Thanks once more to Geoffrey Horton today’s Americana Thursday blog features some of the highlights from the Trans Am cars on display at the recent Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance. I can’t say for certain if all of these cars are the originals that raced in the series or faithful tribute cars built since, if you know for certain one way on the other about the details of any of these cars please do not hesitate to chime in below.

The Trans Am Series ran uninterrupted from 1966 to 2006 and was revived in 2009. The golden era of the series is generally considered to have been from 1968 to 1972 when the 302 cui / 5 litre muscle cars from AMC, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Plymouth a duked it out for overall wins. Above is a #15 Penske Chevrolet Camaro which appears to be the car that came 3rd overall and 1st in class at the 1968 Sebring 12 hours driven by Mark Donohue and Canadian Craig Fisher.

The drivers Trans Am championship was not instated until 1972, it was won by George Folmer driving an AMC Javelin, above is a Boss 302 Mustang of the type George used in 1970 when he was driving for the Bud Moore team.

Parnelli Jones also drove in Bud Moore’s Trans Am team in 1970, he drove a #15 similar to the one above, linked here is an excellent clip of Parnelli which show’s just why the Trans Am series was so popular.

Texan Jim Hall built three Chaparral Camaro’s in 1970 for the Trans Am Series, they were raced by Hall himself along with Vic Elford, Ed Leslie and Joe Leonard, this car may well be the one that Vic Elford drove to a win at Watkins Glen in 1970.

Finally I featured the Classic Wax Dodge Challenger driven by Sam Posey in the 1970 Trans Am series some time ago. Being my all time favourite car from the series I hope you’ll forgive my indulgence by showing it again.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photo’s from the Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Trans Am Golden Era’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again when I’ll be featuring some of the Ferrari’s that were present at Carmel by The Sea on August 14th. Don’t forget to come back now !