Coppins Pontiac, come on Bruce!!

[Bruce302]

Oh and I still have the license plate in the garage. You can just see it under the front grill RHS.

Bruce.

[Javman]

All good Bruce , awesome, haven't seen any engine bay shots, sorry.

[Bruce302]

Great pics Pallmall, Thank you.

To carry on the story of the resurrection, I will skip the Trans Am year of competition as that is a book in itself.
At the end of the season though,the Titus/Godsall (T/G) team were looking ahead to the coming '70 season and building the new updated cars.
Due to a strike at GM, the introduction and release of the new body style for '70 was delayed to the point where they are now referred to as the 70 1/2 model.
One of the key people on the team, was Doug Innes. He was initially employed to look after Terry Godsall's classic cars, but he was asked to join the race team and became crew chief. Another key member, was fabricator Sherman Falconer, brother of Ryan Falconer best known as the man behind Ryan Falconer race Engines.
Doug Innes was asked to go with the team transporter and pick up the first two '70 Firebirds and take them to T/G's shop in Tarzana CA.
He wasn't allowed to stop anywhere and show anybody, and he was scheduled to arrive in the evening. It was all top secret as the cars had not been seen or even pictured in public.
Anyway on his arrival at the T/G shop, Jerry Titus had invited the news and magazine media, and this arrival was to be one of the unveilings of the new Firebirds.

But back on track. At the end of the 69 season ,T/G had two cars left, and two transporter which were Greyhound buses converted to be mobile Post Offices.
They were gutted and would take two cars loaded through the back.
The two cars that were last to sell were given the '69 Pontiac Trans Am sheetmetal and 303 ci Pontiac engines, though it is doubtful that they were ever homologated in that form. Craig Fisher ran one under Todco Racing for part of the '70 season but had numerous DNF's. He went back to the Todco '69 Camaro.
I have homologation papers for the '69 cars with 302 Chevrolet engines and '68 Firebird grill surrounds.
The 303 engine was not a well developed unit and suffered numerous failures. It was unlikely the cars would sell in that configuration.



Paul Fahey went and had a look at the Firebirds, but decided to stay with Ford and bought the car that would ultimately become the PDL Mustang.

Jim Palmer's father, George, also looked at buying one of the cars for Jim, though with the intention of ditching the 303 and dropping in a small block Chev.
It was some time before Ron Grable was invited back to NZ for a couple of weeks all expenses paid racing here. Being a professional racer, and it being the off season in the States he jumped at the chance. He also loved the place from his earlier visits here.

Ron was asked to go and buy this particular car and all the money was paid up front from NZ. Ron dealt with Jerry Titus's son Rick as Jerry had died from injuries after crashing his '70 Firebird race car at Road America, Elkhart Lake in Wisconson.

This is the car in the T/G shop. The frame engine mounts are Pontiac items, so it had a 303 that was removed before this pic was taken.



The car was shipped to NZ and arrived in Auckland 2 weeks before Christmas 1971. Ross Phillips picked up the car and took it to Tauranga where it was prepared for the New Years eve meeting at Bay Park.
Dennis Marwood supplied the engine, which incidentally was the Everett Hatch built 302 from the Rorison (ex Joe Chamberlain Camaro, unchanged apart from the 4 Weber set up.

This is Ron Grable at Bay Park Dec 31st 1971. He was recovering from two broken legs after crashing his F5000 ride earlier in the year.



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