The Roaring Season

I'm saddened to hear of the passing of Craig Fisher, who has inspired the build of this car. RIP.

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Always one for a new anorak fact, I recently discovered the shade of grey applied to the interior, underside, firewall, boot, and sub-frame on the Team Penske Trans-Am Camaros during the late 1960s. Its simply called Light Gray, and is a 1966 General Motors exterior colour used mostly on their trucks and other commercial vehicles. The colour code is: 32374.

Incidentally, this was the exact same colour used by Traco on their race engines during this same period.

How does this relate to The Roaring Season Firebird? The original Craig Fisher Firebird was believed to be a 1967 Penske Camaro, updated to 1968 Pontiac Firebird sheet metal. Albeit, the Godsall/Fisher team used Bartz engines, which were painted dark blue.

Thanks to members of the Camaro Research Group for this great info.

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Whats interesting here is that the SCCA Additional Optional Equipment form for the Pontiac Firebird in 1968 includes roller rockers (Cylinder Head Optional Rocker Assy). To the best of my knowledge roller rockers didn't appear in the Trans-Am until around 1970/71.

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This form I got from the Camaro Research Group forum.

This is my other recent purchase. I already have one set of 'camel hump' heads for the Firebird. These were kindly donated by Tony Garmey, for no other reason than he gets a lot of enjoyment from The Roaring Season, and he wanted to help the build.

The heads Tony donated are the original camel hump/fuelie heads, casting number 3782461. These were originally produced from 1961 - 1966 and were the performance option for the sbc. From there, Chevy produced various similar heads over the next decade or so, including 462, 291, 040, 186, 041, and 492. Not all have the double hump casting in the ends (hence the name camel hump), but they are for the most part all pretty similar. I would assume also that any of these would be accepted by an FIA inspector.

Anyway, these heads are 50 years old. They're pretty hard to find in good shape. Also, if I suffer a failure and one or both are damaged, I can't just jump on the internet and order a new pair like I could with modern heads. So its not a bad idea to have a spare set.

Recently a set of 461 heads came up for sale on Trademe, and were said to have been crack tested and ported. At $1500 they weren't cheap, but they came with a set of un-used Crane Cams roller rockers, so I bit the bullet and purchased them.

I'll likely use these as my primary heads (they'll still require some work) and take my time building the set Tony gifted me.

My thanks goes to Dave Graham and Bruce Dyer for the delivery service. Really appreciate it guys!

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Wow, that is cool Bruce!

I had a quick lesson at Laguna Seca in a car park about radiators from Peter Economoff, a guy who is passionate about radiators and cooling, he is a very interesting guy. (right Ken?)

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The radiator shown was no good for a restoration as the date code stamp had some corrosion over it. Otherwise it was perfect, every fin like new.

If he wasn't so far away (SoCal) he would be rebuilding mine .

B.

These are the two 1968 Penske Camaros as they look today. Both use the DeWitts Corvette alloy radiator, as both used a Corvette radiator in 1968.

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This is the engine bay of the Craig Fisher Firebird that my car will be a replica of. You can see it appears to retain the original style radiator. Some teams, notably Penske, were using the alloy Corvette rad in 1968.

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Ron Lathrop photo.

This is the Rusty Jowett independent Camaro that contested the 1968 Trans-Am. It too appears to have a factory Camaro rad.

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Ron Lathrop photo.

[quote="Neville Milne"]Steve, I'm not convinced that ally rads ARE the be all and end all of cooling syst problems. They LOOK good and probably are a tad lighter, but is that weight saving all that important in most cars?....I doubt it !!. My own experience with a well-worked SB Ford in a Sunbeam Tiger has been that a well-designed copper matrixed rad. is quite effective........part inspired by the owner of a rad. shop who advised me that he could build OR supply an ally unit, OR, recore my existing unit with a modern and well designed copper core. Pricing was somewhat similar in all cases. I went for the copper recore and was very glad I did. I have never had heating problems and the unit LOOKS rock stock[/quote]

Hi Neville, thanks so much, thats an awesome post! The copper/brass radiator is definitely a little heavier, but without having an alloy piece to compare I couldn't say how much heavier it is. But I totally agree with you, the copper/brass item should work just fine. Its what many teams still used in period, and their races were several hours long. Plus, it looks correct in the engine bay.

