Allan Moffat's 1. Trans- Am Mustang. Allan Moffat’s immortal 1. Trans Am Mustang is one of the greats of Australian motorsport. The car won 1. 01 of 1. Bowden Car Collection.“The Moffat Mustang is the cornerstone of our muscle car collection,” Bowden claims. ![]() This article original appeared in Australian Muscle Car Masters Magazine. THE GREATESTTo generations of fans, Allan Moffat’s Trans- Am Mustang is simply the greatest touring car Australia has ever seen. Even those too young to have personally witnessed its on- track performances have grown to understand its unique status, from listening wide- eyed to countless stories told by their fathers of the excitement created every time it hit the track. Australian enthusiasts had never seen anything like it when it erupted onto the local scene in 1. Sure, they’d already seen earlier model notchback Mustangs driven with great skill by the likes of Pete Geoghegan, Bob Jane, Norm Beechey and others, but Moffat’s ’6. Trans- Am was like something from another planet. Plymouth Barracuda: the first pony car, sporty and swift; predecessor of the big 'Cudas. 24 inch api 5l grade x52 steel: espesor de tuberia api 5l x56: api pipe logo stamp price: valves and pipeline services company jubail: api 5l revisão.
Here was a brand new, state- of- the- art Ford factory racer fresh from the US where it had been built to topple Chevrolet in the Trans- Am wars that year. Its shark- like nose, aggressive forward rake, ground- scraping ride height and screaming Boss 3. V8 engine left no one in any doubt about its open- cheque performance pedigree. Looking very pretty early in its career, painted in the bright red corporate colours of big time sponsor Coca- Cola, somehow this exotic factory racer had found its way to the other side of the world to be driven by a young, little known Canadian with a single- minded determination to become Australia’s first full- time professional racing car driver. To do that, he would have to earn a lot of prize money by winning a lot of races. He certainly chose the right tool for the job. In an incredible competition career from 1. ![]() Moffat and his amazing Mustang amassed 1. That stunning strike rate alone could explain this car’s fanatical following, but what made its success all the more astonishing was that Moffat was often competing against muscle monsters with far greater engine capacity. Cars like Bob Jane’s big block 7. ZL- 1 Camaro, Norm Beechey’s 6. HT GTS Monaro and Pete Geoghegan’s ferocious 5. Super Falcon all towered over Moffat’s humble 5. V8, during the “Improved Production” days of the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) from 1. On tighter tracks with a premium on handling the Coca- Cola Mustang had no peer, yet on renowned power circuits like Sandown and Mount Panorama, Moffat and his Trans- Am could more than hold their own. This was due to the car’s superb aerodynamics, seemingly limitless reserves of braking and cornering power and its driver’s resolute determination to win. This hard- headed approach was often criticised by his racing peers, earned the wrath of race stewards on occasions and polarised public opinion. You either loved him or you loathed him, yet the ability of Moffat and his Mustang to draw huge crowds to a race track was prized by track promoters around the country. History records that Moffat never won the ATCC with the Mustang, after four hard years of trying. However, such a statistic is irrelevant when compared to the car’s extraordinary success rate and countless unforgettable performances that have each earned their place in history. And there never will be. Enjoy. TRANS- AM: A BRIEF HISTORYThe long path that led to the creation of Allan Moffat’s Mustang can be traced right back to the release of the original Mustang in 1. Indeed, by 1. 97. Lincoln- Mercury (Cougar), Chevrolet (Camaro), Pontiac (Firebird), Dodge (Challenger), Plymouth (Barracuda) and American Motors (Javelin) all competing for buyers at some stage. Showing remarkable foresight back in 1. America’s major road racing sanctioning body, The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), was quick to see the potential to rapidly escalate Detroit’s pony car war by setting up a new competition category for these domestic production sedans. Commencing in 1. 96. Group I) and over 2. Group II) with a maximum engine capacity limit of 5. Other key regulations included production of a minimum 1. In another inspired move, the SCCA came up with a brilliant name for its new series – The Trans- American Sedan Championship, or “Trans- Am” for short. This series would go down in history as the catalyst for some of the greatest muscle cars and ferocious . Shelby had already achieved road racing success for Ford with his 2. V8- powered GT3. 