Todco and McConnell Racing, Canadian Trans-Am racers

[69Z28freak]

Hey Ken any word on the questions in my last post?

[kgu]

Re: Question from 69Z28freak
        I do not know that shop but have not been involved with race cars for quite sometime so can not help you there. I will forward some photos of my street Camaro as it looked while I owned it. Lowered all around, big swaybars, 350ci, 2 bolt mains, big valves, ported, headers, '40 cam, Todco decals on vent windows, front seat only, white vinyl roof, flared fenders, ram air, and large lettering between tail lights.  "A.M.F."  (Adios Mother F-----)

[Jon Mello]

As promised, here are photos of Ken's Camaro. These were taken as he was heading West to join the Roy Woods Racing team.


Ken Ulrich photo


Ken Ulrich photo

[69Z28freak]

Thanks Jon great pictures. That is the car. Keep those pictures coming. They are excellent.

[Jon Mello]

Pictures of Kerry Hoctor's 2nd-gen Camaro as raced by Dick Brown for Todco racing.

Kerry says... "Hopefully something in these photos will help Ken remember more about the car.  The obvious addition to the car was the additional roll bar structure added for the 73 season.  I am curious though if Ken remembers the jack pads or if they were added later in the car's life.  The sheet metal floors are something else I wonder about. Did Todco put them in or were they added later as well?"

1) RH rear trunk floor area.


2) Main hoop of roll cage.


3) Passenger seat floor area.


4) Trunk floor area.


5) Center area of main rollbar hoop.


6) Jack pad under rocker panel area.


7) Looking down at driver's side door bars.


Rear interior area.


9) A look through the windshield.


10) Driver's side firewall area.


11) Passenger side frame and firewall area.


12) Roll bar to roof.


13) Behind driver's seat.


14) Driver's side footwell and rocker area

[kgu]

Hi Kerry,
    Thanks for the photos of your race car, I have not seen this car for almost 40 years but I recognize the original roll cage structure and especially the forward leaning roll bar and my tig welds. That is my work for sure. It looks like the later structure added was done with mig or stick welding and not my work. Photo #5 of the center area of rollbar hoop is a good example of differences between tig welds and other welding added lated to the structure. I  did not do the sheetmetal on the floor that is there now, we did not cut the floor anywhere except the trunk to put in the fuel cell.  I do not at this moment remember the jack pads but maybe will after reviewing your photos. I thank you again for your post.
          Ken

[69Z28freak]

Hi Kerry,
    Thanks for the photos of your race car, I have not seen this car for almost 40 years but I recognize the original roll cage structure and especially the forward leaning roll bar and my tig welds. That is my work for sure. It looks like the later structure added was done with mig or stick welding and not my work. Photo #5 of the center area of rollbar hoop is a good example of differences between tig welds and other welding added lated to the structure. I  did not do the sheetmetal on the floor that is there now, we did not cut the floor anywhere except the trunk to put in the fuel cell.  I do not at this moment remember the jack pads but maybe will after reviewing your photos. I thank you again for your post.
          Ken

Hi Ken do you have any other pictures or info on your old car. Do you know who the guy you sold it to was. Did I mention that it had Z28 painted on the front fenders. When I saw the car it had the same wheels but the tires were very wide for the time I recall. The car got a repaint and swaped vinyl top. Would love any other info you have on the car.

[oldtransamdriver]

I have located the info that John Todds (is it Todd or Todds?) gave me over the phone around the year 2000.  If I have listed it correctly, here is what he gave me -

- 67 Camaro - driven by Derek Johnson - later sold to builder Don Duncan
- 69 Camaro (2 cars) - driven by Derek Johnson and Craig Fisher
- 70 Firebird - driven by both Fisher and Johnson - later sold to Tiny Lund
- 71 Camaro - driven by Dick Brown - later sold to Don Duncan
- 71 Camaro - driven by J Duval on BFG tires

One 69 Camaro was sold to a Hugh Dixon in Toronto (CASC member)

He gave me some ph.#'s for Duncan and Dick Brown, also for Peter Baselice - east coast vintage racer who had the 71 Duncan Camaro (Canadian Sunoco car) at that time.

Robert Barg

[Jon Mello]

Great info, Robert! Thank you for posting that.

It is John Todds, not John Todd.

Here's a photo of Dick Brown in the '71 Camaro in the pits at Watkins Glen, 1972.

Dick Brown Collection

[DLXSX240]

I thought the current owner of the car would get a kick out of this picture. I race and paint Trans Am race cars on Forza 4 (Xbox). I paint them as close to the real car as possible with what i have to work with. You only get basic shapes , numbers, letters ect.. Then you strech and layer them to get what you want. I know the wheels aren't correct, but it's the closest ones in the game to the real thing. I tryed to recrate the pit stop photo that Jon posted. The photos on this site was a huge help to build this car. Thank you for all of your time and hard work on your research and sharing it. And if anyone would like to do some very true to it roots trans am racing on Xbox hit me up ( AlphaTide ).

Jon I hope it was ok to post on this thread. I saw the current owner of the car was on here and I really wanted him to see the car. Also people can compair it with the photo you posted and see it was pretty well executed. I hope it's worthy of being on the forum. If not I will not post anymore.  I have more pictures of the car if anyone would like to see them. Just let me know.
Thanks,
Justin

[Jon Mello]

Justin, I don't want this to become a forum for Xbox and Forza 4 because there already are forums for those kinds of things but what you did here is fine as it relates to this particular car that Kerry now owns and he and Dick Brown might enjoy seeing it.

[DLXSX240]

Thanks Jon. And no I don't want to litter up the forum with the Forza replica Trans Am cars. Like I said before I couldn't pass up the chance for the current owner and maybe even the original driver to see may recreation of the car.  So thanks for understanding.

[DLXSX240]

To Kerry and Ken I hope this helps on your question about what color the car started life as. This is a picture I found while doing research on the car for the recreation I did. I'm guessing gas must have got on it and bubbled it up and flaked off. This could the factory color or it could have been the copper color from the 1971 paint job. I wouldn't think they would have repainted the inside of the deck lid anyways, but who knows. Or could have damaged the original lid and used replacement lid.

[kgu]

I believe the car was yellow.
                                    Ken

[normal]

Here is a recent picture of Ken 's car as of last year.The car is being stripped and rebuilt for the track (Vintage trans-am)All of the original front sheet metal that Ken had from
Smokey is still intact and on the car.
Check at this link.
http://www.burn-out.ca/sites/default/files/images/IMG_0925_0.mini%20galerie%2075x75.jpg

Norm