I was there awhile in April and didn’t speak English to anyone away from the races... a little south of Austin is like old MX... I loved that... taco trucks and carts everywhere it is awfully dry down there though it seems... barren terrain always seems to have the huge desert temp swings too
I put together more deals at FW strip clubs than any other places... Yamaha, Red Bull, Tucker Rocky, Rock Star, a bunch of others I can’t name because the guys still work there
Of shit. (You can't leave a softball like that just hanging over the plate and expect it to get a pass.)
I was taken there by a chassis manufacturer in the 90s... Reith and Riley? Or something... you probably know... they had a Janet Guthrie land speed car... did the Prowler... Indy Cars...
I do miss the racing scene back in the midwest. There’s 1 Outlaw race in this whole state, and it’s up in Dallas. So many tracks around Indy, I was 30 minutes away from IRP.
One of my best friends worked there for years. He was a bit of a guru with their Trans Am chassis back in the day. He also worked on their short lived Indycar (IRL) project before moving over to team Kool Green.
a racing buddy went to school with one of them... he was from Detroit... This is ancient history I suppose as it was the early/mid 90s... I remember they were disgusted with the weak power plant that the Prowler got as they designed it to be a powerful piece not a retro wannabe they had an Indycar in there and then the streamliner too... neat stuff... I passed up GMI for some stupid reason and went to Purdue instead but auto design has always been a cool arena to me
Most likely Bill Riley. He's 50ish, his dad Bob is likely pushing 80 now and the Scott in Riley and Scott was from England.
Among their other many accomplishments that continue to this day, their Trans Am chassis was the backbone for that series for decades and every other chassis was basically a copy of it with a bar thrown in here or there. The Roush, Weaver, Pratt & Miller and Rocketsports chassis all were almost clones of the Riley & Scott. That chassis was designed by Bob Riley and the earliest version was called a Protofab partnered with who I can't remember.
Educate me... so the trans am series was what IMSA is now? Prototypes and cool shit? They must’ve had that stuff hidden.... I remember watching Scott Pruett and other car road racers way back... he ended up bringing Lexus into the current series I remember being excited to rebuild a 1LE Formula in 91 when it was new as that was the base used for a production based SCCA racing whatever class it would be in... sold it to go motorcycle racing... great decision still
Trans Am series is/was a series within S.C.C.A. Pro Racing started in the mid 60s with pony cars as their base, Mustangs, Camaros, etc. They initially were production based on modified tubs, but later (80s) became purpose built tube frame chassis. That's where Bob Riley came in and turned the series on it's ear with his Protofab, later Riley & Scott chassis. It's the chassis Scott Pruett, Scott Sharp, Jack Baldwin and countless others won T/A titles in. They were still Mustangs and Camaros, but now tube chassis with carbon bodies hung on them. From it's inception, they ran 305 c.i. V8s with a single carb. They now run 358 c.i. engines same as Nascar. They weigh far less than a Nascar at 2600 lbs. Vs. 3400 lbs. It was actually a bigger series than Nascar in the 60s and early 70s with big name drivers like Dan Gurney, Mark Donahue and even Penske got his start driving and later as team owner with Donahue as driver. Sadly, S.C.C.A. is a club, not a proper business and they never were able to keep the series run well enough and promoted properly over the years like Nascar and Indycar, and now it's all but extinct. The racing was similar to IMSA stuff you're likely more familiar with, but with less sophisticated cars. The 60s/70s were the heyday, but the series had a second wind in the 90s with renewed factory involvement and large competitive fields.
really cool! Thanks for that info! I was a Firebird freak and built so many of them over the years... 68 is my favorite... but built all 3 generations into the 90s... built as in cut two crashed ones in half to make one good one... I remember having to use a special rod to weld the 3rd gen unibody back together when clipping them as it was some sort of galvanized or treatment there is a kid I mentored way back when he was in carts that is racing Trans Am this year... I didn’t know it still existed
It barely does. It's more or less a glorified club racing series at this point. They have recently split it into 3 classes of cars, T/A which is still basically based on the Riley & Scott chassis, T/A1 and T/A2 which are less sophisticated and less powered cars. TV coverage is basically non existent and where they used to run alongside Indy and Nascar road course events, they now run alongside vintage or club events. The series showed some promise in the 90s before once again slipping into obscurity. My buddy jokes T/A drivers are better shielded from the public than being in the witness protection program.
Since this is a photo thread, this is Jack Baldwin's Camaro from the 90s, although this photo looks like it was taken more recently in S. America (Marlboro signage). One of the coolest cars from the 90s era.