Build Thread: The Roaring Season Firebird

[Steve Holmes]

Internals, Externals, Cooling:

I haven’t assembled many of the engine parts yet, only a 3 inch Eagle crank which I purchased from Shane Johnson at Segedins. Shane has been great to work with and really knows his stuff. I told him what I intended to do with the car, ie, to eventually take it to Europe, and he got me to ask Eric Broutin (in France) all the right questions about his motor, and the fuel he uses. Eric runs his car on 98 octane fuel, which is available at service stations. Most race tracks in Europe supply 103 octane, but its about three times the price.

Shane asked whether the fuel used in Europe is RON (research motor octane) or MON (motor octane number). Our New Zealand fuel is 98 MON which is around the same as 90 RON. Eric said their fuel is 98 RON, so we’ll build the motor using parts based on this octane level, so I don’t have to tear it all apart if/when we go to Europe.

For cooling, alloy radiators didn’t appear in the Trans-Am series until around 1971, therefore I will almost certainly need to fit a copper/brass item to my car.

In addition, I’ll need to use the correct tin valve covers, as alloy valve covers didn’t appear until the 1970s. Its all about making the car look right.

Al Bartz built the motors for Terry Godsall Racing in 1968, and for T/G Racing in 1969. Engine builders such as Bartz, TRACO etc, usually had their own corporate colour they’d paint the engines they built. It was like an extension of their company logo, or like an artist signing one of their paintings. TRACO were light grey. Bartz were navy blue, with a Bartz tag on the valve covers. Therefore, my motor will be navy blue.

This Ron Lathrop photo shows the engine bay of the Craig Fisher Firebird at Bryar in 1968. This is a great shot in that it clearly shows the cross ram intake, the navy blue of the engine, plus the fact the car used stock type rockers.


Ron Lathrop photo courtesy CRG website.

My car will probably only have around 400 – 450hp when I’m done, which is obviously way down on the HMC cars with their bigger engines and aftermarket blocks and heads. In period, the top factory supported Trans-Am teams were up in the high-400s. By 1969, the Penske Camaros were thought to have somewhere in the region of 470 – 495 horsepower. But that’s fine with me. Regardless of whether I was building an HMC car or period correct Appendix K car, I don’t have the budget to be running at the front. For me the enjoyment is in researching and building a car that is fully period correct.

Regardless, there will always be someone running around at the same speed as me. I think it was Graham Hill who was once quoted after having had a poor qualifying session and was starting down the back, “people down the back of the grid are much friendlier than those at the front”.

[Steve Holmes]

As a slight deviation from the parts-collecting that has been going on for this car, a few weeks ago I finally received a copy of the specialist book Camaro Untold Secrets. I've been trying for about two years to get a copy of this book.

It was first published in 1991 but is still available new from the author Wayne Guinn. I contacted Wayne with the intention of purchasing a copy and while he said he was happy to ship to NZ, he stopped replying to my emails not long after my first contact with him.

I tried to get a used copy from Amazon but these have mostly been very expensive, usually much more than new copies. Plus, most of the places selling them didn't ship outside the US. I purchased a copy direct from Amazon late last year and waited about three months for it to arrive, only to receive an email out of the blue from Amazon telling me it was no longer available and that my order had been cancelled! It all got pretty frustrating.

Finally, in January this year, a copy came on the market for a decent price, from a seller who was happy to ship to NZ, and this arrived a few weeks ago.

Camaro Untold Secrets goes into the fine detail of the specialist homologation parts produced by General Motors to help make the Camaro a winner in the Trans-Am series. Its a fascinating insight, and really details how, despite this being a massive conglomerate, were really not keen to spend money on motor racing. And as such, GM engineers did a lot of work outside their normal work hours, and also found clever ways to save money for the company, while also helping the Camaro become a winner on the track. The rear sway bar is a good example. Its the exact same shape as the front sway bar, only smaller in diameter.

Camaro Untold Secrets details parts such as the GM cross ram intake, J56 and JL8 brake packages, heavy duty rear axle assemblies, ZL2 hood, etc etc. Its been a huge amount of help to me and a really good addition to my book collection.

[Bruce302]

That is a very good book Steve, Essential when building a car for that period.

