1968 Sunoco Team Penske Trans-Am Camaro. Photos by Robin Adams, courtesy RM Sotheby’s.
Out of the box, the new-for 1967 Chevrolet Camaro wasn’t much of a race car. That didn’t stop Roger Penske and his star driver/engineer, Mark Donohue, from turning it into one (and a competitive one at that) and the fabled team would eventually go on to build six first-generation Camaros for the Trans-Am series. On March 12, the third example (and the first 1968 model built by Team Penske) will head to auction in Amelia Island, Florida.
The 1967 Trans-Am season was dominated by Ford in the over 2.0-liter class, with wins in eight of the season’s 12 races going to the Ford Mustang or the Mercury Cougar. Mark Donohue suffered a rare-for-Penske Racing DNF at the Daytona season opener, but by Sebring, the second race, Donohue put the Camaro on the podium with a second-place finish. The Green Valley 300 saw Donohue finish fifth, but Lime Rock brought another second place finish. At Mid-Ohio, George Follmer would grab the last podium spot for Team Penske, but at Bryar, the season’s half-way point, Mark Donohue’s day would end early with a broken axle.
The second half of the 1967 season, however, looked a bit different. Donohue would take victory for Penske in three of the remaining six races, and his win (with co-driver Craig Fisher) at Marlboro Speedway was Chevrolet’s first victory in the Trans-Am series. Whatever tricks Penske Racing had up its sleeve, they appeared to be working, and for that reason scrutineering would pay a bit more attention to the Penske cars during the 1968 season.
For 1968, Penske supplemented its “lightweight” 1967 Camaros with 1968 models built, or perhaps overbuilt, to endure the punishment of endurance races. Chassis 9908H046, the car offered at Amelia Island, was the first 1968 body in white delivered to Penske’s Philadelphia shop, and the team wasted no time in applying the tricks learned in 1967 competition. The roll cage, for example, extended through the firewall to reach the frame, stiffening the entire chassis. In the rear, the roll cage was extended to add rigidity to the suspension, and the body was acid-dipped to shave weight. This put the Camaro below the minimal permissible weight, but Penske’s ingenious solution was to add ballast, in just the right locations for ideal chassis setup, until the car “made weight.”
The 302-cu.in. V-8 beneath the hood, built by Traco Engineering, featured an oil “quick fill” that allowed pressurized oil to be added during pit stops, shortening the time the car was stopped. An experimental cross-ram intake manifold, topped by a pair of four-barrel carburetors, helped the car to produce an estimated 420 horsepower, just one more trick that Donohue identified as the team’s “Unfair Advantage” in his book of the same name.
The 1968 season-opener at Daytona saw the new car, driven by Mark Donohue, finish second. The Camaro was fast enough to win, and handling wasn’t an issue, but time lost in the pits changing brake pads took the team out of contention. Chevrolet’s Bill Howell, an engineer assigned to work with Team Penske, developed a vacuum system to retract the brake pads, saving valuable time on pit stops. As Donohue recalled,
I think we could fuel, change all tires, and change the front brake pads in about one minute forty seconds, while it took the Ford guys about four minutes.
The change paid dividends for the team, and Donohue (who’d reverted to the lightweight 1967 car after Daytona) began posting win after win. Out of 13 races in the 1968 Trans Am season, Donohue and Penske took victory in 10 of them, delivering Chevrolet its first Trans Am championship.
Chassis 9908H046 was raced at Sebring by Craig Fisher, Joe Welch and Bob Johnson, where it finished fourth overall. Sam Posey took over the car for four races, delivering podium finishes in each event. At Watkins Glen, Posey was leading the race when he spun on gravel, relegating him to a second place finish, something that according to Posey, “Roger never forgave.”
After the 1968 Trans-Am season, chassis 9908H046 was prepared for 1969, but never raced on this side of the pond. Instead, it was sold to European team owner and raced in Group 2 events, where it delivered wins at Hockenheim and Salzburgring. The same year, it passed to a British team owner who raced the Camaro, with great success, in British Group 2 through 1971.
The car would remain in England into the late 1980s, passing through a string of owners and regularly seeing competition. Returned to America circa 1989, the Camaro was the subject of a five-year restoration, completed in 1994, which returned it to the original Sunoco / Team Penske livery. Since then, it’s been owned and raced by Don Lee, Bill Bryan, and the consignor, who reportedly purchased the car in 2014 or 2015.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-u-ez8zZ_No%3Frel%3D0%26controls%3D0%26showinfo%3D0
Under Bryan’s care, the car was the subject of a racing incident at Watkins Glen in September 2013 that proved exactly how stout the Trans-Am cars were. Coming into the toe of the boot, Bryan reportedly lost his brakes, impacting the tire barrier at high speed. Though the car was damaged (and subsequently repaired), the driver was able to climb out of the car and was not seriously injured.
One of six Penske Trans Am Camaros built (and one of four known survivors), chassis 9908H046 is a piece of both Penske Racing and Trans Am history. RM Sotheby’s predicts a selling price between $900,000 and $1.2 million when the car crosses the auction stage in Florida.
For more details on the Amelia Island sale, visit RMSothebys.com.
UPDATE (14.March 2016): The Penske Trans Am Camaro sold for a fee-inclusive price of $990,000.
