Monterey Meltdown - 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A & 1970 Plymouth AAR 'Cuda #blogpost

There’s a running joke involving the wayward handling of muscle cars from the 60s and 70s.

"Muscle Cars can't go around corners"

However, there is concrete evidence that these cast iron V8 powered lumps of steel and testosterone can in fact, go around corners. There was a racing series that existed in the heyday of muscle cars, it predominantly featured road courses and a special breed of muscle cars. It was called Trans Am.

Trans Am was birthed in 1966 by the Sports Car Club of America president John Bishop. Originally called Trans-American Sedan Championship before the name changed to the Trans-American Championship for 1967. The series began at about the same time as the ‘pony car’ era, and was derived from SCCA’s A and B Sedan ammeter club racing classes. Early Trans Am racers were simply modified production cars, namely cars commonly raced in Group 2, one of the 5 touring car categories created by the FIA in 1966, the most famous of which being Group 5. Trans-Am featured two classes for competitors; Under 2.0L (predominantly European sedans) and Over 2.0L (max engine size 5.0L (305 cubic inches(ci)) and a wheelbase of 111 inches or less) with both competing at the same time.

1966 and 1967 seemed to be all about the Under 2.0L category with Jochen Rindt taking overall victory driving an Alfa Romeo GTA. The nimble little Alfa was a very competitive car, until Porsche successfully lobbied to the SCCA, to reclassify the 911 as a sedan instead of a sports car. Porsche dominated 1967 winning 7 of 12 races in the Under 2.0L category.

In 1968, what is considered ‘The Golden Era’ of Trans-Am began. The legendary 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Daytona were added to the calendar, but unfortunately ‘68 was the only year to feature these prestigious races. 1968 also saw the inception of the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. A homologation special built specifically for Trans-Am. The package featured a 302 ci (4.9L) V8 that produced ‘290hp’, an aluminum high-rise intake crowned by a dual feed Holley 4 barrel carburetor, beefed up suspension, a heavy duty radiator, quick ratio steering and 15 inch Rallye wheels. The Camaro was famously campaigned by Penske Racing, and piloted by Mark Donohue to overall victory in 1968.

1969 saw the inception of Ford’s Trans-Am homologation special: the legendary Boss 302. The package featured a 302 ci (4.9L) V8 producing a similar ‘290hp’ to the Camaro, re-enforced suspension, a thicker radiator and quick ratio steering (this sounds familiar doesn’t it?). Ford claimed the Over 2.0L title in 1967 and were looking to reclaim that title from main rivals Chevrolet. They recruited Parnelli Jones for the Bud Moore factory team, and set out looking for Camaro blood. Unfortunately, Chevrolet had been busy updating the Z/28 package in preparation for Ford’s response. Chevrolet and Penske would once again claim glory in 1969, Mark Donohue would once again dominate in the blue and yellow Camaro.

Chrysler would come to the party late after spending most of the late 60s focusing on their NASCAR campaign, spearheaded by the legendary 426 HEMI.

The newly launched Chrysler E Body platform (better known as the Dodge Challenger and it’s sister car the Plymouth Barracuda) would serve as the cars of choice for a venture into Trans-Am.

Unlike the Camaro and Mustang rivals, Chrysler opted not to develop a 302 ci V8 for the homologation packages offered for both cars, but instead (weirdly) developed new variant of their 340 ci (5.6L) V8, most notably topped by the famous ‘Six Pack’ intake manifold. The Six Pack was the use of an aluminum high rise triple plane intake, crowned by 3 2 barrel carburetors. (it resembled a six pack of alcohol when the air cleaner was removed, hence the name). The engine was rated at 290hp (surprise), but in reality made closer to 320hp.

The new engine found it’s way under the new fiberglass hood of both cars, both of which were redesigned to feature functional ram air scoops. A new exhaust system was developed that featured dramatic chrome tipped ‘megaphone’ exhaust tips. Re-enforced suspension front and rear fiberglass spoilers all found their way onto the new cars. The Dodge was christened T/A (Trans-Am), while the Plymouth was named AAR (After Dan Gurney’s team (who would campaign the Plymouth factory team) the All American Racers).

Dodge secured Ray Caldwell’s Autodynamics as their team, which consisted of only one car, one part time driver: Tony Adamowicz, and one full time driver: Sam Posey. Posey previously drove for the all conquering Penske Racing in 1968, acting as Mark Donohue’s teammate. Donohue won 10 out of 13 races in 1968. Posey finished 2nd, once. Posey defected to the factory Ford team in 1970, where he won at Lime Rock, beating out Parnelli Jones and the defending champ (and previous teammate) Donohue. Posey would once again play 2nd fiddle to his teammate in 1969, 1970 promised to change that (well not having a teammate for most of the season kind of guaranteed that).