Bruce.

[dekon]

Shame the boot spoiler is fitted backwards...on the black mustang

[Steve Holmes]

Shame the boot spoiler is fitted backwards...on the black mustang

Not real good for rear downforce Foggy.

[Steve Holmes]

That is a very good book Steve, Essential when building a car for that period.

Bruce.

Yeah you are right Bruce, was worth all the hassle to finally get it.

[Steve Holmes]

Gearbox:

I’m going to be seriously down on power compared to most HMC cars. Added to that, I also have to run an original GM gearbox, whereas HMC allows Jerico and Tex Racing boxes, in which flat shifts (ie, where the driver doesn’t have to engage the clutch every time they change gear) are possible because of their design and strength. Being able to flat shift allows a time saving over a lap. Its thought being able to flat shift saves around 1 second per lap on tracks such as Hampton Downs or Manfeild.

I did consider buying a Tex Racing box and if/when we go to Europe, sell it and buy a Muncie. But at this stage I’m opting for the correct Muncie. Once again, the Trans-Am rules stipulated only a factory production gearbox was allowed, which means the FIA Appendix K rules also require this. And the best available box in 1968 in the GM line-up was the Muncie M22 ‘rock crusher’. I searched various sites and various options looking at both M22s and close ratio M21s, and spoke to a bunch of people about this.

I eventually opted for an M21, mainly because they’re about half the price of an M22. I found a nice rebuilt M21 in California, with Hurst shifter, for US$1200.







The seller was a neat guy called John Foreman, who specializes in rebuilding Muncie boxes. John has been a keen drag racer since the 1960s, having raced Corvettes and a bunch of other stuff, and currently owns a beautiful 1937 Chevy coupe drag car which he has raced since the 1980s.





One of the many people who have provided me such great advice on this project is Chad Raynal. Chad races a beautiful 1969 Camaro which has SCCA Trans-Am history, and as a result, runs with the Historic Trans-Am group. Chad’s Camaro, like several others in Historic Trans-Am, uses an M21. It was fitted with an M21 when new, and raced with an M21 in period. Chad has raced the car for over 15 years and has used the same M21 throughout that time, with a couple of rebuilds having taken place along the way.

Recently I met and chatted to Jack Nazer, who won the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship in 1976 and 1977. We spoke about his incredible Chevy V8 powered Vauxhall Victor ‘Miss Victorious’. I was astounded to learn Jack raced the Victor fitted with a Muscle M21, and it held up great, despite the car having 600hp, and being fitted with slicks.

[Bruce302]

Steve, The M21 is a good box and you can make them plenty strong. I had one built for my Firebird with steel mid plate, roller first gear and hook sliders. They are fine if not abused, like any box.

M22 gear sets are cheap and easy to fit if you do want to go that route.

Bruce.

[Kiwiboss]

Shame the boot spoiler is fitted backwards...on the black mustang

No its not........Dale M

[Jac Mac]

Just needs to be adjusted nose down a big bit!

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, The M21 is a good box and you can make them plenty strong. I had one built for my Firebird with steel mid plate, roller first gear and hook sliders. They are fine if not abused, like any box.

M22 gear sets are cheap and easy to fit if you do want to go that route.

Bruce.

Thanks Bruce, who did the work?

[Bruce302]

Derek Price at Performance Transmissions in Pukekohe, [URL="http://www.performancetransmissions.co.nz/index/[/URL]

[Steve Holmes]

Rear End:

The best production Chevy rear end for competition use in period was the 12 bolt. Light and strong, it coped well with the rigours of competition use. This is what was fitted to all Trans-Am Camaros.

It makes sense for me to fit either a Chevy 12 bolt or Chevy 10 bolt to my car. I’d spoken about this quite a lot to Ian Woodward, and he recommended a 10 bolt, which he uses on most of the Chevy and Pontiac Australian Trans-Am cars he builds. He likes the fact they’re light and really strong with the right parts installed. However, as much as I’d love to fit a Chevy 10 bolt, and it would just bolt right up, it probably isn’t the best option for me in the long term.

