Image: Speedhunters.com

You’ve got to give it up to the shutterbugs over at Speedhunters, when it comes to capturing some of the best road course racing footage, they’ve got it dialed. Recently contributor Mike Garrett went to the Coronado Speed Festival to follow the Historic Trans Am racing. Although relatively brief, the gold age of Trans Am racing showcased cars from nearly all the big players of the days all contending for the coveted championship. In doing so, Trans Am became the battlefield for some of the most exciting road racing in the world.

Although competitors from across the pond were welcome to join the fray, it was the pony cars that truly made Trans Am. Ford, GM, Chrysler, and AMC took their beef to the asphalt during the heydays between 1968-through-1971. In fact, so virulent were these days that homologation rules swayed manufacturers’ vehicle production, causing them to produce machines that adhered to Trans Am specs, most notably the 5-liter engine displacement rule, which birthed the BOSS 302 Mustang and the Camaro Z/28.

Although late to the game, Dodge’s Challenger T/A from Dodge and Plymouth’s AAR ‘Cuda were equally potent competitors. But as we’ve noted before here at Street Muscle, AMC’s Trans Am effort – in the form of the rare Mark Donahue edition Javelin – were hard contenders to thwart. Even Pontiac entered the melee with Jerry Titus and his Firebird. Touting a destroked engine to meet displacement requirements, the Trans Am Pontiac pulled its name directly from the series.

Now, as today’s consumers can choose between high-horse retro-restyled versions of the cars that put this racing series on the map, many are calling for a new latter-day iteration of the original. Were this to happen, undoubtedly an aggressive Trans Am series would directly impact the development of new, exciting versions of today’s modern muscle, and that’s something everyone could love.