Remembering Trans-Am

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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JMarine25
GTPlanet, I don't think there's a thread on this. This is just a thread to look back on Trans-Am as we known it.

The way I've remembered Trans-Am was simple- mean street cars turned into great racing machines. I wasn't born in the '60s or '70s to see some of the glory days of Trans-Am, but I did get to enjoy this series first in 1999. Here's what I thought of Trans-Am in 1999:

* SWEET tubeframe GT-style cars with the rear wing, wide body, and sugar-sweet engine growl. Some Trans-Am cars at this time had lip spoilers and not
* functional taillights, but most everything else is like a NASCAR stock car (no functional headlights or doors)
* 650+ horsepower
* some nice cars: F-Body Camaro, Corvette C5, Mustang, Pontiac Trans-Am, even a Pontiac Grand Prix
* I liked Brian Simo, but Paul Gentilozzi(?) won the title in his Homelink Mustang
* would see cars in the future like the Panoz Esperante, Jaguar XKR, DeTomaso/Qvale Mangusta, and the Dodge Viper (Cinjo Racing) among others

I know there's an American GT series fielding these cars nowadays, but I still miss those seeing those lovely cars go around race tracks. Those cars were low and wide- the way I like my race cars. I just wish that I've known more about Trans-Am during the Muscle Car era. Back when you've seen a blue Camaro with Sunoco sponsorship. Back when you'd see a lime green Dodge Challenger painted up in lime green doing great in Trans-Am. Back when Tommy Kendall picked up four Trans-Am championships. This is a thread to look back on Trans-Am. I've been wanting to do this thread for a while. But now, I have my chance. Here are some talking points:

* glory days of Trans-Am
* why Trans-Am failed?
* best memories of Trans-Am
* could it still have existed today and still be profitable?
* anything else that crosses your mind

PLEASE set me straight on any facts I've messed up. Thank you.
 
When I think of Trans-Am I think of several things:

Pony Cars (Camaro, Mustang)
Tommy Kendall
Dorsey Schrader
Paul Gentilozzi and Brian Simo's epic Trans-Am championship battles in the early 2000's.
Audi and the Turbos
Motrocraft Mustangs.
 
Paul Gentilozzi and Boris Said are the two names that come to mind. I miss the trans am series so much. Had some of the best races I've seen.
 
My draw to this series was just the cars themselves. Who doesn't love a pack of wide-bodied GT-type cars? It was fun to watch as well as lovely to listen to the engines. I think in 2002, one of the Trans-Am Jaguar XKR's ran the 2002 24 Hours of Daytona. Remember that there are no functional headlights on Trans-Am cars. So what was done was to add some fog lights or something. Layla's Keeper and I are Trans-Am fans.

The racing was intense as well. I considered Trans-Am to be a great proving ground for front/RWD sports cars. You have to admit- nothing like seeing cars like these go for broke on any race weekend. Most of my memories are with Trans-Am starting in 1999. Most of you know more about Trans-Am than I do. Watching the Monterrey Historics event with Trans-Am is always an extreme pleasure as you had the classic muscle cars tuned for racing and ready to go at it. I think I even made a comment on GTPlanet about how I wished I know what a Trans-Am 2005 Mustang would look. I didn't have to worry because Trans-Am was turning into a fading memory. I grant you... if Trans-Am were ever to resurface, some of today's modern retro would be the driving force. Look at the upcoming Camaro, today's Ford Mustang, today's Corvette C6, today's Dodge Challenger, maybe even today's Dodge Viper... this is the kind of retro cool that has me imagining the glory days of Trans-Am. However, without Trans-Am (as we know it), we never really get to see these cars in any modern Trans-Am trim. Most of those cars would probably get the modern treatment with the big GT wing, a wide-body design, non-functional headlights, and non-functional doors. They are more like NASCAR stock cars only with a GT wing and functional taillights.

The SCCA Runoffs' SCCA GT-1 class is a great reminder of Trans-Am year after year. Some of those cars even include classic cars reborn or given the GT-1 treatment. Maybe the moment I best remember in watching Trans-Am was in 2001 at Road America. The rain came down hard towards the end of the race. Then the next thing you know it... as many as 12 cars slid off the race track! The race was red flagged and not sure who won (besides Mother Nature). Another moment was in a Motor Trend magazine comparison test. A stock Ford Mustang edged out Gentilozzi's Homelink Mustang in some kind of test (either fastest lap around a track in a comparison or better acceleration. Not sure what it was about. The article was in 1999 or 2000).

