Reinhart is said to have taken it to Germany, has it been traced after that ?

Bruce.

[Jon Mello]

Yes, this would be the car in the trailering accident (near Fernley, NV). Craig Fisher tells me he personally stripped the car after the accident per Roger Penske's instructions but he was not involved in any reconstruction and Mark's autobiography details how he measured the body and still found it to be square and thus convinced Roger to keep and rebuild it. It became the back-up car for several of the West Coast '67 Trans-Am races. It did go to Europe as you say but the trail of the car and it whereabouts goes cold after approximately 1972.

[Jon Mello]

Engine pictures of the Mark Donohue '68 Sunoco Camaro. This car has been owned for the last 25 years or so by Tom McIntyre.


Photo by Karl Ludvigsen


Photo by Karl Ludvigsen

[Jon Mello]

In the How to Hotrod Small-block Chevys book, there is this photo with a caption that says:

Penske/Traco 1968 Camaro with 2 x 4
bbl. carburetion draws air from fabricated
cowl vent. A close look at the photo re-
veals a lot. Safety wire on headers, nylon-
strapped plug cables, liberal use of steel-
braided-covered lines, senders for oil pressure
and water temperature. This is the type
of engine that was used in SCCA Trans Am
competition.



While it does appear to be the same engine as in the previous post, it doesn't have
the 2 x 4 carburetion. I believe this is the same car but from 1970 when driven by
Craig Murray in the Laguna Seca Trans-Am.

[OCTARD]

I wonder if Mr. Murray had the motors looked over by Al Bartz.  The passenger side valve cover has picked up one of those Bartz signature oil fill caps.  I'm not trying to say that Bartz was the only one who used those fill caps, but they did show up on many of his creations.

Comparing how Tom McIntyre currently has the engine to the perhaps Craig Murray period, Tom runs a single four barrel.. and I believe a similarly shaped breather box/oil catch on the passenger side of the firewall.  Tom also appears to be running the later style (perhaps Craig Murray style) brake master cylinder.  Tom has the alternator on the passenger side of the car in this pic though.



Jon, thanks for bringing this How to Hot Rod... photo back to us.  I hadn't looked at it in quite a while.

-Chad

[Jon Mello]

Your welcome Chad, and thanks for posting a current photo of that same engine compartment. I'm not aware of which engine builder Craig Murray may have used but the engine appears to be Traco gray and Al Bartz painted his engines blue, from what I have been told.

It seems like the dimpling on the aluminum cowl plenum air cleaner duct is a direct result of Murray's usage of the different valve cover with the fill cap instead of the earlier one with the quick disconnect. I'm assuming he was using an oil cap and spout and the can needed more clearance.

[OCTARD]

Indeed, the fill cap may not have any tie to Bartz... but his engines didn't always wear blue.  

The Bartz built factory McLaren engines, Chris Cord's DeKon Monzas, and several other customers chose other colors.

-Chad

[Jon Mello]

I posted this in the Chaffey College thread but thought a copy belonged in here as well. This is the engine in the Chaffey College Camaro. It was not run in Trans-Am until Paul van Valkenburgh bought it and by then the rules changed and it had to run with a single 4-bbl carburetor. The car is using Mondello ported heads, an Isky cam, Hooker headers and M/T valve covers. Notice that both carburetors are facing forward and the throttle linkage is thus on the outside of the driver's side carb.


Photo by Petersen Publishing, courtesy of Frank Dihartce

[firstgenaddict]

It's a direct mechanical linkage instead of the bellcrank on the firewall, did the RACE cross rams not use the 6 cyl cable operated accelerator pedal?

[Jon Mello]

Yes, race teams did use the cable, but obviously some opted to do something different. Maybe some drivers thought they had a better pedal feel with the mechanical linkage.

[Sixteen Grand Sedan #56]

ODD that the drivers side carburetor in the above photo is facing forward. I don't ever recall seeing that before.

[firstgenaddict]

Found this one on the Getty Images Site.

I have no idea which car this may be... 

[OCTARD]

Late last week, Jon, Bruce and I went over this engine shot from the Getty image collection as well.

In short, we thought it was most likely an engine from a NASCAR Baby Grand (Grand-Touring) Camaro.

Jon's notes:

• My feeling is the date is a default and is not truly Jan 1, 1968. It was probably taken in '68 but the date was unknown for sure so they just entered Jan 1.
• It is a '68 (or '69) Camaro based on the creases around the wiper motor area.
• Notice the upper a-arm is not a Camaro piece. The whole front suspension is Nascar or circle track.
• Pin in the center of the hood is a Nascar thing also.
• ISC Images is International Speedway Corp which is Daytona Speedway Archives.

 

And I noted the following about it's NASCAR-ness.

• No inner fenders (at least not on the passenger side)
• Single reservoir brake master cylinder
• Altered front shock placement

 

Bruce stated that it could have been a Trans-Am car that had been converted to NASCAR Baby Grand/Grand Touring.

[Jon Mello]

The '68 Camaro engine compartment of Southern California's Andy Porterfield. These were taken around the time of the '69 Riverside Trans-Am.
Bill Thomas had a hand in building the engine for this car which was claimed to make 466hp at 7,400 rpm.




Petersen Publishing photos