I’ve only ever seen one grainy photo showing the rear end of Craig Fisher’s Firebird, and this car was fitted with a Pontiac 10 bolt. This, despite the car starting life as a Camaro. Despite Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile etc all being General Motors brands, they were still operating largely as single entities in the 1960s, using their own engines, rear ends, and other parts, even if they shared the same basic platform for their various models. So while the early Firebirds were really just Camaros with a few sheet metal changes, underneath they had different engines and rear ends.


Photo courtesy CRG forum.

Further confirmation that the Fisher car used a Pontiac rear end is that the FIA Homologation Sheet for the model in 1968 depicts a Pontiac 10 bolt. In addition, my good buddy Bruce Thompson who owns the T/G Racing factory 1969 Firebird later raced by Rod Coppins in New Zealand, confirmed this to be the case, telling me the SCCA told Terry Godsall in 1968 that he would need to fit a Pontiac rear end to his car if he wanted to race a Firebird in the Trans-Am series.

I’d love to run a Chevy 10 bolt in my car. The Historic Muscle Car rules allow it. Hell, there are even Camaros racing in HMC with Ford 9 inch rear ends. So if all I ever did was race the car in HMC, a Chevy rear end would be fine. And who knows, maybe an FIA inspector wouldn’t even notice the difference between a Chevy 10 bolt and Pontiac 10 bolt. Maybe they’d just count the number of bolts on the housing and give me the thumbs-up. Maybe they wouldn’t even bother doing that. But the FIA homologation sheet for my car shows a Pontiac 10 bolt, and I don’t want to be in the position where I get caught out and have to build an entirely new rear end because I took a punt on the Chevy unit slipping under the radar.

Bruce Thompson has been a massive help in this area. Of all the Firebirds built to contest the Trans-Am series in 1968 and 1969, his is the only one to have survived still fitted with its original rear end. In fact, its believed the only other Firebird that raced in the Trans-Am in 1968 and ’69 to have survived is the Jon Ward built car raced by Jerry Titus in the last T/A event of 1968, and which Titus and Ward drove to their impressive 3^rd outright in the 1969 Daytona 24 Hours. But this car went to Mexico in 1969, and raced there for many, many years. It evolved and evolved, and continued racing hard well into the 1980s, and was heavily chopped about. And as such, it was stripped of most of the parts it was built with. Its now back in the US, but really only the shell is original. So this car doesn’t provide the all-important clues that Bruce’s does.

The rear end in Bruce’s Firebird is a 10 bolt Pontiac, and it’s a heavily customized piece of artwork built by T/G Racing. It features a box fitted to the cover for increased oil capacity, the centre section from a full-size Pontiac (Bonneville etc) with 12 bolt ring gear and 31 spline axles. The outer wheel bearings have an inner race so they don’t run directly on the axle shaft. There is just so much work that went into this piece. And nobody other than the T/G Racing mechanics, and the odd nosey competitor, got to see it. Luckily its survived, and Bruce has preserved it perfectly for us all to enjoy.



I hope Bruce adds some more detail on this awesome piece of kit.

As for my car, I haven’t yet researched what components are available for the Pontiac 10 bolt. Frustratingly, parts are not interchangeable between the Chevy and Pontiac items. I have plenty of time to look further into this.

[richiev8]

Rear End:

The best production Chevy rear end for competition use in period was the 12 bolt. Light and strong, it coped well with the rigours of competition use. This is what was fitted to all Trans-Am Camaros.

It makes sense for me to fit either a Chevy 12 bolt or Chevy 10 bolt to my car. I’d spoken about this quite a lot to Ian Woodward, and he recommended a 10 bolt, which he uses on most of the Chevy and Pontiac Australian Trans-Am cars he builds. He likes the fact they’re light and really strong with the right parts installed. However, as much as I’d love to fit a Chevy 10 bolt, and it would just bolt right up, it probably isn’t the best option for me in the long term.

I’ve only ever seen one grainy photo showing the rear end of Craig Fisher’s Firebird, and this car was fitted with a Pontiac 10 bolt. This, despite the car starting life as a Camaro. Despite Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile etc all being General Motors brands, they were still operating largely as single entities in the 1960s, using their own engines, rear ends, and other parts, even if they shared the same basic platform for their various models. So while the early Firebirds were really just Camaros with a few sheet metal changes, underneath they had different engines and rear ends.


