1980s - 1990s Tube-frame Trans-Am/IMSA/TraNZam/Sports Sedan Thread

[George Sheweiry]

March 15th Auckland Car club, Club meet Pukekohe long track. George jnr in his white Tranzam Camaro and myself in the red Tranzam Camaro. I am afraid this seasons attempt to get the tranzams up and running again hasnt really come to much. We did get Barry Searches Camaro and Alan Ferguson in his Corvette to 2 other meetings but thats about it, and with only round 6 left at HD it doesnt look too promising. Because we didnt have the 9 cars we thought we would we have had to run with modified saloons, but then young George and myself have still had a bit of fun and we will try again next season, If I can find some time maybe George jnr and myself might be able to get my new Jaguar tranzam finished and I could put my daughter Brittany in it, trouble is time just seems to go by so fast!!
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[George Sheweiry]

A few more photos from the same day. I would like to thank the Auckland Car club for letting us have a go at getting a Club series for Tranzams running and hope we can entice a few more along next season

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[Steve Holmes]

Hi George, I hope you don't mind me starting this thread dedicated to 1980s/90s tube-frame cars. I noticed the pics you had posted on Ray Greens thread and had to find somewhere to move them to. I realised that we don't have a dedicated thread for this subject, while there are a great many of these cars about, which have their own important place in history.

[Homer]

Hi George,

What is the history on the number 12 car? is this the powerbeat car? I think Paul Morris Drove?
Can you shed any light on the whereabouts of these Tranzam cars;
Purple Hoosier Camaro
Blue Activator Camaro
Enzed Camaro

Regards,

Simon

[Steve Holmes]

Was the Hoosier car run by Bruce Jenner? Didn't that go back to the US with him?

[George Sheweiry]

I didnt think so, I am pretty sure that Dino Cresentini who had the white Camaro with green with white spots on the back took his car back with him and I think the same of Paul Gentilozi and his Camaro. Alan fergusons Camaro was the Baldwin Hot Wheels Camaro and that was sold to Australia


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Alan ferguson

[George Sheweiry]

My Mustang Transam is the ex Richards/Silvester car that won the NZ 2000 series. 28274
Myself in the Mustang followed by Derin Greenslade Mustang and fast Eddie Fairburn Camaro
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In the following Video clip it shows the Shane Drake Activator car and the Mark Porter Enzed car, so they were definitely 2 different cars.

1999 TraNZam Race you tube
Sorry guys, dont know how to embed the link to you tube for the 1999 Ta race

[George Sheweiry]

The Red Camaro is the car built for Kerry Jones by Harris race cars, then run by David Steele, son of Warren Steele who I purchased the car from.
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[TonyG]

This one George ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8OjI9CMbEw

[George Sheweiry]

Yes thats the one TonyG, thanks for that. Its round 6, the final, tommorow of the ACC series so George Jnr and myself will be racing our Transam cars tommorow at Hampton Downs. Young Georges Jerico in his Camaro has the wrong gear set int it for our standing starts. The US do rolling starts and his first gear instead of being 2.3 is 1.84 and he just gets buried on the line so after this race he is going to pull the box down over the off season and find out what gear set he needs to sort it. As for my Camaro, well I havent touched it since I bought it in 2007 and a couple of weeks ago where we ran on the big circuit at Puke all I could manage was a 61 when it used to be 58s . Just shows how critical it is keeping an eye on the valve spring pressures. George jnr did a 60 in practice so I guess I am going to get creamed at HD tommorow. haha. Free entry if you show your current ACC membership card or $10pp. Come say hello if you get there!! George.

