Rondeau GTP

Cars

Jean Rondeau was a French interior designer who lived in Le Mans. He had a strong passion for his home race, which was the greatest in the world. He designed his first car in 1976, and they sported the name of the manufacturer which backed him : Inaltera. The Grand Touring Prototype category had been devised by the ACO and would later been used as the basis for the category to come in 1980. The car was a sheet aluminum-clad steel spaceframe design with GRP coachwork. It was powered by a classic 3,0L DFV powerplant and was Michelin shod. The while package just weighed under 900 kgs.[...]

Porsche Carrera RSR

Cars

The Porsche Carrera RS has been introduced in the US road racing scene in 1973. From that moment, it has become one of the most successful car ever. The first race of such a car was to happen at Daytona in 1973. This race was the first of the World Sportscar Championship and, there it faced true racing Prototypes as Matra, Mirage and Lola. Not still homologated in GT, the cars were forced to run against stronger machinery. Two brand new Carreras were entered by Brumos Racing and Penske Racing. These were RS cars because fitted with 2,7L engines.[...]

Jack Roush

Team

Jack Roush is the founder, CEO, and co-owner along with John Henry of Roush Fenway Racing, a NASCAR team headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, and is Chairman of the Board of Roush Enterprises. Rarely seen without his trademark Panama hat, Roush is known on the NASCAR circuit as "The Cat in the Hat". Roush was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame on April 27, 2006. In 2008, Roush was elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and will be inducted on Sept. 13, 2010, in Novi. In 1984, Ford tapped noted performance guru Jack Roush to custom-build cars for the Tran-Am series.[...]

Ford Pinto Jerry Walsh

Cars

Even before the gas crisis erupted in the 1970s, U.S. automakers saw the potential in the subcompact market. General Motors released their Vega, AMC had its Gremlins, and Ford developed the Pinto. In addition to the domestics, import manufacturers such as BMW, Toyota, Datsun and Mazda were developing their cars for the American market. IMSA also saw opportunity in these affordable cars, offering the Baby Grand Series in 1971 to attract racers with smaller budgets. [...]

AAGT

Class

1975 had seen a new Porsche domination and John Bishop wanted to put an end to that situation. That is why he created fhe AAGT category, a special category made for American built cars which allowed extensive modifications. Chassis would be tube-framed while engine could be bigger and cars could have wider tyres. This would provide more competition for victory at a relatively low-cost. Small teams could have a go at it, if they had the skills. The first car that found itself developed as an AAGT was the Chevrolet Monza which had all the potential for a real efficient development. Horst Kwech and Harry Theodoracopoulos had already entered cars in 1975 with mixed results.[...]

Bob Akin's Porsche 935LT1

Cars

Bob Akin knew if he wanted to win, he would have to come up with something totally radical for the 1982 season. Akin commissioned Chuck Gaa of Gaaco to design and build a "Super GTP 935". To improve aerodynamics and increase the straight-line speed of the new car a Lola T600 GTP nose was used. A new purpose built monocoque bonded aluminum chassis was constructed combining the best of the new GTP technology with the proven power and reliability of the Porsche 935 mechanicals. According to the rules, the windshield and roof section of a standard Porsche 930 still had to be used. [...]

Kudzu story

Cars

Jim Downing's father was a major foreign car dealer in the Atlanta area. So he grew up around racing as a joint man. He would start racing in the mid sixties, with a variety of cars. He would run Mazdas as soin as 1974, even when the name was quite unknown. By 1976, he ran a Mazda RX3 in the RS series, and Rick Engeman, who was the most experienced engine builder in the US, would build engines foot Jim Downing right from 1976. After running some successeur seasons in RS and GTU, Jim Downing decided he wanted to run for the overall. But by the time the car was ready(1984), it was outclassed by the bigger engines cars. So Jim suggested John Bishop that a smaller class was needed. So the Lights class was created.[...]

Carmon Salomone Chevrolet Camaro

Cars

Laurel Racing enjoyed some success in the early 70s, running a 1968 Camaro in many endurance events.To race the second generation Camaro in the 1970 Trans Am, Chevrolet enlisted Jim Hall and his Chaparral race team. Jim Hall inherited some of the data, data acquisition equipment, and other property owned by Chevrolet. Hall also benefited by the support of the Chevrolet engineers. In particular, Bill Howell had played a significant roll in developing the 1969 Penske Camaro.[...]

Phoenix Auto Volante

Cars

In 1993 we decided to enter a GTP Light car with an Alfa engine in the IMSA racing series. It was a modified Phoenix car fitted with a V6 Alfa Romeo engine. This was a very ambitious endeavour as the car had to be built and the engine developed while Autovolante had to carry on with the routine service for customer cars. The first race of the season was in Miami. The car, shown in the picture above, was knocked out of the race at the first corner during the first lap.[...]

John Greenwood

Legend

He always messed with engines. He also built his first tube frame car with a 2 1/2 HP Briggs & Stratton engine with money from his paper route. He started street racing around 1960 with a '55 Pontiac then switched to a Chevy Impala and then to Corvettes, around 1964. He switched over to Corvettes fairly early, when I bought a silver 1964. I was about 18 or 20 at that time. I was one of the first to fit one of the early 427s. It took some modifications to the frame rail but the cars were lighter and the suspension was better. It was obvious that the car was a better platform. He kept building them and racing them.[...]