Lola

Lola, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

One of the legendary names in motorsports, Lola built cars for many formulae, including F1, 2, 3, 5000, Atlantic, and various USAC and Indy Car series. But they were probably best known for their sports cars-Lola's original GT was the progenitor to Ford's GT40, and the company was successful in endurance racing through much of the sixties.

The T70 was probably Lola's most successful sports car, and the hot setup in the early days of the Can-Am. The car's first major win came in 1965, with Walt Hansgen's win at Laguna Seca, and John Surtees went on to win the '66 championship running his own Chevrolet-powered example. Within a couple of seasons the McLaren M6 became unbeatable, despite improvements to the Lola (including a coupe version). However the T70's low(ish) cost and reliability helped it remain a popular racing car until the early 70's. They remain so today in historic racing.

This is a '67 Mark III spider, and was photographed this past summer at Road America.

AAR

AAR Cuda, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

One of the good guys in motorsports, Dan Gurney had a long and varied career behind the wheel. Starting off with hot rods on the dry lakes and drag strips of southern California, Gurney soon moved on to sports cars with varying success. His big break came in 1957, when he finished second in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix at the famed California track that would eventually become synonymous with Gurney's name. This led to a factory drive at LeMans with Maserati, and by 1959 he was in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari.

A true all-rounder, Gurney went on to race in sports cars, endurance racing, stock car racing (he owned the Grand National event at Riverside, his home track), the Trans-Am, and of course on the Grand Prix circuit. He drove for BRM, Brabham, Porsche, and finally with his own Eagle, manufactured by All-American Racers (or Anglo-American Racers for the GP project).

The AAR Grand Prix project ended soon after that historic win in 1967, but AAR continued to manufacture cars for domestic series, such as USAC and Formula 5000. The company also lent it's name and expertise to Plymouth, for it's Trans-Am challenger, the 'Cuda AAR.

This is a genuine Trans-Am car from the early 70's.

The Boss

The Boss, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A genuine former Trans-Am Ford Mustang Boss 302. And yes, that does seem a bit long winded, so we'll just call it "The Boss".

The Trans-Am was derived from the SCCA's sedan championships, and generally followed the FIA's Group 2 Touring regulations. Divided into over- and under-2 liter categories, the Trans-Am featured a broad array of European and American sports cars, and resulted in some of the automotive world's iconic cars.

Looming large among these is the Boss, Ford's factory racer for the '69 season. Over-2's were limited to 5.0 liters displacement, which rounded out neatly to 302 cubic inches. This resulted in a lightweight, high revving, powerful engine, and one of the more sought after Mustang variants (along with the Camaro Z-28 and the Challenger T/A).

This is an original Trans-Am car from the late 60's, run by the Bud Moore team. It's parked on the grid at Road America about a year ago. I like how the driver has his arm hanging out the window as he's sitting waiting for the start. Just chillin', no big deal!

D-Gas

D-Gas, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Stickers and writing in the quarter window of a beautifully presented '55 Chevy 150 gasser. Gas class racing started off to allow guys with hot street rods a place to race, but eventually it morphed into more modified, stock bodied racers. High straight axles, wide slicks, and colored plexiglass side windows were all hallmarks of a gasser. It's probably my favorite style of hot rod, even more than the classic roadster.

Sunoco Camaro

Sunoco, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Possibly better known by the general public for a truck rental firm, Roger "The Captain" Penske has run one of the most successful racing teams since the early sixties. The Penske team has run in all manner of classes, including the Trans-Am, Can-Am, Indycar racing, NASCAR, and Formula One. Usually running top line talent, the Penske team was always a threat to win.

This Camaro is one of the team's iconic Sunoco team cars, from the Trans-Am Championship. This is a former Mark Donohue car, a genuine T/A car, and as such is nearly priceless. It was a privilege to be able to watch this piece of history hammer around the track again, and to be able to shoot it up close.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday

Super Stock, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Super Stock drag racing got it's start in the early sixties, and was a very popular class for about a decade, mainly because the cars were the same as the ones you could buy at your local dealer. Sort of.

Factory SS cars were in fact available from the dealership, but they were usually special order only and frequently were stripped out base models. The Plymouth Belvedere pictured here had thin van seats (they were lighter than a bench), no back seat (it's heavy), no heater or air conditioning (it's heavy), no radio (it's not heavy but you can't hear it over the engine anyway), no sound deadening (it's heavy), and no hubcaps (because you're likely to get rid of the wheels anyway). In short, they weren't nice places to be for more than a quarter mile at a time. Modifications were few, and limited mostly to safety equipment.

