www.royalpontiac.org Volume 23 Issue 1 Apr 2016 RIP Art Fitzpatrick PCPS Fall Color Tour Route 66 Part 4 Annual Club Cider Mill Cruise
www.royalpontiac.org Volume 23 Issue 1 Apr 2016 Inside this issue: Romping on Woodward By Dr. Eric Schiffer Welcome to spring in Michigan Boy, while the winter was very mild this year, it just will not let go. Spring keeps teasing us with its periodic 60 degree days as guys are bringing out their cars from winter hibernation only to be chased back into the garage again. The Tigers started their opening game in the snow. Oh well, it is Michigan after-all. Soon we will be able to bring our babies out since next week promises to be back in the 50 s leading us into the 60 s by the end of the week. Romping on Woodward 50th anniversary Trans Am series Route 66 part 4 Vintage Article Membership application Club Calendar 2-3 4-11 12-15 16-26 27 28 Points and Condenser Spring Dust off The spring dust off has been announced. It will be Saturday, May 21st. The start will be in Ann Arbor at Germain VW, Porsche, Audi on South State Street. The final destination will be RM Motor Sports and lunch is catered by Slow s Bar-B-Q. Cost is $65.00 if paid by May 7, $75.00 after that date. Limited availability. Royal Pontiac Winter Gathering/Date Night Several members with their significant others gathered for a casual and very pleasant evening at The Moose Preserve in Bloomfield Hills. Sorry you missed it. Look for posted pictures. General Motors Heritage Center Was another great hit! There were lots of GM s advance design cars from the past and significant historic cars and engines were on display. A video was shown about GM on a huge screen in the center of the complex. Look for pictures on the club web site and Face Book. Upcoming Events: April 23rd Lingenfelter collection open house Auto Zone gatherings Speaking of Pastiener s, the gatherings continue through the winter months from 8:00 10:00a.m. in Birmingham. In spite of frigid temperatures Real Hardy car guys showed up in their baby s even with top down. Winter still brings out a great gathering of cars and car people. June 11th: Detroit Drag way Reunion Milan Drag way North American International Auto Show Another great show with some new reveals.
Page 3 Royal Pontiac Club of America Spring 2016 Newsletter Romping on Woodward (cont d) Dr. Eric Schiffer Auctions Pontiac s seemed to be hot at this year s auctions in Arizona and Florida. Two of the eight 1969 Trans Am convertibles hit the MECUM block and were bid, No Sale over 1 Million Dollars. One had been owned by member and PMD engineer, Tom Goad. His triple white, 4-speed went up to $1.9 Million, NO SALE. The second one was a black interior, automatic that was bid up to $1.4 Million NO SALE. At Barrett Jackson the Smokey the Bandit promo 1977 Trans Am sold for $550,000.00. How about a 1979 Silver Anniversary Trans Am with 7.5 miles on it for $187, 000.00. Even a base 400/350HP 1970 GTO convertible sold for $60,000.00. Auction America sold the 1968 GTO Royal Bobcat that had graced the cover of Popular Hot Rodding with Dave Warren and Milt Schorneck guiding the engine, with headers already on the block, above the engine bay for $145,000.00. WOW! It is getting harder and harder for me to bring out and enjoy owning the Black Bird if it is gaining that kind of value. SEMA ALERT The EPA is pressing to put the automotive aftermarket out of business through their latest 1,000 page regulations. Several Sates filed lawsuits along with several US industries including the coal industry and aftermarket auto industry. The Supreme Court remanded it immediately to a lower Federal Court to put a stay on any implementation of these rules. The US House and Senate took up hearing immediately, but the White House is still trying to do an end around, (possibly through executive order). Mike Kidd has forward several SEMA ALERTS to the members to sign petitions. M1 Concourse Brad Oleshanski has really making headway with his car condo s and race track in Pontiac. M1 will be hosting their first Track Day in June. Brad is also trying to be the Epi Center of the Woodward Dream cruise. Chevrolet has already announced they will not be at the Kingsley Inn but at M1 for their Woodward Dream Cruise week. Look for more activities. Weekly Summer Cruise In Begin in May, Look for listing on clubs website and Face Book. Woodward Dream Cruise We will let you know as soon as we hear this years pricing for parking in Birmingham. Well, time to burn rubber Eric
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50th Anniversary oftrans-am Racing by Mike Nyberg On the track and in the paddock, "the two groups honored the traditions and evolution of Trans-Am from its original format, as a manufacturer s championship for modified racing sedans, to its contemporary form as a drivers championship open to GT style cars." Thirty cars participated in the Historic Trans-Am events and 72 cars in three classes participated in the Pro Trans-Am Series events. All the Historic Trans-Am cars were located in the same area of the paddock. Virtually all the cars had sandwich boards describing its Trans-Am history. I spent a lot of time tracking down the driver/ owner of most of the cars to take their picture next to their pride and joy. Everyone I was able to locate was more than happy to oblige. They were very proud of having a piece of history and not afraid to race it. I think they also realize it was important to please fans, who support the events. I was interested finding Bill Ocherlund, the owner of the #15 Bud Moore (BM) BOSS 302, which was the Parnelli Jones Boss from late 1969, converted to 1970 body work and raced as his primary car for most of the 1970 T/A season. One of the three 1970 BM team cars. It was Parnelli's favorite and was also raced in the last two events in 1969 as Ford tried to save the season and win the championship!!!
