Can Trans-Am make a comeback?
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The new Mustang, coupled with the upcoming Camaro and Challenger, certainly conjures up memories of the three of them banging fenders on the road courses of America in the SCCA Trans-Am series of the 60's and 70's. Could the resurgence of these three models be enough to support an entire race series?
In the December issue of Car and Driver, they spoke to Dan Davis of Ford Racing about just that. Davis thinks that this would be a fantastic showcase for race-prepped vehicles built from real cars, not the tube frame racers of recent years. After all, the SCCA Trans-Am series is the longest continually running road racing series in North America, so why not keep it going with a vengeance?
Now all we need is to see a Gurney, Donahue or even Gentilozzi-type along with some factory support to get the ball rolling. Maybe even a Sunoco sponsorship? We think it would rock to have the chance at seeing Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers going head-to-head at VIR in cars that the fans could identify with. What a great opportunity to use the phrase "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" again! Just please don't let money ruin the series!
[Source: Car and Driver via Jalopnik]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
doglet 7:48PM (11/08/2006)
it would be insanly cool if mustangs, camaros, challengers ran against each other in trans am. im not too familar with the specs on that series, any reason evos, STIs and r32s couldnt run too?
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Mr. Oak 8:32PM (11/08/2006)
Grabbed a mag yesterday, this is going to happen. Initially it will all FR500 'Stangs shown above. They will run on the Champ Cars undercard on saturdays. Later on other makes will join the series.
BTW: FR500 'Stangs cost $225,000.00 per copy.
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Mr. Oak 9:05PM (11/08/2006)
Hey on the second part of your question in reference to evos, STIs and r32s etc. being included in Trans AM, that will not happen. FWD cars in racing terms, reside at the bottom of the food chain, not really taken seriously.
The Mustang shown in this article, is a purpose built race car, 550 HP, 6sp sequential gearbox. It wouldn't take much doing to make a GT-2 car out of this, and it would most likely beat the pants off 911s, Panozes and Ferraris and M3s in that class. This is no place for cars the likes of which you mentioned.
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KA24ET 9:35PM (11/08/2006)
In my opinion SCCA World Challenge GT should be renamed trans am, since trans am is all but deady anyway, and the WC series is really more trans am like than the "stock car" based trans am of the 90s at any rate, its really a neat series with corvettes mustangs and vipers running amungst the porsches and such...very entertaining...not sure where that would leave TC though
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ramsport47 9:39PM (11/08/2006)
it would be really cool until the solara and accord coupe started showing up....cuz y'all know they's amurican cars too
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Chucklenuts 10:42PM (11/08/2006)
Um, the cars mentioned are AWD, not FWD. As for the 550hp Mustang...with enough money, even a Pinto can achieve 550hp. So what?
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AutoFan 10:57PM (11/08/2006)
I am now pointing at Mr. Oak and laughing.
Anyhow, those cars can't compete in Trans Am because they're all wheel drive. In the 80s, Audi entered Quattros (5000s, if I remember correctly) in the Trans Am series and cleaned everyone's clock because of the AWD. The SCCA, being the clusterf*** it is, decided that the best course of action would be to penalize AWD cars so much that they're uncompetitive. I haven't read the rules lately, but I'm pretty sure that's still the case.
This would be cool, btw. I'd love to see this. I wonder if we'd wind up with acid-dipped chassis and 7/8 scale Camaros again?
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Greg 11:42PM (11/08/2006)
I am looking forward to watching real cars race each other... I said this to myself as soon as I saw the concept Camero's and Challengers that were posted on AutoBlog.com
Let me through this scenerio out on the board...
IMAGINE:::::
Ford Mustangs, Camero's and Challengers racing on Nascar Super Tracks when the Nascar Circut are racing at other tracks!!!
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stg 11:45PM (11/08/2006)
thats not an FR500C mustang. that mustang would rape an FR500C. the 500C was named "Boy Racer" this one was named "Man Racer." this one is faster, lighter, quicker, and more nimble than the ohter one. the 500Cs were penalised because they were too fast for M3s and such. they added 200-400 lbs to them and they still cleaned house. these are more capable now. i love these cars.
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Mr. Oak 11:50PM (11/08/2006)
The Audi 90 quattro IMSA-GTO cars of which you speak, never turned a wheel in Trans-Am. Different series, different rules.
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Cheezedog 12:13AM (11/09/2006)
I don't care what the rules say. Im not watching till I can see a WRX vs Mustang, or Evo vs Camaro, and vice versa.
