The Yanque Tanque Story

(As published in Pontiac Enthusiast)

By George and Sherry Siegel

            Trans Am. The simple mention of the word conjures up all sorts of memories. The car I wanted as a teenager that my father wouldn’t let me have. At first shunned by the news media, it grew into the most recognizable car in America. Then came the Bandit editions. Sally Fields and Burt Reynolds, driving across country, talking on their CB radio. Outwitting the good ole boy sheriff. Invincible in a car that couldn’t be beat!

            But Trans-Am also means road courses all across America. Virginia International, Watkins Glen, Road America, Sonoma, Riverside, and Road Atlanta where drivers like Parnelli Jones, Mark Donahue, Vic Elford, Jerry Titus, Sam Posey and Bob Tullius raced furiously.

            All of these images were going through my head when we visited our first vintage road race in 1990. Man, all these great cars and not a single Firebird in the field. I wondered out loud why that was. My wife suggested that we find out. I had no idea what a dramatic journey that simple question would lead me on.

            We discovered the ill fated racing story of the 1970 Firebird that was fielded by an independent group of racers. Terry Goodsal was a Canadian Roger Penske wanna-be. Jerry Titus was a champion Trans-Am driver who had won several races during his career, first in Mustangs and then in a 1969 Firebird. Together they would form Titus-Goodsall Racing. Pontiac would give them nearly two hundred thousand dollars and some back door technical support. The plan was to field the new 1970 Firebird for SCCA Trans-Am competition. Yes, a Firebird because the Trans-Am would not be homologated until mid year. Two complete Firebird 350’s were shipped to the Tarzana California shops of Titus’. Here he and David Bean his chief mechanic would prepare them. Pontiac was to supply the 303 c.i. motors as Trans-Am had a five litre limit. Trouble was the little 303 motors made no horsepower and even less torque. They were fully 100 horsepower below the Chevy’s and Ford’s output. Finally, in desperation someone suggested they put the 400 RA IV heads on the 303 to see what would happen. An instant 475 horsepower was the result! Now they might be competitive.

            Titus had not finished a single race since a seventh place finish in the season opener at Laguna Seca due to the 303’s reliability and low power output. With David Bean back in Tarzana preparing a secret Lola Can-Am car for Titus (with 455 blocks forged by Reynolds Aluminum) the unthinkable happened. During practice for the race at Elkhart Lake on the Road America circuit, Titus crashed heavily into a bridge abutment at turn 13. He was seriously injured, but seemed to be recovering when he died suddenly ten days later from his head injury. The Trans-Am series had lost one of it’s most cherished and successful drivers. Speculation about the cause of the crash lingered for years. Most experts think something failed in the steering because of the way Titus hit the bridge abutment. I don’t think anyone will ever know what happened for certain. That car was reportedly crushed after the investigation. We spent years looking for the two cars. It wasn’t until 1999 that I would find out where they were. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

            Not being able to find either car, I suggested to Sherry that we build our own. I told her we could finish the project in about six months time. Boy was that a naive thought!  Being the loving wife that she is, she agreed. After a few months searching we purchased a roller Firebird and brought it home. It looked strikingly similar to the photos of the cars in Titus’ shop.

            The roll cage would have to be first. A stock car kit was installed by custom cutting the tubing and TIG welding all the pieces together. The ATL fuel cell was installed in the trunk. I remember standing there for thirty minutes with the saw in my hand trying to decide whether or not I should cut into the rust free trunk floor pan. Oh well, it had to be done. The body would be next. It was finished in white with the blue stripe. (The rear fender flares were added in the fall of 2001 to comply with HSR regulations). A custom Cobra Kevlar seat was  installed as well as a complete dash with gauges. I chose a Pyrotect five point harness. A Halon fire system was added for safety as well as a ‘70’s style string window net. The driver’s side door bars were switched to the NASCAR style as the originals were too close to my ribs to be safe. A three quart Accusump was placed on the passenger floor to supplement the wet sump baffled oil pan supplied by Canton. A super wide rear view mirror and the roll bar padding would complete the cockpit. The suspension components are all race worthy. 650 ppi springs in the front. 200 ppi springs in the rear. Koni shocks all around. All suspension bushings are polyurethane. Herb Adams sway bars on the front and rear. As disc brakes could be any type in 1970 the Titus cars used a hydro-boost system with Hurst/Airhart calipers. We would have to have something much less complex. We custom designed our own system using a manual four wheel disc brake master cylinder. 10.5” Coleman rotors, aluminum hubs and Wilwood GM II calipers are on the front with PBR aluminum calipers and 11” rotors on the rear. A variety of pad compounds have been used, all supplied by Performance Friction. The wheels are American Racing Torque Thrust D’s wrapped in Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Specials. Our power plant would have to be the 400c.i. engine as the 303c.i. version was way too expensive for our budget. We would use the RA IV heads (614’s) as they would be historically correct. The drive train would be Richmond T-10 (Dan Elliott prepared) and a twelve bolt with 3.55:1 gears. We would shoot for a top speed of 160 mph. It would take two long years to complete the car, but I was determined to see it through.