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The car was parked in a line of 5 special Historic Trans-Am cars. I found out Bill owned all of them. Beside owning the BM BOSS 302 his stable had the 1971 Penske Javelin #77 Dodge Challenger, constructed by Dan Gurney s AAR shop and driven by Sam Posey, 1969 #6 Penske Camaro, driven by Mark Donohue, Ronnie Bucknum and Ed Leslie 1970 #42 Cuda, constructed by AAR driven by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. What a significant historic Trans Am collection. His collection is shown on the previous page. There were many other historically significant Trans Am cars including: 1966 Mustang #1A. The car started out as a 1964 1/2 six cylinder model and Jim Sutter updated to 1966 model trim and prepared to FIA Group II Specs. The FIA papers are dated 2/21/66. The car s first race was the 4 hour Governor s cup for sedans at Sebring, 3/25/66. This first Trans Am race was a support event to the Sebring 12 hour race. Jim Sutter put the famous racing dentist, Dr. Dick Thompson, at the wheel. This was the first car entered in the new Trans Am series and was issued #1. Thompson was the fastest qualifier and also the first car to score points towards Ford s eventual championship in the 1966 season. Another significant car was the dark blue 1969 Boss 302 #2. This is the first ever factory Boss 302 racer and was the main Team Shelby car in 1969. It was driven by Peter Revson and Horst Kwech. The car was one of the three Ford factory cars wrecked at St. Jovite in 1969. George Follmer broke a valve spring while leading, causing an oil slick. George pulled off the track and jumped the wall just before the two Shelby team cars (#1 & #2) hit the oil slick and slammed into George s #16. As George tells the story, the corner worker only put out the yellow flag and did not flag for oil. Another 69 Boss 302 #28A was the Tasca Ford driven by Dean Gregson. Tasca had sp much pull with Ford Motor Company that they stopped the presses at the Metuchen plant in New Jersey while they turned out the red
fastback built into their specs with no serial number, only a door tag stating Special Unit. The car was dubbed the Metuchen Special. The red 1967 Cougar #98BM was built and driven by Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney. Mercury was a contender for the manufacturers championship title until the last race in Kent, Washington. A Cougar finishing ahead of Mustang would have clinched it for Mercury, however Gurney finished behind Ron Bucknum s Mustang, edging out the title by 2 points. A cool Pontiac racer was the white 1970 Trans Am #8 owned by Robert Kauffman. Originally built by Titus/Goodsall racing for Jerry Titus to drive. It was running a de-stroked Pontiac 400 with a single 4 bbl making 480 hp. Titus was unfortunately killed during the 1970 season at a Road America practice session causing Pontiac to pull out of competition. The Pontiac Trans Am race effort was taken up the following year by a group of Pontiac engineers with the infamous 64 GTO known as the Grey Ghost, without manufacturer support.