Photo courtesy CRG forum.

Further confirmation that the Fisher car used a Pontiac rear end is that the FIA Homologation Sheet for the model in 1968 depicts a Pontiac 10 bolt. In addition, my good buddy Bruce Thompson who owns the T/G Racing factory 1969 Firebird later raced by Rod Coppins in New Zealand, confirmed this to be the case, telling me the SCCA told Terry Godsall in 1968 that he would need to fit a Pontiac rear end to his car if he wanted to race a Firebird in the Trans-Am series.

I’d love to run a Chevy 10 bolt in my car. The Historic Muscle Car rules allow it. Hell, there are even Camaros racing in HMC with Ford 9 inch rear ends. So if all I ever did was race the car in HMC, a Chevy rear end would be fine. And who knows, maybe an FIA inspector wouldn’t even notice the difference between a Chevy 10 bolt and Pontiac 10 bolt. Maybe they’d just count the number of bolts on the housing and give me the thumbs-up. Maybe they wouldn’t even bother doing that. But the FIA homologation sheet for my car shows a Pontiac 10 bolt, and I don’t want to be in the position where I get caught out and have to build an entirely new rear end because I took a punt on the Chevy unit slipping under the radar.

Bruce Thompson has been a massive help in this area. Of all the Firebirds built to contest the Trans-Am series in 1968 and 1969, his is the only one to have survived still fitted with its original rear end. In fact, its believed the only other Firebird that raced in the Trans-Am in 1968 and ’69 to have survived is the Jon Ward built car raced by Jerry Titus in the last T/A event of 1968, and which Titus and Ward drove to their impressive 3^rd outright in the 1969 Daytona 24 Hours. But this car went to Mexico in 1969, and raced there for many, many years. It evolved and evolved, and continued racing hard well into the 1980s, and was heavily chopped about. And as such, it was stripped of most of the parts it was built with. Its now back in the US, but really only the shell is original. So this car doesn’t provide the all-important clues that Bruce’s does.

The rear end in Bruce’s Firebird is a 10 bolt Pontiac, and it’s a heavily customized piece of artwork built by T/G Racing. It features a box fitted to the cover for increased oil capacity, the centre section from a full-size Pontiac (Bonneville etc) with 12 bolt ring gear and 31 spline axles. The outer wheel bearings have an inner race so they don’t run directly on the axle shaft. There is just so much work that went into this piece. And nobody other than the T/G Racing mechanics, and the odd nosey competitor, got to see it. Luckily its survived, and Bruce has preserved it perfectly for us all to enjoy.



I hope Bruce adds some more detail on this awesome piece of kit.

As for my car, I haven’t yet researched what components are available for the Pontiac 10 bolt. Frustratingly, parts are not interchangeable between the Chevy and Pontiac items. I have plenty of time to look further into this.

Does it need to have the correct internals?, perhaps you could modify to accept GM 10 bolt, some of the later units were 8.5 inch

[Steve Holmes]

No it doesn't need to have the correct internals Richie. This is pretty much free. I don't know how different the Pontiac and Chevy housings are. But this would be the ideal for me if it wasn't too difficult or expensive to do.

[Steve Holmes]

Suspension:

Front and rear suspension on Appendix K cars must be period correct. What that means is that all locator/traction bars must be the same as used in period. If none were used, then that also needs to be the case on historic cars. So too, the shock absorber canister must be of the same material as that used in period, and the shocks must be of the same type as used in period.

In 1968, most Trans-Am teams opted for the Koni double-adjustable shock absorbers. These used a steel canister. Today, similar shocks are not being reproduced, although originals can be found, but usually need to be rebuilt, and are expensive.

For me, I’ve just ordered some new Koni Classic shocks. They're far from the ultimate, but they're cheap at approx. US$115 – 130 each.





Springs on race cars are a bit of an art-form. Many years ago I purchased an excellent book written by Mark Donohue, called The Unfair Advantage. In it, Donohue discusses every car he raced during his career, including the Penske Camaros during 1967, ’68, and ’69. In 1967, the team had no idea what spring rates to use when they built their very first Camaro, as they had no experience with this very new car. So Donohue took a punt, and opted for extremely stiff 1200 pound springs in the front, and 400 pound springs in the rear.

