Bruce, they say in motorsport the most important person to beat is your team mate. Titus was immediately quick in his first race in the Firebird in '68. I'm sure Chevrolet wouldn't have wanted Pontiac there anymore than Ford wanted Mercury there in '67.Originally Posted by Bruce302
Steve, the other '68 T/G Firebird (Craig Fishers #77 car with Gagnon Spring sponsorship) has not been found, it may have been converted to a Camaro. Gagnon advertised used race cars for sale, one mentioned the Firebird, 6 months later he was selling a 68 Camaro, that is when it may have had the switch.
Thanks Bruce. I've never seen a colour photo of the Titus car from '68. Was it the same yellow colour as Fishers car?
Quite a few of those Trans-Am cars ended up in the rival Nascar Grand Touring series. That series included everything from super speedways such as Daytona, right through to dirt bullrings, and many of the cars got wrecked.
The converted Camaro was painted yellow for the '68 race at Kent Washington, and had "Pacific Euclid" ( a Godsall company) painted on the rear quarters, but later for Daytona it was red and white again as it has been restored.
Photo courtesy www.historictransam.com
You're right about the cars getting beaten up and driven into the ground at the secondary tracks, dirt was the worst, That claimed a lot of good cars.
Thanks Bruce. Didn't this car come up for sale a couple of years ago? It really is a fantastic looking race car.
This was typical of many of the tracks that were part of the Nascar Grand Touring series. Tough dirt bullring ovals. This (#55) is Tiny Lund who won the series several times:
Plus a few more. You can imagine the survival rate on these cars would be pretty low.
Wow that # 9 took a big hit in the front, She won't be coming back. Too bad a lot of otherwise good cars died on those dirt tracks.
The Jon Ward Camaro, T/G Firebird has changed hands a few times in the last decade since it was found in Mexico.
It still appears occasionally at West Coast Historic Trans Am events.
Bruce.
Note how all those cars have full windscreens, unlike most dirt track cars which usually just have a mesh screen on the drivers side. I expect they'd be junk after a race on the dirt.
They raced the same cars on paved tracks too Steve, the dirt was not their permanent home, but it certainly contributed to the deterioration.
Yep thats right, here is Tiny Lund racing his same '69 on a road course, possibly Daytona infield. I'm just surprised they leave the glass in for the dirt races. But maybe they had to as part of the rules.
Further to post #12 & #13 it looks a lot better here and a little history.
1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am
First production car to win a race using radial tires
Raced in Trans-Am, The Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours, SCCA and CSCC club events
Built by Jerry Titus’ TG Racing
Restored to a very high concours standard by Mark Mountanos
Sponsored by BF Goodrich Radial Tires and driven by Canadian champion John Cordts and Larry Dent, this car was raced in Trans-Am, The Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours, SCCA and CSCC club events. BF Goodrich made special tires for the team and they eventually became the first production car to win a race using radial tires.
This was the third of three cars built by Jerry Titus’ TG Racing for the 1970 Trans-Am season. Titus’ partner Terry Godsall secured BF Goodrich sponsorship for the team at the end of the 1970 season. The team convinced the SCCA to allow this car to run with a Chevy engine instead of the problematic Pontiac engine base on the fact that Canadian Firebirds were delivered with Chevy engines. This car was entered in the 1971 Daytona 24 hours as a Firebird and then was converted to Camaro body work in time for Sebring. It remained in Camaro trim for the remainder of it’s active racing carrier. The car was sold to Alfie Ruys de Perez and raced in Trans Am in 1972 with assistance from Mo Carter’s team and then to Don Clement who campaigned the car in IMSA and local CSCC events.
This car has been restored to a very high concours standard by Mark Mountanos and his team. The attention to detail down to the nut and bolt level is second to none. A huge collection of documentation, historic photographs, and interviews with Titus team members has insured a proper period correct restoration. The car has participated in just seven races since the restoration was complete including the Monterey Historics.
Today the car is in spectacular condition, fully sorted, and race ready. Owned by a prominent west coast collector and vintage racer it has always had top quality care and preparation. The car looks as if the restoration had been completed yesterday!
The car has only three race weekends since a complete race-prep. Tony Oddo built the Chevy engine which has only 12 hours of track time, and produced 485.1 hp and 377.6 torque on the Dyno. The T10 transmission has just been completely rebuilt by Tex Racing.
