Australian Trans-Am Association

[Ellis]

This is a great photo. What an awesome car! I love those Firestone Indy tyres. They're still available, but very expensive.

The Parnelli 70 Trans am cars were Schoolbus Yellow and not Grabber Orange which is often thought and were the old 69's with upgraded sheetmetal to 70 specs...and to top it off were not Boss codes . They were factory M codes which =390 as was Moffats.

Edit....make that 390 read 351 4V...see below

[STG69]

The Parnelli 70 Trans am cars were Schoolbus Yellow and not Grabber Orange which is often thought and were the old 69's with upgraded sheetmetal to 70 specs...and to top it off were not Boss codes . They were factory M codes which =390 as was Moffats.

Correct on the colour and 69/70 upgrade but M stands for 4v 351 not 390 which had reinforced shock towers like the bosses and cobra jets.

[Ellis]

Correct on the colour and 69/70 upgrade but M stands for 4v 351 not 390 which had reinforced shock towers like the bosses and cobra jets.

Not sure why I wrote 390....knew it was 351...thanks for the correction

[STG69]

Parnelli Jones has often said they (ford) would have won the 69 series if on equal rubber to Donohues Camaro. Firestone must have got something sorted for 70 because the cars had to weigh 3200 lbs up from 2900 lbs in 69.
I guess that's an advantage of control tyres in our current trans am HMC and CMC classes.

[Steve Holmes]

The Parnelli 70 Trans am cars were Schoolbus Yellow and not Grabber Orange which is often thought and were the old 69's with upgraded sheetmetal to 70 specs...and to top it off were not Boss codes . They were factory M codes which =390 as was Moffats.

Yep, the two Bud Moore Mustangs in the '70 Trans-Am were Schoolbus Yellow. I'd be interested to know if Bud Moore got a say in what the colour schemes would be, or if the decision was made at Ford. I've been researching various articles for an upcoming story on the factory Plymouth Cuda's and Dodge Challenger's that ran in the 1970 Trans-Am, and it was Chrysler who told Autodynamics they would run the green coloured Challengers that year. The manufacturers had the final say, and it all came down to marketing.