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!

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.

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.