1970 Record
Watkins Glenn Trans Am — Cordts , 22nd. (Goodyear tires)
Canadian Trophy Race, Mosport — Cordts
Watkins Glenn SCCA National — Cordts, 1st, A Sedan (first production car to win a race using radial tires.)
1971 Record
Daytona 24 Hours — Cordts, Pike , DNF
Sebring 12 Hours — Cordts, Pike, DNF (converted to Camaro)
Bridgehampton SCCA — Dent, 2nd
Cumberland SCCA — Dent, DNF
Lime Rock SCCA — Dent, 1st
Bryar Trans Am — Dent, 16th
Thompson SCCA — Dent, 2nd
Road America June Sprints — Dent, 3rd
Mid-Ohio SCCA — Dent, 3rd
Nelson Leges SCCA — Dent, DNS
1972 Record
Bryar Trans Am — Perez, 8th
Mid Ohio Trans Am — Perez, 29th
Watkins Glenn Trans Am — Perez, 9th
Donnebrooke Trans Am — Perez, 26th
Road America Trans Am — Perez, 8th
Saniar Trans Am — Perez, 14th
About Jerry Titus
In 1967, Jerry Titus was the Trans-Am Champion racing a Ford Mustang for Carroll Shelby. In 1968 and 1969, he was third in the Trans-Am series.
He had 43 career races with 4 wins in the 1967 race season. He had 5 poles, and 7 wins in his career as a driver or co-driver.
At the final 1968 Trans-Am race at Kent, the big news was that Jerry Titus was leaving Ford and moving to Pontiac. Terry Godsall, a young Canadian businessman, offered Jerry a chance to run a team of his own Pontiac Firebirds.
In going with Pontiac, Titus found that he was handicapped by the need of a great deal of developmental work, especially on the engine. Early on, Godsall pulled out of the Trans Am series, saying that the SCCA was inconsistent in its rule enforcement policies. Jerry then carried on the administrative responsibilities as well as driving for his team.
In 1970, Jerry Titus decided to stop building Firebirds for customers and concentrate on his own race cars. Three cars were built. This BFG " Tire Bird" and the Titus car are the only cars that still exist.
The third Trans Am Firebird was severely wrecked in a crash and eventually destroyed.
The 1970 Season was Jerry's last season.
Thanks Rod, that is a good write up.
Here is an article about some tire testing that went with the territory. I believe T/G Racing got something like $1 per mile to test the tires. To see the pics you click on the box in the upper right "View Image gallery" There is also a pic of a Corvette that Ron Grable was involved with. The car was supposed to have raced at Le Mans but was wrecked during a night time pre race incident that was meant to impress a female passenger.
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/...feature10.html
Bruce.
Replying specifically to the picture in post #16 - the # 79 and #73 cars. Sorry to get laser-focused, but I am very interested in the cars as I think it's a pretty cool story. Not only is the team suffering from the crushing loss of Jerry Titus, but they are fighting the convergence of changing SCCA engine requirements and running engines with academic flaws which have not had the benefit of complete testing and tuning. Literally, the smartest guys trying to make the impossible happen.
My understanding is that the post-Titus team ran one Trans Am event in '70 at Riverside. Although from records and other pictures, they might have run a Can Am race in '70.
My second point of understanding is that they ran the destroked 400 Pontiac for this race--the 303 tall block. The team had been experimenting with the famous 303 short block Pontiac in the '69 season. They ran two races, but the SCCA nixed it because not enough had been produced. The rules changed in '70 for destroking.
I also believe the 303 tall block had troubles not from the weight, but oil pressure (large crank journals and rod journals eat pressure) and spinning mass weight (2.83 stroke, but long 7.08" rods). Compared to the proven king 302, the bore and stroke are better as are the RAIV heads. Pontiac crank dimensions and the longer rods were the killers. These cranks did well in NASCAR (Tiny Lund) with the short blocks and dry sumps.
Like stated in the thread, David Hobbs brought #79 in for a 9th place finish at riverside. I am unclear if the #73 car was driven by John Cordts or Jerry Thompson; but it DNF.
My understanding is that the Pontiacs went back to the Chevy 302 in the '71 season as the well documented Tirebird.
With all this said, I am looking for photos of these cars for a clone I am building. I have a duplicate set of side pipes from the Tirebird and a Tiny Lund crank. The #16 post picture and one from Watkins Glen (month earlier/John Cordt)(crazy exhaust--big, long curved pipe and not side pipes) are all I have been able to find.
Any help is much appreciated.
Mike
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