[quote="Bruce302"]That's nice Steve, I had an ali one in the Firebird but that is out now and I'm back to the original brass/copper one, and yes it weighs a ton.

Bruce.[/quote]

Thanks Bruce, yeah its a little heavier for sure. Re your Firebird, you've restored it to its 1973 guise when it won the NZ championship. But even in 1969 the T/G cars had silver alloy radiators didn't they? Either way, if you have a silver alloy or copper/brass item, its still period correct for your car.

Steve, I'm not convinced that ally rads ARE the be all and end all of cooling syst problems. They LOOK good and probably are a tad lighter, but is that weight saving all that important in most cars?....I doubt it !!. My own experience with a well-worked SB Ford in a Sunbeam Tiger has been that a well-designed copper matrixed rad. is quite effective........part inspired by the owner of a rad. shop who advised me that he could build OR supply an ally unit, OR, recore my existing unit with a modern and well designed copper core. Pricing was somewhat similar in all cases. I went for the copper recore and was very glad I did. I have never had heating problems and the unit LOOKS rock stock

That's nice Steve, I had an ali one in the Firebird but that is out now and I'm back to the original brass/copper one, and yes it weighs a ton.

Bruce.

My wife Helen and I are heading over to Europe for 2 months from early December, so I've not been spending much money on the Firebird lately as a result.

However, I have made a couple of recent purchases. First up is a radiator. Its an aftermarket copper/brass item that is essentially an improved version of the original. I'm a bit weird when it comes to radiators in historic race cars. I often see a cool looking period engine bay that has been spoiled by the site of a shiny silver modern alloy radiator. I know why people use these; they're really efficient and they're lighter than an original copper/brass item. But in my opinion the radiator should look period correct too.

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Alloy radiators began appearing in the Trans-Am series by as early as 1968, and maybe even earlier still. Many of the better prepared Camaro teams in 1968 ditched the original factory radiator for an alloy Corvette radiator. The Corvette radiator was painted black, so it didn't look out of place.

The shiny silver alloy radiators became more common in the Trans-Am series in 1969, and several cars were fitted with these, including the Mustangs and Firebirds.

I asked my buddy Chad what radiators the Historic Trans-Am Camaro teams use and he said many use the DeWitts alloy Corvette radiator which is a really nice replica of the original. These look fantastic, but they're also very expensive at US$999, so although I'll likely stump up for one in time, initially I'll use the copper/brass item which will cope just fine with the piddly amount of horsepower I'll have.

This is the DeWitts item: [url]https://www.dewitts.com/products/1965-1972-restoration-radiator[/url]

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That was a great race for the Ward Titus car with T/G backing. They had to stop during the race to change the whole rear end.
That car like most took a real beating over that 24 hours.

Bruce.

Awesome photo I found on the interweb of the Jerry Titus/Jon Ward Firebird at the 1969 Daytona 24 Hour event. Impressively, this car finished 3rd outright behind a pair of Lola T70 MkIII's. Looking at the state of the Firebirds nose, I'd guess this was post-race, with the lads enjoying a much-needed cigarette. That looks to be Titus on left of picture.

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Hi Bruce, thanks heaps. Means a lot coming from you. After much to-ing and fro-ing, I've decided to fit a Chevy 10 bolt, after speaking with Ian Woodward. He is building it for me in Queensland.

Looks nice Steve, it will all be coming together very soon, you have a great collection of parts.
I will have those rear caliper mounts for you soon.

B.

[quote="John McKechnie"]Steve- should that be a 010 block ?[/quote]

Yes John, sorry, typo, or brain fade.....

Steve- should that be a 010 block ?

This showed up a couple of days ago, sent down by Shane at Segedins. A 3 inch Eagle crank. The Chevy '001' engine block has a 4 inch bore, and combined with a 3 inch crank, provides an near perfect engine size for the Trans-Am series of 302 cu.in. This combination was what the original Z28 Camaro was based around, as this model was specifically designed for the Trans-Am series.

The Trans-Am series had a 5 litre engine limit, so the serious Chevy teams bored the block slightly to bring them up to around 305 cu.in, which is just a smidgen under the 5 litre limit.

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