Qualifying for the race had Bill Ockerlund in his 1971 Penske Javelin in the lead with a time of 2:28.412, followed by Walter Brown in the #71 Camaro and Robert Kauffman s #8 Trans Am. The quickest Boss 302 was 11th plcae with a lap of 2:36.066. The race had similar results to the qualifying session. Participants race with competitive spirit, but with rigid restraints on passing. They do not want to trade paint, since some of the cars are worth more than $1M. Walter Brown was 1st in his 1971 Camaro, Bill Ockerlund was 2nd in his 1971 Javelin, and Gregory Weirick finished 3rd. Robert Kauffman in his #8 Trans Am finished 4th. During the lunch break I was able to get autographs from three heroes from the series: Bob Tullius who was the grand marshall of the event and drove the Grey Ghost in 1971. He was honored by SVRA president and CEO Tony Parella. Bob set the standard for presenting motor sports as a business platform for sponsors. His cars were always immaculately prepared and he helped usher in the modern era of branding through association with race teams. Tom Yeager who attended a 12 hours of Sebring race at age 19, and started racing at Waterford Hills, MI in 1963 driving a 61 Lotus 7. He qualified for the inaugural ARRC race in 1964, and start ed racing as a Shelby team driver in the first production Shelby GT 350R Mustang as well as and FIA Cobra. He won th SCCA June sprints and was invited to the ARRC run offs in 1965. In 1966 he drove a Mustang notchback and accumulated enough points to win the 1966 Trans Am championship for Ford. Tom raced a GT350 at Sebring in 1966 and the 24 hours of Daytona in a Trans AM Mustang in early 1967. He retired in 1969 to concentrate on his business interests in Marion, OH. Persuaded by his partner, Scottie, Tom returned to race with the SVRA in a Lotus Super 7. He racked up many podium finishes and in 1996 was chosen as SVRA s Driver of the Year. Tom is now 80 years old and raced until two years ago.
Left to Right: Lyn St. James, Bob Tullius,Tom Yeager and George Follmer George Follmer who was paired with Parnelli Jones in the 1969 Trans Am series for Bud Mooore s Ford team. Among the Mustang s many motorsport accomplishments during its 1st 50 years, is it s considerable success in the original SCCA Trans Am series. Mention this to any Ford or Mustang enthusiast and they will likely zero in on the seminal year of 1970, when Parnelli Jones and George Follmer dominated the season in those famous school bus yellow Boss 302 s, handily beating all comers and winning the manufacturer s title for Ford in 1970. It only makes sense that this is the stand out accomplishment that people remember: the cars were fabulous, the driver s were a pair of hard charging American s who dominated the season, and Ford was very much be hind the effort. Another legend I was able to get an autograph from was Lyn St. James. She was there signing her book titled: Lyn St. James: An Incredible Journey.
Page 11 Royal Pontiac Club of America Spring 2016 It was so much fun talking to the owners of the original Trans-Am cars and watching them qualify and race. Thankfully, there are Historic Trans-Am enthusiasts who have the passion and resources to maintain these valuable icons of the period and not store them in museums, at lease not full time. As the T-shirt I bought from SVRA indicates, SOME COLLECT ART,WE RACE IT. end
Page 12 Royal Pontiac Club of America Spring 2016 Newsletter Route 66 Trip Part 4 Text Linda Kidd Photos Mike & Aleta Kidd On Day Three we discovered that our next destination, St. Louis, was experiencing similar downpours as we had faced during our travels. The news mentioned concerns about flooding. We decided to stay put and spend the night in Springfield, IL. We woke up to a day with lovely weather. After breakfast we headed into the city. Historic Springfield is surrounded by present day Springfield. Michael, my son, had a busy morning before breakfast. He dried the trunk mat from his Grand Am in the shower stall. His strategically placed towels in the trunk had absorbed the water from the night s rainfall. He dried his wet towels and blankets in the laundry. Then he took the Grand Am and the Camaro to the car wash to clean off the mud, bugs, and grass that had attached to the vehicles creating a paper mache substance on the exteriors of the cars. It made me feel like a slacker just getting dressed and having breakfast. Thank goodness Mike had all that energy. It was great having clean cars! (freshly cleaned cars shown above) We all climbed in to the Grand Am and drove into the city and found excellent parking near the Lincoln National Park site. For Michiganders it is similar to a Greenfield Village like park in the middle of a big city. All of the historic buildings are authentic to the city and are being restored. We wrapped up the tour we had started the day before with our tour of the Lincoln home. It was the only home the Lincoln family ever owned. From there the Lincoln