            Our first outing would be at the Walter Mitty Challenge. This is the premier vintage road racing event in the southeast hosted by Historic Sportscar Racing LTD. This race draws nearly four hundred cars annually. The cars I’ve seen at this race are things I only read about as a young man. Gulf Mirage, McClarens, Chaparrals, Porsche and Lola Can-Am cars. Lotus, Gurney Eagle, and McClaren Formula One cars. Formula 5000 cars of every description. Jaguar, Camaro, Mustang, Toyota, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, more Lotus’ and Porsche 911’s of every type in the sedan classes. This would be a great weekend! Yeah right! Three laps and I was done. Missed a shift going into turn three and exploded my motor. I did three nice pirouettes on my own oil before coming to a stop. Back in the pit’s someone mentioned a rev limiter. REV LIMITER? What the heck was that and why didn’t I know about one? At least we didn’t bend the body. Boy was Sherry disappointed. The look on her face was bad, but when she found out the cost of my little mistake her expression changed yet again. Thanks to her benevolence though, I would get another chance.

            Well our weekend was done and it started to rain. Sherry and I walked up to the covered garages to see if we could find a particular Formula one car that had caught our eye. This car was going around the track several seconds faster than cars much more technologically advanced. I wanted to see why. Finding the car, I introduced myself to the driver. My driving suit must have made an impression. I knew it couldn’t have been me. The driver turned out to be Bib Stillwell who drove Formula one cars competitively in the fifties and sixties. He spent about thirty minutes describing the ex KeKe Rossberg backup car that was a milestone because of its’ dual brake calipers on each wheel. His car was never actually raced as the number one car was so reliable. He must have tired in the conversation because he turned to me suddenly and asked in his heavy Australian accent “n what arr you drivin’ mate”? Now I had to figure out how to tell him I was driving a Pontiac Trans-Am that at this particular moment was blown up. “I’m driving a Pontiac Firebird” I blurted out. He replied with a smile on his face “Oh drivin’ a Yank Tank arr we”? My crew chief had walked up behind me at this point and overhead Mr. Stillwell’s remark. Seizing on the moment, Jeff decided our hapless team would have a new name. Yanque Tanque racing was born! British spelling of course! We thanked Mr. Stillwell for his time and slunk away before he really found us out. It would take a full year for us to replace the motor, but replace it we did! (Please see the tech sidebar).

            The next year it was back to the Walter Mitty to prove we could do this. And, yes, I added an MSD rev limiter! It rained off and on most of the weekend. The track remained slick even when it dried out. We couldn’t get the car to hook up very well and neither could anybody else. We ran a 1:50:42 for an average of about 80 mph. At the end of the weekend we went home with everything intact and without breaking anything. This outing provided a great sense of accomplishment for the crew, me and especially Sherry. (Please see the finishing order side bar).

            Are you wondering about the other two cars? I thought we’d never find out what happened to them. While watching the Monterey Historics on Speedvision during 1999 they showed a white Trans-Am briefly and mentioned the driver’s name. I thought, “no way…it’s gotta’ be a replica”. After some diligent research on our part, we did find the owners. And guess what? It’s the real car. Or the back-up car I should say. It turns out the back-up car was taken back to Canada by Goodsal after the 1970 season and sold. It spent the next thirty years on a dirt circle track. When it was discovered it still had the original roll cage and deck lid. All the other pieces were long gone. It seems there was a third car that was shipped to Titus later in 1970. This car was turned into the BF Goodrich “Tirebird” and passed through several owners before being purchased by the owners of the backup Titus car. They both now reside in California.

            We have met and made many good friends at the races over the years. Some famous, some not. Most are folks just like us, possessing nothing more than the desire to race. Like I said, I had no idea what a dramatic journey that simple question we asked would lead us on. Our accomplishments have truly amazed me. The successes have been as gratifying as the failures have been disappointing. I want to thank all of those people who have helped make my dream come true, for without them all I would have had was the dream. My heart felt thanks to Sherry, Jeff, Steve, Ned, Charles and all my loyal fans.