"Inside the Cars of the Trans-Am" and other articles

[Jon Mello]

Sports Car Graphic article courtesy of Craig Wheeldon.

[klvn8r]

I'm starting to think that this should be titled  "The T/A Camaro/Javelin Forum".  :^)   
I've noticed that this late 1970 article/photo has NO torque arm/shock in the car, but the "restoration" of it has one now, mounted up on the driveshaft tunnel.  Thoughts??

klvn8r

[Jon Mello]

No idea on the torque arm/shock. Maybe they tried it earlier in the season and it did not work as planned or was nixed by the SCCA.

[klvn8r]

Pretty sure it was not there in 1970....the car currently has one mounted on the interior, atop the driveshaft tunnel.

klvn8r

[cuda48]

I agree, I don't believe it was there in 1970.  In fact, I believe I read somewhere (I think it was a quote from Donohue) that the SCCA didn't want suspension links coming into the interior unless they were covered up (like Gurney's horizontal shocks). Ken Epsman's Posey Challenger has a very similar link coming through the center of the rear seat area and attaching to the rear of the roll cage that was not there in 1970 as well.

Camicia

[Jon Mello]

I'm no expert on those cars so I appreciate the input from you guys. Thanks.

[oldtransamdriver]

That is a great article in SCG - thanks to Craig and John.  I had not seen that before or at least didn't remember it.  

I used to wonder how much slower would I be if I had a chance to drive Donohue's car?  at least 3-4 seconds a lap, I'm sure.
Of more interest would have been, if he had driven my old 67 and how much faster in it would he have been?

I raced agaiinst Paul at Mid-Ohio in 71 (Chaffey College camaro).  It poured rain for the first half of the race, then dried up, and we only had the rain tires we started with and they were in shreds by the time the race was over. Paul was 17th qualifier and I was 20th(although qualifying was never a big deal for us - just get on the grid). That's the race I saw him driving the camaro down the road later with the dump cans etc sticking out of the rear window. I think he drove it out from CA and then back!

Milt could, imo, hold his own with the factory guys.

Robert Barg



 

[Jon Mello]

You're welcome, Robert. I think that is a very good and informative article for those who are into the actual driving of the cars.
No doubt that Milt was a very good driver but it is interesting to see him as part of the ARA team testing the Donohue Javelin
for this test and then ARA did not stick with Milt for the '71 season. Instead they went with Peter Revson and Tony Adamowicz.

[Jon Mello]

From the March 1971 issue of Motor Sport magazine. This is the Wiggins Teape Camaro, formerly a Penske
Camaro raced by Mark Donohue at Daytona to start the '68 Trans-Am season and raced by Sam Posey for
Penske in mid-68. It was sold to Sam after he left the Penske team but Roger bought it back from Sam to
keep in reserve as a back-up car during the '69 season. It was not used in '69 and subsequently went to
England after that. It has been brought back to the U.S. and restored as the first '68 Penske car and is
currently being raced by Don Lee in Historic Trans-Am.  (article courtesy of Mike K, aka Swede70)

[Jon Mello]

June '69 article from Stock Car Racing magazine, courtesy of Chad (OCTARD).

[Jon Mello]

These two tidbits from the May 2, 1970 issue of Competition Press & Autoweek are courtesy of Robert Barg.

[MO]

1. I don't think I have ever seen a dash with that many gauges in it.
2. I don't know when the tall spoiler made it to production, but my Van Nuys 10B 71 Z had the short spoiler.

[Jon Mello]

Fred, I think the Javelins only ran that double panel of gauges while they did testing and I believe they did a lot of testing throughout the entire '68 season trying to get the cars to handle and perform like they wanted them to.

As to the rear spoilers for the '70 Camaros, the large spoiler as seen in the photo about was OK'd by the SCCA just a few days after that issue of CP&A came out. They were in use on the Camaros for the second T/A race of the season which was at Lime Rock on May 9th. These were a special order spoiler (not an RPO, regular production option) and the low spoiler was a standard item on the car in '70 and '71. The large spoiler became the only one offered when the '72 model year came around. I don't know the exact tally for how many of the tall spoilers were made for the '70 model year but it wasn't a whole lot. I think the SCCA gave the GM guys a break and doubt they really delivered enough cars with the tall spoiler to satisfy the 2500 minimum by early May.

[MO]

Thanks for the info Jon. I was always under the impression that the tall spoiler was a COPO only item for 70 and became standard D80 sometime in 71.

[Jon Mello]

I'm a 1st-gen Camaro lover and my interest falls way off when it comes to the 2nd-gens. I know the tall spoiler was a COPO type of order as that's how it shows up on some of the original build sheets that have been found in those cars. Whether that tall spoiler became standard sometime in mid-71, I didn't think so, but maybe some others with knowledge of that will chime in.