I have no idea if this Plymouth was a genuine Super Stock car back in the day, but it was very convincing if it's a clone. Everything was correct, and it looked and sounded great.

Red, White, and Vroom

Fast Pointy Thing, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Made up of a number of smaller independent manufacturers, American Motors Corporation could always be counted on to offer up interesting cars (some might say "weird"), but nobody was surprised when they entered the performance market in the sixties with cars like the S/C Rambler and AMX. However, the company surprised the road racing fraternity with it's entry into the Trans-Am series in 1970, using the Javelin. Originally run by Roger Penske's famous team, by 1972 the mantle of AMC factory team had passed to Roy Woods Racing, with Woods and George Follmer driving.

The Javelin was AMC's entry into the pony car market, which was dominated by the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford's Mustang (Mopar's Barracuda and Challenger were far less popular, despite their legendary reputations today). It proved to be relatively popular, certainly by AMC's standards, and the car was rated highly by the magazines.

This one is a second generation car, from 1972. The Javelin had grown a bit, but was available with big-block engines to make up for it. The car proved to be just as popular, even making it as one of the few two-door sports coupes to be used by police forces (those big blocks again!) in the States.

Red, white, and blue liveries were an AMC trademark-special editions of the Javelin were available in this exact scheme (less numbers and sponsor stickers), and the patriotic theme returned on the S/C Rambler and Rebel Machine muscle cars.

Pininfarina

Alfa Romeo, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Founded in 1930, Pininfarina is one of the world's most famous automotive design firms, as well as a legendary coachbuilding firm. Some of the most famous manufacturers have been the firm's clients, including Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, and Maserati.

This happens to be an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, an unrestored example from the fifties that still sports the Pininfarina crests.

Slingshot

Drag racing has it's beginnings with the earliest speed contests-once someone went fast, someone else decided they could go faster, and pretty soon things evolved into head to head duels to see who could get to the finish line first. In America, the earliest races happened-like so many American car culture touchstones-in California, on the dry lakes that would soon become famous for speed trials and airbases. Four or five guys, in whatever they brought, would set off across the desert floor, and first across the line got bragging rights.

It was only the beginning, and after the Second World War the sport evolved into the two lane, quarter mile contests we know today. The hot rod clubs that sanctioned events set up classes, but for many years things were still very much "run what ya brung", and it was very common for a slick roadster to take it's driver to work during the week, only to be driven to the strip for weekend duty. Gradually, cars got more and more highly strung, interiors more stripped out, in the search for an elusive few tenths of a second, and they slowly evolved into specialized racers.

Some classes still had a pretense of using stock vehicles. Super Stock, funny cars, gassers, all still carried recognizable bodywork, but the top dogs all ran slingshots. These were cars distilled down to the basics-tubes welded together into a chassis, axles and wheels at each end, a seat, and a whacking great motor. Initially, these bare bones bombs had the engines in front of the drivers, where they always were, but by the early 70's, they started migrating to a spot just behind the pilot-much like Grand Prix and Indy racers were doing. The reasons were many, but mostly for safety-these beasts were highly strung, and having one blow up was much safer if it was behind you.



This is a vintage front engined rail, from Chassis Research, one of the famous designers of dragster chassis. It's beautifully presented, and period perfect.

Bugatti

Bugatti Type 59, originally uploaded by William 74.

With a history that dates back to 1909, Bugatti has quite possibly the best pedigree in automobiledom. "Proper" Bugattis were among, if not the, most exotic cars of their time, and often times the fastest as well. Cars such as the Type 35, the Type 57 Atlantic, and the famous Royale were exclusive, fast, and beautifully designed and built. The cars were renowned for the high level of detail in their engineering, as well as the artistic way in which the designs were made metal. This exoticism came at a price, though-you couldn't just jump into a Bugatti, fire it up, and run down to the shops (or the club, as a Bugatti owner was far more likely to have someone to do the shopping for them). Finicky starting procedures and specialized maintenance was the rule for these highly strung sports cars. This one happens to be a Type 59 Grand Prix racer from the late 30's. It is ridiculously quick and sounds amazing.

So, apropos of nothing, do you like what you see here? Know someone who likes to look at fabtastic photos of awesomeriffic cars? Then hustle on over to Doug's Used Cars, where you'll find images like this one, for sale even, to fill the blank space on the wall of that gearhead in your life. Don't know a gearhead? No problem! We've got other stuff over there too!