50. R Mustangs in the SCCA’s B/Production sports car class, so he knew what was required to build a Trans- Am winning version. In fact, Shelby had already supplied Pete Geoghegan with a lot of GT3. R development components - including engine and suspension hardware – for his record- breaking 1. Mustang in Australia. As a result of Shelby’s efforts, Ford’s Mustang claimed the coveted ’6. Trans- Am Manufacturers Championship over its nearest rival Chrysler, which had fielded some potent Plymouth Barracudas. Ford contracted Shelby to build and run another batch of notchback Trans- Am Mustangs to defend its title in 1. SCCA added more rounds and altered the scoring system so that only manufacturers earned points, with no separate championship for drivers. This attracted private teams running GM’s all- new Camaro (as GM officially had a corporate ban on motor sport) and even prompted one of Ford’s own brand divisions, Lincoln- Mercury, to enter a factory team of Cougars prepared by Bud Moore. This move ignited a fierce season- long brawl between the two Ford camps (Moffat drove for Moore in four of these races), with Shelby’s Mustang team ultimately claiming a narrow points victory over the Cougar squad. Although Ford claimed its second straight Trans- Am title, such inter- brand fighting was considered counter- productive and the Cougar team was immediately disbanded at the end of the year. By 1. 96. 8, the Trans- Am series had, in only two seasons, enjoyed a meteoric rise in status. Expected stiff competition from “back door” GM factory teams running Chevrolet, Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds, plus some new AMC- supported Javelins, prompted Ford to raise the bar in its efforts to claim a hat- trick of Trans- Am titles. To that end, it replaced its powerful and reliable 2. Windsor” V8 with a new 5. Tunnel Port” 3. 02 – a move that would prove disastrous. On paper at least, the new engine looked the goods with its rugged four- bolt main bearing cylinder block, forged crank/rod/piston combo and dry- deck cylinder heads. The new “Tunnel Port” heads (so named because their inlet tracts were arrow straight and so huge that the inlet valve push- rod shafts had to literally “tunnel” right through the centre of the ports rather than between them) were designed for big power at high rpm. However, the new engine’s peaky performance characteristic and lack of low down torque made it difficult to drive on road courses. And its appalling reliability, which resulted from the need to rev the engines sky high to make them breathe properly, resulted in as many as six blow- ups on some race weekends! As a result, Ford lost its Trans- Am title to arch rival GM, thanks to the efforts of Roger Penske, his new gun driver Mark Donohue and their potent Chevrolet Camaro team. Ford’s defeat was so humiliating, the corporation immediately laid plans for an all- out attack to win back its title in 1. Trans- Am race car – the mighty Boss 3. Mustang. Ford’s potent new Trans- Am weapon was odds- on favourite to win the ’6. Trans- Am, as Ford backed not only Shelby’s two- car operation but also brought Bud Moore back into the fold to run another pair of Boss 3. Competition would come from Roger Penske’s two- car Chevrolet Camaro team, plus factory- backed entries from Pontiac (Firebird) and American Motors (Javelin). However, despite Ford’s huge pre- season effort and a strong start to the season (four wins, two 2nds) the blue oval was again toppled by the Penske/Donohue/Camaro combo, which ended up winning eight of the 1. Ford’s failure was blamed on several factors, the most significant being the durability of the Firestone tyres used by Moore’s team and a huge mid- season multi- car wreck at St Jovite, Canada that caused catastrophic damage to three of the four factory team Mustangs. Although Ford drastically reduced its racing budget and cut back to a single two- car Mustang team for Bud Moore, the involvement of Detroit’s other big three car makers was never greater. General Motors, Chrysler and American Motors all committed serious factory backing to top- grade teams with star drivers running Chev Camaros, Pontiac Firebirds, Dodge Challengers, Plymouth Barracudas and Javelins. At season’s end, Ford finally claimed back its Trans- Am title with its prized Boss 3. Mustang. However, Detroit’s support of the Trans- Am series collapsed at the end of the season. The mass manufacturer withdrawal was blamed on pony car sales that had slowed dramatically due to rising fuel and insurance costs. Put simply, the emphasis was on US car manufacturers producing a minimum number of the model they wished to race (ie 1. Trans- Am series. By the late 1. 96. Trans- Am inspired muscle cars had become not only hot showroom sellers but also potent marketing tools in a very competitive US car market. Fortunately, when it came time to create the 1. Boss 3. 02 Mustang, Ford had employed just the right people at just the right time. Early in 1. 96. 8, self- confessed racing nut Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen, who had been driving GM’s back door racing activities, accepted Henry Ford II’s offer to become president of Ford Motor Company. Among the key people Knudsen poached from his former employer was stylist Larry Shinoda to head up Ford’s Special Design Centre. Even though the new 1. Mustang styling was already set in steel when he arrived, Knudsen still saw plenty of opportunities to revamp Ford’s pony car line to create the best looking and best handling road car ever to have come out of Detroit.
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