These proved massively stiff, and the car bounced and lurched alarmingly and was extremely difficult to drive on every track other than Daytona, where on the steep banking the suspension compressed under heavy load and actually performed extremely well. Eventually, with help from GM engineers, the team trialled 550 pound front and 180 rears, with immediate improvements. They ultimately settled on a slightly stiffer package, but their findings still relate today, because in historic racing we’re still using the same type suspension, same size wheels, and the same cross-ply tyres. There is no sense in reinventing the wheel.

I’ve asked a few people far more intelligent and knowledgeable than myself what spring rates I should use, and got a fairly broad set of answers. Part of the ideal package comes down to driver preference. I think only my own driving style will ultimately produce the right set-up for me, but to start with, for the front I’ll purchase a set of Moog springs and shorten them to get the desired ride height. It was Chad Raynal who suggested the Moog springs. He no longer uses them, but did so for many years. He gave me the part number, which is #6041. I looked these up and discovered they’re rear springs for full-size GM passenger cars, such as Chevy Impala station wagon. I queried Chad about this, and he confirmed it to be correct. In fact, Chevy racing legend Dick Guldstrand used to sell these exact same springs to first gen Chevy racers. This is real old-school stuff, which I love. Once cut down, they’ll provide a spring rate of around 625 - 650 lbs/inch.

By the way, Chad has been an amazing help to me throughout, and, like Jon Mello, is unbelievably knowledgeable on this subject. However, he didn’t want to be acknowledged for his help, and is way too modest. But I didn’t want his contributions to be overlooked.

As for rear springs, I got a brand new pair of leaf springs from Ian Woodward. I believe these are about 200 lbs/inch, basically whatever Woody thinks is correct. His cars run hard and fast, and whatever he says, will work for me. Woody runs Fataz Performance Engines in Queensland, and builds some wicked road and race engines, as well as incredibly fast and well developed race cars. Many of the cars that contest the Australian Trans-Am series were built by Woody. Check out his website here: http://www.fataz.com.au/

[Steve Holmes]

Brakes:

OK, this is an area of the car that has confounded me, and which I’m only just beginning to understand. However, it was important for me to fully understand the brake packages available to Camaro racers in period, because as per the engine and gearbox, Trans-Am rules required the use of production car and/or homologated brakes. Standard fare on 1967 Camaros was the J50/J52 brake package, which would not cope with the rigours of road racing competition. The standard J52 brake package consisted of 11 inch rotors at the front and drums at the rear, and with Trans-Am races being anywhere from 4 to 24 hours in duration, obviously weren’t going to cut the mustard.

Anyone who has tried to research anything to do with the history of the first generation Trans-Am racing Camaros and the Z28 road cars that were used to homologate parts for the race cars, will be familiar with the GM factory codes for the brakes packages; RPO J56 and RPO JL8. But as I’ve come to learn from reading countless Camaro and GM forums, not many people actually understand what the codes mean. Its these brake packages and what they entail that has confounded me. But I’m finally getting a grasp of it, which is important because the brakes on my car have to be correct. I can’t just go and bolt on a set of 6-pot Willwoods and be done with it. No way. My brakes have to be what the Trans-Am racers used in period.

GM engineers worked closely with Penske, who were essentially guinea pigs, trying to make the Camaro package work in racing conditions. Like many areas on the Camaro, the brakes were a constant evolution, receiving ongoing tweaks, particularly in 1967 and ’68. Like other areas on the car, GM engineers had to find solutions that were cheap, but effective. In the early Trans-Am races in 1967, the Camaro brake problems were multiple. As the Camaro got more powerful and began to handle better, the brakes were its Achilles heel, and had usually given up long before the chequered flag fell.

The disc/drum J56 package was released specifically for the Z28 Trans-Am Camaro for its planned racing debut at Daytona in February 1967. RPO J56 utilises Corvette 4-pot calipers up front with Pryoceram heat insulators on each of the four pistons, and twin cotter pins for better retention. Standard Camaro 11 inch rotors were used, while at the rear, metallic linings from heavy duty drums were used, and included metallic shoes, special shoe springs to cope with the higher temperatures, and metallic drums in which the surface was ground to a finer finish than standard. But the package evolved constantly throughout 1967 as its various weaknesses were revealed.