Plymouth would secure the legendary Dan Gurney and his AAR team to campaign their car. Dan Gurney and David Earl ‘Swede’ Savage would drive identical factory backed ‘Cudas. Neither had raced in Trans-Am before, but both had previous experience in Can-Am.

Dan Gurney’s AAR shop would play host as to where the road cars were modified into racers. The first thing order of business was to completely re-build the engine to meet Trans-Am regulations. The 340 small block was 35 cubic inches too large to comply with the regulations. Keith Black, a renowned racing engine builder, was given the task of de-stroking the engine to meet the regulations. When the engines were complete, they displaced 303 ci, perfect. Unfortunately, the Six Pack intake was removed in favor of a more conventional, and more efficient single plane aluminum intake crowned by a Holley 4 barrel carburetor in place of the spectacular 3 2 barrels A new, more efficient exhaust system needed to be developed to allow for the new engine to breathe properly, as the megaphone system on the road car was too restrictive for track use. In full race spec, the engine produced approx. 460hp in full race spec, a full 140hp increase from street spec.

A technique used by most teams throughout the early teams of Trans-Am was ‘acid-dipping’. The idea was to place the car’s body in an acid bath in an attempt to make the metal thinner in an effort to save weight. The quest for weight saving didn’t stop at just acid-dipping, most teams didn’t even have a rollcage, just one or two rollbars, that was it (safety seems to have just been a joke back then).

1970 was an unusual year for Trans-Am. Penske had jumped ship from Chevrolet to AMC, now campaigning red, white and blue Javelins (which would become almost as iconic as the blue and yellow Sunoco Camaros before them). Chevrolet were now factory backing the Chaparral team. Meanwhile Bud Moore Racing (factory Ford) remained relatively unchanged, with the exception of an updated car and George Follomer becoming a full time driver.

The first race or the year was held at the famous Laguna Seca in Monterey California. The race almost ended for Sam Posey before it even started. The Dodge was last in line for pre-race inspection, since all factories were participating this season, inspection was highly detailed. The car initially passed tech, but eventually, disaster struck. The car had spent too long in the acid bath, which made the metal incredibly thin. After finishing his job for the time being, chief tech inspector John Taminus was offered a beer by the team. Taminus rested his elbow on the roof of the car (remember, incredibly thin metal), and the roof dimpled in. Taminus failed the car’s inspection and told them they couldn’t race until the roof was fixed. The roof was too thin to work with, so a call was made to a Dodge dealer in downtown Monterey who just happened to have a Challenger sitting on the showroom floor. The poor, innocent, showroom fresh car had it’s roof removed via blowtorch and delivered to the team garage. The roof was hastily fixed, then put through tech (again), coming away with a pass (again). Posey’s Challenger went on to finish 6th, Savage’s Cuda finished 4th, Gurney retired on lap 21 due to transmission failure.

1970 proved to be the year that Ford stepped up to the plate, and walked away with overall victory due in no small part to Parnelli Jones’ 5 out of 11 wins. AMC would finish 2nd in their debut in no small part to Penske’s efforts. Chevrolet finished 3rd mostly due to sheer number of cars rather than finishing races (most races were made up of previous generation Camaros run by privateers who took inspiration from Penske’s domination of ‘68 and ‘69). Dodge would finish 4th, Plymouth came away with 5th (out of 5).

Reliability issues caused the Chrysler’s to retire from more races than they finished (Plymouths finished 5 races and retired from 6, Dodges finished 6 races and retired from 5). Swede Savage would secure the highest finish for the Plymouths (2nd at Watkins Glen) while Posey finished 3rd 3 times (Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Seattle).

A lack of sufficient R&D time and budget put pay to Chrysler’s Trans-Am plans as they would withdraw factory support from the 1971 season, that didn’t stop John Paul from racing one of the spare Challengers at Bryar, he would retire due to oil pressure problems.

It seemed as if Chrysler was more focused on putting on a show for the general public with ridiculous homologation specials (most of the components of which needed to be reworked in order to be competitve) rather than building a track ready car for the road like Ford and Chevrolet.

[onnboard footage of Sam Posey’s old Dodge at Laguna Seca] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRVVKuMoE0g)