Page 13 Route 66 Trip Part 4 Text Linda Kidd Photos Mike & Aleta Kidd family moved into the White House. We imagined what it would have been like to walk these pathways and run into Abraham Lincoln on his way to the Capitol Building or to his law offices. Statues of the Lincoln family are found in a city park bringing our imaginations to life. Our next destination was the Lincoln Museum. The museum was celebrating its tenth anniversary. It is worth as much time as you can spend to learn about a president and the people who changed the direction of our country forever. A favorite part of the museum was a holographic presentation explaining the artifacts and archives of the Presidential Library. It gave us a new understanding of books and artifacts and their importance in telling the stories of the people who used them. The Lincoln Family Home Models of Lincoln s log cabin and section of the White House were full of the stories portraying Abraham Lincoln as a regular person who became a larger than life PresiShelby with Lincoln figures downtown dent of the United States. Shelby, my granddaughter, became involved in the history found in the displays. She was enamored by the models of historic figures on the porch of the White House. But, the dresses of Mrs. Lincoln intrigued her. The wide skirts, the immense use of fine fabrics, the designs and trims fascinated her. She couldn t help but imagine how
Page 14 Royal Pontiac Club of America Spring 2016 Newsletter Route 66 Trip Part 4 Text Linda Kidd Photos Mike & Aleta Kidd it would feel to wear such amazing gowns. But she would miss wearing pants. On the other hand, Michael,Aleta, and I were stunned to learn the percentage of lives our country lost in the Civil War with a loss of more than a million people (620K soldiers). The loss of 620,000 soldiers during the war exceeds WWII,WWI, Vietnam and Korea combined. The North continuously lost Great parking downtown in the middle of the week more men, even with the technology advantage in weapons. Gettysburg really was a turning point of the war. The displays evoked silence, awareness, and questions in the visitors minds. No one was untouched by what they learned at this museum. After lunch at the museum we used Shelby s impressive map reading skills to locate the Lincoln Presidential Library. The main hall was filled with posters of each president and additional information accessed by scanning the Q codes in the corner of each display. This is the same museum used by movie script writers for researching historical films. We wrapped up the afternoon by touring the Old Capitol Building where Lincoln gave his House Divided Speech. The Abraham Lincoln actor visits the Capitol to reenact the speeches. We had just missed him.the Capitol had antique furin front of the historic courthouse
Page 15 Route 66 Trip Part 4 Text Linda Kidd Photos Mike & Aleta Kidd niture in the various chambers. Its dome is similar to Michigan s State Capitol dome. Definitely worth the visit. Back to the hotel to refresh before leaving for dinner. Mike and Shelby were excited to try out the Bar-B-Que at Smokey Bones. Everyone ordered something different with the intention of sharing and sampling the menu. Shelby ordered a full slab of ribs. Michael asked her for a bone. You guessed it. She gave him a bone. What? Did you want one with meat, Uncle Mike? She also ate her two sides and two root beers. We were not certain she would be able to go to the Ghost Tour we scheduled for the evening. The ghost tour was a nice evening walk through historic Springfield. More stories about the Lincolns and their lives prior to the presidency. The final stop was the train depot Abraham Lincoln used to depart for Washington D.C. It was a great way to wrap up our experiences of the life of Abraham Lincoln. Well, Day Four started with a lot of attention to our cars, especially the vintage one. The rest of the day enriched our appreciation of American history. The train station which would be featured on the evenings ghost tour
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April 2016 Primary Business Royal Pontiac Club of America Address P.O. Box 252402 West Bloomfield,Line MI 48325 Address 2 Address Line 3 14 Royal Pontiac Club meeting, Denny s in Novi. Dinner at 6, meeting at 7 23 No ET Nationals Milan Dragway 23 Lingenfelter collection open house 30 High school nationals Milan Dragway May 2016 12 Royal Pontiac Club meeting, Denny s in Novi. Dinner at 6, meeting at 7 www.royalpontiac.org June 2016 3-5 Detroit Grand Prix Belle Isle 4 Opie memorial race Lapeer Dragway 9 Royal Pontiac Club meeting, Denny s in Novi. Dinner at 6, meeting at 7 11 Detroit Dragway Reunion Milan Dragway 12 Cars R stars Packard proving grounds 18-19 Motor Muster Greenfield Village 19 Eyes on Design Edsel and Eleanor Ford House Pasteiners (Auto Zone) Book store, Woodward Ave north of 14 Mile Rd Every Saturday morning from 8AM 10AM Weekly gathering year round Link to pics from previous events: https://www.flickr.com/photos/108906868@n03/sets/ Looking for Articles!!! Have you done any cool car events lately? Maybe a great tech tip? Why not share them with other club members? Would you like to share your pride and joy with other club members? Write a short meet the member article introducing you and your car. Be sure to include some pictures. We can also add pics of your ride to our members tab on the website. Please email Mike Kidd with ideas or anything you d like to share in the newsletter. kidd101400@att.net