AAR

AAR, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Plymouth's Barracuda was the company's answer to Ford's wildly successful Mustang, a smallish coupe or convertible with a variety of engine and interior options to let the buyer customize their car. Pretty much any combination was available, from a basic six-pot economy model to a wild eight cylinder muscle machine.

Like the Mustang, the Barracuda spawned a number of high performance options, particularly later in it's life. One of the rarest is the AAR, a Trans-Am special devised to capitalize on the series. Developed in part by Dan Gurney's All-American Racing Team, the AAR was a fast car but the team didn't manage to win any races in it's inaugural season.

This one's a genuine ex-AAR car, run originally by Swede Savage, and still competes in historic racing today.

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!

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.