[George Sheweiry]

Well the weather held off all day and I believe the ACC finished the season on a high with something like a hundred entries, this I think in part because of Rays series coming along for the day. Its a fine line between breaking even and losing money for the club so thanks to all that entered.It was a mixed bag for young George and myself. we started practice together and that was about it, jnr was all pumped up and got hard into it, till the 4th lap when he slid onto the grass at the turn 4 elbow and when he got back on I think he had forgotten the little chat we had about those tall gears and loading up the diff and associated parts as he gave it a shoeful and popped the clutch only to break the diff U joint and in turn bent the drive shaft so that was him for the day. Myself with a car down on power I managed to coax it round the whole day without much drama and managed a 2nd a 3rd and a 1st. 3 or 4 of the other Tranzam owners were there and enjoyed the days racing and got all keen and wanted to know if we would be doing the same next season and I was happy to be able to tell them them that the car club was happy to let us do the same next season and see if we could build on it to maybe get the 9 cars needed for our own race. we also had a steady amount of people coming over to check out the cars and tell us how they were enjoying seeing the cars again and what the future held for them. So in all it was a very pleasing and I must say surprising amount of positive feedback. As I said before George jnr and myself will be running our cars anyway next season but if we can do it amongst more tranzams then all the better. There is a montage of shots on youtube including our TA cars. htps://www.youtube.com/watch?v+s5AzZrVZppw well thats the link I was sent, it seems when you type it, it doesnt work the same however the heading on you tube is Auckland car club Muscle cars 12/4/2015



George jnr and myself on the dummy grid for practice
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[Alan Hyndman]

Hi George,

Is this the link we're looking for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5AzZrVZppw

Cheers,
Alan.

[George Sheweiry]

Yep thats it Alan. You know I am thinking I should put pen to paper about computer skills, because what I dont know about them could fill a book!!!! haha

[ERC]

We were happy to support the meeting George, and have received an invitation for any of next season's ACC Summer events. I think we had 24 cars running this time.

Our problem now is too many invitations! Our first loyalty is to HRC who have been staunch supporters of our series since they first started, but hopefully, we'll support one or two ACC events, which may or may not be points scoring rounds, but this year was a late addition due to the unfortunate cancellation of the ANZAC 100 meeting. Thanks to Debbie for getting ACC to accept us at such a late stage of the season.

[Rod Grimwood]

Guy who built a lot of those Trans Am frames back then, has a Stainless Fabricating business in Bay Of Islands. He is a real lay back, but smart fella. He has built the ultimate trolleys and he drove around in this Merc for awhile and it was tired, so he stripped and framed it and got into body (steel flares) and is going to have some fun at local speedways in the north in the B-Grade. Got a late model Falcon 6 that is going in where the passenger department was (see exhaust exit in front of left rear wheel arch) Kevlar bonnet and boot.
Ray Jordan has been giving advice I think so he will have engine going. Will be interesting.
Obviously the big wheels etc still coming.

Will get some photos of the trolleys, they are wild.

[Oldfart]

I have been in this workshop, this is a VERY interesting bit of gear, Rod is right, so aid back you would never imagine his background.

[Rod Grimwood]

There is a Mk2 Jaguar on Trade Me for sale apparently, he knows all about this car as he built for the original owner (the owner I will not name at this time but well known back then) and it was never finished. Apparently trick gear. He has photos on his phone of the car.

Got some ,photos today of the engine and exhaust ect. and one of the trolleys.

[Rod Grimwood]

Because of space in passenger compartment being limited he has fabricated headers and exhaust, this is tidy.

Scatter shield for gearbox (Aussie Muncie) is fairly solid also.

This is only for a shag around he reckons and has ideas for a different project all ready. (wee bit more serious)

The fabrication work is very impressive. And he has photos of some of the Trans Am frames and cars he built, but I will work on him for these, as he is very layed back and doesn't really divulge too much to many people.

maybe I should start another thread for this as there is also some brilliant engineered trolleys which are serious "toys"

but he does have history to the Trans Am guys who may want to contact him on the origins of some of the cars, I am pretty sure he would love to know were some are and what happened to them.

I will put contact in next photos

[Rod Grimwood]

yep its a trolley, 1st photo you think it is a wild Rod.

This is the second trolley he built, Loves the 'alternative' stuff, once again the fabrication is trick. Had a BBQ jammed in it so not best photos.

seating is like him "layed Back"

You can tell what happens to the Stainless offcuts.

[Rod Grimwood]

Hanging on wall is the first trolley (which was the top dog) and made all of stainless, fabrication beautiful. Hard to show as they have stuff stacked inside them will 1 day get them out and cleaned for photos.

If any one is interested and wants to know the history of the Jaguar on trade me be well worth a call to Chris.
This is a interesting car especially to a Jaguar person.