What would you all say are the most memorable Trans-Am cars? You know, for all the right or wrong reasons?



[UPDATE] By the way, you mean "Motorcraft," TwinTurbos94. :)
 
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You mean this sort of stuff? Took these of the Historic Trans-Am racers at the Sonoma Wine Country Classic a couple of years ago:








Clicky on the pictures for full size images. :)
 
Yeah. That sort of stuff. Lovely pictures of some lovely classic cars.
 
Parnelli Jones' dominance was what I thought of, as well as titans such as Mark Donohue and Jerry Titus, and also the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA that won the first-ever race (with Jochen Rindt at the wheel)... Good memories, though I did not live in that era.

Trans-Am appears to be running well enough, but I still believe that there is a crowd that wants the racers to be built and prepared like the old ones. Given the green attitudes today, though, it is not likely that it would receive much approval from anybody other than true fans.

Just speaking my mind.
 
If Trans-Am were to be revised, i would like to see them return to a production based formula like the '66 - '72 era. With the recent Pony Car revival, Mustang, Camaro and Charger this would be the ideal time for the SCCA to reintroduce Trans-Am and produce a championship worthy of being the US's premier Touring Car series, one that could potentially rival the DTM, V8 Supercars or Super 2000 style WTCC/BTCC. What makes series like these popular with fans is manufacturer support, close racing and big name drivers. Get these elements right and they'll be onto a winner. Spaceframed silhouette cars that have only a vague resemblance to the car they are ment to represent is the wrong direction to go. Nascar already do that much better.
 
It would probably be fun to make these modern retro muscle cars to be more like the 1966-1972 muscle cars. Maybe I get so stuck in the 1990s that I still tend to favor these GT-spec cars like in Trans-Am the time I learned of Trans-Am. I can really vision a new-age Trans-Am to feature cars with no spoiler or just a lip spoiler. Since I love sportscar racing, they have to be more like GT-style race cars, only not like baby versions of the Pratt & Miller Corvette C6-R.

I'm going to use the latest Dodge Challenger as a base. A new-age Trans-Am Challenger would probably have a number of the safety and aerodynamic features of today. There would be a functional GT-style wing at the back and some sort of splitter at the front. Whether to make it like a GT car or like an old Trans-Am car is your call. You probably don't need them, but I'd favor functional headlights. Not a lot of Trans-Am cars had the same sort of template issues like you see in NASCAR. Unlike a NASCAR stock car, you could tell each of the different cars apart. I could tell a Corvette C5 from the Mustang and Camaro Trans-Am at about 2000 or 2001. I know a Jaguar XKR Trans-Am car from a Panoz Esperante Trans-Am car.

I will definitely grant you that the pony car revival would be a GREAT opportunity to bring Trans-Am from the dead like the mythical Phoenix. Maybe to add diversity, some more sports cars will need to be included just to market them a bit more. Here are some of the cars that would be locks to be made into Trans-Am cars:

* the latest Camaro
* the latest Corvette
* today's Mustang
* the new Dodge Challenger
* the latest Dodge Viper

And if some creative race car builders want in on the fun, these would be "interesting" cars to feature:

* Pontiac Solstice GXP
* Dodge Charger Coupe (possible)
* Lexus IS-F
* Aston Martin DB9
* the newer Jaguar XK series

and here's one that's bound to get a number of import fans happy. Imagine if there were a variety of these Trans-Am cars including...

...the new Nissan GT-R.



I'd be all in for a reborn Trans-Am featuring some of the latest performance cars. I'm not sure if any package can be put together to revive Trans-Am the way it was within the next few years.
 
I think a lot of the appeal of Touring Car racing is the blue-collar aspect of the cars used. Once you start mixing DB9's, Vipers and Corvettes, which are sportscars rather than coupes, you start moving away from what Joe public is perceived to drive in real life and what they can relate to rather than aspire to.

