Does anyone know what happened to the Barry Wearing 67 Z28 SS Camaro, sold in 74-75

[Rondonrus]

Hi Ron nice to hear from you

They are impressive numbers for the 396, would that be running the L89 spec alloy heads? It would also be interesting to know what compression ratio they were capable of running. I also imagine the drivetrains of the day struggled to handle that kind of output.

Those TRANSAM 302 engines the more I read up on them sound like an absolute weapon, I'm surprised Terry didn't at least try one at some stage, I would have thought they would have suited the Australian race tracks quiet well.

Something else I've wanted to ask you to Ron, was Bill Tomas Race Cars just a performance and fabrication business or did it actually go racing with its own race teams?

To get the higher HP you must use aftermarket (Mondello; Dart; etc) heads that are marched to the camshaft and intake. People spend hours and hours trying new ideas and making sure that all passages are smooth have a perfect transition from intake to head. The Pro stock boys today are getting 1200 HP from 500 cu in engines.

BTRC was a performance/fabrication shop that also produced the Cheetah race car. When the Nickey deal came along we doubled the size of the shop just to accommodate the parts and performance business that came with the Nickey name. We were also the center for General Motors performance cars that were given to writers so the could do stories on the various different cars before the were available in the dealers. We also prepared the GM cars for the Mobil Gar Economy run and schooled the drivers in how to drive and get the best gas mileage available.I also was part of a team that sawed a 1960 Corvair in half and mounted it on wheels so it could be taken into a courtroom.
But to answer your question we prepped cars for other people. Bill Thomas had his name on only a few cars including the one that Jim Baker & I raced for 2 years.

Ron

[nick_tassie]

BTRC was a performance/fabrication shop that also produced the Cheetah race car. When the Nickey deal came along we doubled the size of the shop just to accommodate the parts and performance business that came with the Nickey name. We were also the center for General Motors performance cars that were given to writers so the could do stories on the various different cars before the were available in the dealers. We also prepared the GM cars for the Mobil Gar Economy run and schooled the drivers in how to drive and get the best gas mileage available.I also was part of a team that sawed a 1960 Corvair in half and mounted it on wheels so it could be taken into a courtroom.
But to answer your question we prepped cars for other people. Bill Thomas had his name on only a few cars including the one that Jim Baker & I raced for 2 years.

Ron

Ah the Convair story, I was reading about that recently in the story of the development of the Camaro, it is very interesting how the market of a car that was selling very well crashed so badly after the safety issues, it was related to the rear suspension and vehicle roll overs from memory.

Speaking of the Nickey deal, another question that was raised at one point about Uncle Terrys race car is would it be concidered as a "Nickey Car". Although we now know it wasn't an orginal big block car, it was purchased from Nickey Chevrolet and it did get the Bill Thomas upgrades all be with the 396 and not the 427. Its a question that I would be interested in your thoughts, I imagine there were other examples of customer road cars built by BTRC, are these considered "Nickey Cars".

It would be great to hear more about your racing story as well at some point.

Nick

[Rondonrus]

You would have to ask Stefano Bimbi (aka Nickey Chicago) about that...............He is the only person that can determine if a car was purchased as a Nickey car or from BTRC directly.