Maybe Im a idot, but the cars I mentioned all cost about the same, so its almost a fair fight, (even if the Japaness Yen is stronger then the American dollar.) In my own little road racing book, it's just where the manufactures decided to spend there money on. So lets see where the chips fall, and finaly find out who would win the battle.
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FSCCAracer 1:21AM (11/09/2006)
I don't see production based racing ever taking over the Trans Am name again (owned by the SCCA) - I can see SCCA take the SPEED World Challenge (SCCA's pro series) name and change it to Trans Am - use the tube frame cars as the "Main event" and the production based cars as a separate class / support race. Would still be cool. And whether or not its Trans Am, SPEED World Challenge or Grand Am series, there will be some great racing. Already is!!
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Reims 2:35AM (11/09/2006)
When this car tested at Sebring back in January, it was turning times around 2:15 which is almost 10 sec slower than ALMS GT2 cars and would be about mid-pack for Speed GT.
Do we need another race series? The road racing pool in this country is already pretty diluted. I say come on Ford, build a real race car to go to Le Mans again.
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Steve2 3:37AM (11/09/2006)
Trans Am is not the longest continually running road racing series in American because it didn't run last year. And it only ran two races this year. And no one made new chassis for it for 4 years or so. Trans Am was being run with tube frame cars with random body and engine combos since 2000 at least.
Grand Am Cup is a better example of road racing anyway. Gentilozzi made the switch last year too.
Trans Am just isn't necessary at this time with the success of Grand Am Cup (and the GT class in Grand Am Rolex).
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Jon F 8:58AM (11/09/2006)
At the amature level you have NASA AI / AIX. Just add corp sponsorship.
http://americanironracing.com/
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Mr_Oak 11:05AM (11/09/2006)
---->9. thats not an FR500C mustang.
You are correct, it is a FR500GT.
It lapped the Grattan Raceway (a 2.0 mile road course) 13 secs. faster that a Shelby GT500.
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Mr_Oak 11:32AM (11/09/2006)
7. I am now pointing at Mr. Oak and laughing.
Anyhow, those cars can't compete in Trans Am because they're all wheel drive. In the 80s, Audi entered Quattros (5000s, if I remember correctly) in the Trans Am series and cleaned everyone's clock because of the AWD. The SCCA, being the clusterf*** it is, decided that the best course of action would be to penalize AWD cars so much that they're uncompetitive. I haven't read the rules lately, but I'm pretty sure that's still the case.
A couple of things need to be understood here.
1). The Audi 90 quattro IMSA-GTO cars of which you speak, never turned a wheel in Trans-Am. In IMSA it was a factory sponsored purpose built race car competing against the likes of privateer Firebirds, Olds Cutlasses, and ill-prepared 'Vettes and Buicks.
2). This is nothing new, the CTS-Rs annailated the field in it's debut season, they've been saddled with 200lbs. of "Success" ballast ever since, they still took the championship in a field that includes some of Europe's finest sports sedans & coupes.
3). When the Vipers first went into that series, the absolutely mauled the BMWs and Porsches, they have been penalised with "success" balast and smaller tires.
4). Audi Quattros (A4s) did or do compete in SpeedVision Cup racing with moderate success.
Certain course designs favor certain cars, the cars that you propose, with tiny little overboosted engines would have serious problems on road courses like Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Lime Rock. They would fare much better on temporary street courses. Don't believe me? ask Porsche drivers about the CTS-Rs, Mustang FR500Cs and 'Vettes' launch coming out of a corner.
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carbuzzard 1:27PM (11/09/2006)
I'm old enough to remember the original Trans Am. The 1970 season was phenomenal. Sure, the top cars were modified to a fare thee well by factory supported teams, but they were modified cars, not road-racing funny cars, with plastic bodies more or less shaped like production cars over tube frame chassis. That was the attraction for me. There was some link to the real cars we could drive on the street. I had four or five friends who had Boss 302 Mustangs.
There was also the Trans Am 2.5 Challenge which allowed cars up to 2.5 liters (natch. Great racing there between the Datsun 510, BMW 2002 and Alfa GTA. And oh year, I had a BRE suspension equipped (plus more) Datsun 510 as a daily driver.
Yeah, we knew that they weren't exactly like the racers, but we sure had a great time. And that's what the new series could do, and that--duh--is why Ford is behind it.
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Spikewhtbread 8:51AM (11/21/2006)
Audi did in fact compete in Trans-am. During the 1988 season Bob Tullius's Group 44 Racing campaigned a stable of Audi 200 Turbo Quatros driven by the likes of Hurley Haywood (who won the championship in said Audi,) Walter Röhrl and Hans Joachim Stuck. They were then relegated to racing in IMSA due to Trans-am's decision to only allow cars with two wheel drive and American engines.
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