In the 1960's, there were several different types of racing in the United States, but the big players were Champ Car, where open-wheel cars competed at Indianapolis and other paved tracks around the country, and NASCAR, which consisted of mid to full-size sedans fighting it on banked oval speedways and short tracks primarily in the southern regions. Formula 1 made occasional stopovers in America, but was for all intents and purposes a European series.

For the average amateur racer, the costs involved in participating on a regular basis in Champ Car or NASCAR were prohibitive, and Formula 1 represented the absolute stratosphere in terms of team investment. The Sports Car Club of America saw an opportunity to create a racing series that would allow enthusiasts to take to the track without having to take a second mortgage out on their house. By creating a set of rules that were designed to keep cars close to stock, the Trans-American Sedan Championship as it was initially known would help to foster a spirit of competition that was focused more on driver skill than the deep pockets of sponsors and team owners.

Known as Trans-Am for short, the series was designed to allow both European automobiles and American muscle to mix it up on the track, satisfying the passions of both devoted small-car racers and those who were dying to prove that Detroit iron was capable of doing more than just going fast in a straight line. To facilitate competition, the Trans Am series would divide the field into Two Liter and Five Liter classes. Competition amongst the smaller-engine cars was quite varied, with Porsche, Mini Cooper, BMW, Volkswagen, Alfa Romeo and even some Ford compacts being represented. However, when most people think of the Trans Am series, they tend to focus on the era from 1968 to 1972 when domestic cars went at it tooth and nail in the Five Liter class in a true battle of the muscle car titans.

When racing kicked off in 1966, cars of all shapes and sizes were entered into the Five Liter class, as the formula for success had not yet been fully dialed in. Larger cars like the Pontiac GTO and Mercury Cougar mixed it up against more compact vehicles like the Chevrolet Corvair. However, after the first few years it became clear that the best combination for success rested in the use of smaller mid-size platforms such as the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. The relative light weights of these vehicles combined with the availability of excellent engines soon had these two models neck and neck for podium status. The first stars of the Trans Am series would find themselves piloting these very cars, with Mark Donohue picking up 29 wins mostly at the wheel of a Camaro for Roger Penske between 1967 and 1971, including a dominating year in 1968 where he won all but two races on the entire schedule. Trans Am races took place on some of the most prestigious courses in North America and incorporated some very well known events, including both the 12 hours of Sebring (which Donohue won two years in a row) and the 24 hour endurance race at Daytona. While the series might still have been in its infancy, it wasn't as though Mark Donohue was sifting his way through a cast of nobodies – stars as bright as NASCAR legend Richard Petty, open-wheel master A.J. Foyt and Jacky Ickx would make a go of it in Trans Am.

The series began to attract more and more attention, not just from race drivers and their fans, but also from automakers who saw a way to make a more direct connection with performance driving enthusiasts. Factory participation expanded in 1970 to include two of the most famous vehicles to compete in the sport, the Plymouth Barracuda and the Dodge Challenger. These Mopar entries were matched by special street editions in order to meet the necessary requirements for participation in Trans Am. Race vehicles had to conform to the Five Liter engine restriction, but street versions of the car had a 340 cubic inch engine matched with a ‘6-pack' carburetor setup that employed three dual-carbs. The vehicle was dubbed the Challenger T/A, and was only sold in 1970 due to Dodge's unwillingness to finance another season in the series – the vehicle was not competitive in Trans Am. An AAR ‘Cuda with identical specs had better luck for Plymouth, finding itself on the pole several times during its lone season, but it did not win any races and the program was also cancelled. Despite being failures on the track, these limited production muscle cars would become sought after collector vehicles in the years that followed their participation in racing.

American Motors had also joined in Trans-Am action, fielding cars between 1968 and 1972, and their vehicles were the final piece of what is now known as the ‘Golden Era' of Trans Am competition. The vehicle of choice for AMC was the Javelin, a small pony car in the same class as the Mustang and Camaro (and a little bit smaller than the Chrysler entries), which was available in showrooms in a special Mark Donohue edition to legalize their entry in Trans Am and celebrate Penske and Donohue's decision to move to the fledgling company. AMC's program suffered from a lack of money for testing and intensive car development, but the Javelin did not embarrass itself out on the track amidst the other heavyweights of the series. In fact, Donohue was able to squeeze out six straight victories in a Javelin in 1971 on his way to yet another driver's championship.

Unfortunately for V8 lovers, the 1970's would prove to be the swan song for these elegantly prepared mid-size muscle machines. With pollution restrictions neutering most performance vehicles in North America and automakers shifting their focus away from racing to deal with the energy crisis and a looming economic downturn, European vehicles would begin to dominate the series, especially the nimble Porsche 911. This was further compounded by rule changes which began to eat away at the competitiveness of domestic efforts. It wasn't until the early 80's when the introduction of tube-framed cars and better stratification of racing classes would once again make it viable for Fords and Chevrolets to participate in Trans Am. In fact, it was the more modern editions of the Mustangs and Camaros which had kicked things off so many years before which would come to the fore during the new decade of racing. Even Lincoln-Mercury got into the act, winning a manufacturer's championship on the basis of the performance turned in by the Mercury Capri and two-time champion Wally Dallenbach, Jr. Scot Pruett proved to be another important driver to emerge from this particular era of Trans Am, but the real story would be Roush Racing. Owned by Jack Roush, the team would enter the series in 1984 and win more than half of their racing starts between their debut and 1990, with their dominance only briefly interrupted by the presence of Audi and their incredible Quattro all-wheel drive system – a development that would see the that manufacturer's primary weapon banned from Trans Am the year after.

Entering into the 1990's, Trans Am was once again dominated almost exclusively by entries from Ford, Chevrolet and a newly resurgent Dodge. Tommy Kendall, Scott Sharp and Paul Gentilozzi would find themselves frequently battling it out for the top position in the overall standings However, by the end of the decade, the introduction of new specifications that allowed more technologically advanced motors into the field would see not only the resurgence of foreign marques such as Jaguar, but also the gradual whittling of the sport down to a two race event held one weekend a year by 2006.

Fans of the fire-breathing V8 machines from the ‘Golden Era' of Trans Am racing still have a chance to see the vehicles of the past in action, however. The Historic Trans Am series runs a schedule of at least 5 events a year, timed to coincide with major automotive events across the country. The stated goal of the group is to preserve and race vehicles hailing from his particular time period in Trans Am history while maintaining the exact specifications and configurations originally held by the cars. No modern improvements are allowed, making this form of heritage racing a true throwback to one of the most competitive time frames of the sport. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Historic Trans Am is that each vehicle running is an actual, restored race car with a real history of performing in the original racing series. This level of authenticity makes the competition that much more intense, as both car and driver strive to re-capture the glory of days past.

By Benjamin Hunting

Benjamin is a professional, published writer living in Montreal, Canada. He has a deep background in three industries: medical, music and automotive. 

He is President of an independent record label for close to a decade, and also spent over eight years as a musical promoter and touring musician.

He has restored and raced automobiles for 15 years, and writes for a number of automotive publications on the web.

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