If you have yet another race series running Corvettes, Vipers, Porsches etc and they run to a lesser specification to all the ones you see running in GT classes of ALMS or Rolex/Grand-Am, then Trans-Am will always seem like just a lesser series compared the others. If you want to revive it, it'll have to have something that makes it distinctive.
 
I like the idea of those resurrected pony cars and other sedans, though. A GTO also seems like a good choice (unless it's either racing in the Australian Touring Car Series or out of production).

A GT-R would be a monster.
 
The mindset I'm fixated on is the basic front-engine/RWD sports cars in this series. That's why I didn't include anything like a Lotus Elise or an Audi R8. Of course, any 4WD car will need to be RWD. There was a time back then when I saw a Pontiac Grand Prix turned into Trans-Am trim. The Grand Prix was a FWD car to my knowledge until one was made available to race in ASA by way of Trans-Am.

I still think of the front/RWD car even as cars like the Viper and Panoz Esperante were racing. I always say the Viper's an exotic since you don't see too many of them on the road. However, lots of people say it's a real muscle car. It still didn't stop one group from making a Trans-Am version of the Viper GTS. I don't think Trans-Am went too far away from the classic American sports cars and pony cars. There can still be great-looking GT-type cars featuring some of today's best sports cars here in America.

One thing I remember about Trans-Am had to do with a comparison. I didn't know that Trans-Am cars weighed 700 lbs. less than a NASCAR stock car. This was when I saw Trans-Am race the NASCAR configuration at Sears Point in 2002 or 2003. It was an interesting comparison. Just didn't know the Trans-Am cars were much lighter.
 
In regards to the Audi Trans-Am car, I found a website with pictures of the 1989 car driven by Mr. Hurley Haywood. Here's a look at history:

http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/598/index.html?no_cache=1

That car is the Audi 200 Quatro Trans-Am car. Hurley Haywood would win the 1989 Trans-Am Championship with this car. Despite Audi's claim to fame with Quattro power, I'm sure this had to be a RWD car, right? Or did Trans-Am allow a 4WD Trans-Am car?
 
JohnBM01
In regards to the Audi Trans-Am car, I found a website with pictures of the 1989 car driven by Mr. Hurley Haywood. Here's a look at history:

http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/598/index.html?no_cache=1

That car is the Audi 200 Quatro Trans-Am car. Hurley Haywood would win the 1989 Trans-Am Championship with this car. Despite Audi's claim to fame with Quattro power, I'm sure this had to be a RWD car, right? Or did Trans-Am allow a 4WD Trans-Am car?
Click to expand...

It was AWD. And after dominating, no decimating the series, it was legislated out and made illegal. Definitely not the "Glory Days" of Trans-Am.

The initial entry of tube frame cars was positive for the sport. By the end when they ran "Funny Car" Jags and Quvale Mangustas that were just the same tube frame cars with Ford v8s it was just pathetic.

TheCracker
If Trans-Am were to be revised, i would like to see them return to a production based formula like the '66 - '72 era. With the recent Pony Car revival, Mustang, Camaro and Charger this would be the ideal time for the SCCA to reintroduce Trans-Am and produce a championship worthy of being the US's premier Touring Car series, one that could potentially rival the DTM, V8 Supercars or Super 2000 style WTCC/BTCC. What makes series like these popular with fans is manufacturer support, close racing and big name drivers. Get these elements right and they'll be onto a winner. Spaceframed silhouette cars that have only a vague resemblance to the car they are ment to represent is the wrong direction to go. Nascar already do that much better.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. I'd take it one step further and have them run DOT street rubber.


My Favorite Trans-Am cars:
Swede Savage's AAR Gurney Cuda
Jones/Follmer- Bud Moore Mustangs
Mark Donohue- Javelin
Bob Tullius - Jaguar XJS
Herb Adams / Milt Minter - Silverbird (Firebird trans-Am)
Tom Gloy / Lynn St. James - Roush Protofab Capri
 
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I was looking around on YouTube for clips of the Audi Trans-Am cars. Man... those Audis made some SWEET engine sounds! Here's a short YouTube of this Trans-Am Audi in action < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P00HDWeXMzo >. I'm assuming this was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Just listen to the engine sound and get a small look at the dominating Audi Quattro in Trans-Am.
 

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