Jon Mello, who owns Z28 Camaro number 1, best describes J56:

"RPO J56 was released for the Z-28 from the start of production on December 29, 1966. This was the standard 11" disc brake caliper and rotor with heat insulators on the front brake pistons. The rear brakes for that package were the standard rear drums with metallic linings and the surface finish of the drums was slightly different to allow the metallic shoes to "bed in" better. There were different springs used for the metallic rear brake shoes than in standard issue rear drums. The upgraded HD J56 package for '67 for racers, which may also have been available right away through the parts department, had the standard 11" front caliper machined to allow the fitment of the Corvette 11.75" metallic J56 pads that were made on special Inconel material and were bent in an L-shape at the top to prevent warping. They were retained by two cotter pins (one at each end of the pad) so the caliper was machined to eliminate the single pin stock boss on the top and two holes were drilled for the cotter pins. There were no rear discs for the '67 season by anybody. 1968 was the first year”.

[Steve Holmes]

For 1968, Chevrolet released the JL8 brake package, which again used the heavy duty Corvette 4-pot calipers, but this time on both front and rear. In addition, larger 11.75 inch Corvette rotors were also adopted. Interestingly, the JL8 package was not made available on production vehicles in 1968. However, Chevrolet did include them in their assembly manual, providing part numbers so racers could put together their own package. Virtually everything in the JL8 package was available over the GM parts counter. Much of it came from the Corvette. A specific caliper bracket was also used, along with a disc brake spindle and drum brake hub.

For 1969, the JL8 brake package was made available for a brief period from February to May, and only on Camaros. The customer had to specifically tick the option when ordering their new Camaro, otherwise they’d receive the standard 2-pot brakes that were the only other option in 1969. Only 206 customers ordered the JL8 package.

For historic racing, the JL8 brake package is accepted on any first gen Camaro. Although only 206 sets were produced originally, Corvette 4-pot calipers and 11.75 inch rotors are readily available, both new and used, and the rest of the parts required can also be purchased. You just have to know what you’re looking for.

For my car, Steve Elliott very generously donated the Corvette 4-pot calipers from his 1968 Camaro. This car is actually an SCCA A/Sedan built racer that was first converted for competition back in the mid-1970s. Steve imported the Camaro into New Zealand, and after a couple of seasons, decided to upgrade his brakes to Willwood. In return for this very kind gesture I gave Steve four of the big black and white Australian Muscle Car art prints I was selling as Roaring Season fund raisers back in 2016, to show my appreciation.

From speaking with Eric Broutin, who races a 1967 Camaro in European historic events, the FIA inspectors like to see the correct Delco-Morraine lettering on the calipers, which mine don’t have. Hopefully this won’t be held against me, as they are exactly the same.

Eric also suggested I contact Lance Smith in the US about purchasing cryo treated rotors. He said they perform much better on his car, and last well also. The FIA rules require I use the correct dimension 1-piece rotors, and they can’t be drilled or slotted. They don’t necessarily have to be original production rotors, but they have to look the same, be made of the same material, and be of the same dimensions.

The special mounting brackets are available through Heartbeat City Camaro, and are US$495 for a pair, which isn’t cheap. But I need them, so will have to bite the bullet: http://www.heartbeatcitycamaro.com/s...kts-JL-8-1969/

[John McKechnie]

Steve- Grahame Williams who was sold with the Camaro to Rod Coppins ,gave me the 2 rear disc mounting brackets that they were going to use to fit the Delco Moraine discs to the rear axle of the Team Cambridge Monaro- same set up as on the sister car Camaro, Still unused with the factory part number. He had kept them since 1969, Alas, they will not be fitted to the Monaro, currently an excellent sentimental paperweight.
Scotty bought over for me 2 sets of new original one piece style and dimension 11.75 Corvette rotors and Delco Moraine 4 pot calipers, I have used one set on my Monaro- as thats what it was originally built with.
He still has the other set and they have the writing on them

[Steve Holmes]

John, you just became my new best friend! I will send you an email.