From 1966 to 1972 a racing series for production cars was run at a multitude of road-racing tracks all over the US which became the premier US racing series of the day. All the major American car manufacturers joined in, hiring established teams and top professional drivers. Many privateers also competed, particularly in the earlier years. It was know as the Trans-American Sedan Championship (Trans-Am for short) and interestingly, this championship was not for drivers, but for manufacturers. It comprised two classes, under-2 litre (U-2) typically for non-American cars and over-2 litre (O-2), specifically for the then new era of American "Pony Cars", which came about after Ford introduced their Mustang sedan in 1964.
Trans-Am Races were run at major tracks including Riverside, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, St. Jovite and Laguna Seca, to name a few. Almost from the start, interest in the under 2-litre class paled in comparison to the over-2 litre class. The reason for this was clear. With manufacturer-backed Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros, Pontiac Firebirds, Plymouth Barracudas, Dodge Challengers, AMC Javelins and Mercury Cougars vieing for honours with popular American pros behind the wheel, there was massive competition and lots of action. Crowds turned out in their thousands on Sundays to see the on-track battles, then headed to car dealers on Mondays to buy the same cars they had cheered on the day before, a living example of the "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" philosophy. It was BIG. The lengths that the teams would go to in preparing their cars to be competitive was legend. All sorts of illegal tricks were tried, including acid-dipped bodies to save weight, hidden suspension components to improve handling, last lap fuel stops to fill the fuel tank with lead shot to get the cars back to legal weight and even having just one cylinder - the one that was checked - at standard capacity while all seven others were over-bored to go beyond the the legal engine capacity.
This was a great period in US road-racing history and is what our current American Muscle (AM) class is based on. We've been running AM as an open class since introduced almost exactly seven years ago on 17th September, 2009 and while we have had lots of great AM races over the years, I feel that its time for a change. We currently have three open classes where, aside from body type and historic period, the specs are identical. We've seen the lap times in these classes get lower and lower over the years. At our first qualifying session for AM in 2009, the fastest lap was a then stunning 5.408 sec. Today, the lap record is 4.261 sec without ever having changed the class regulations once. Its time for something new. I am proposing a replacement of the American Muscle class from 2017 with a different approach and new class for this historic Trans-Am era. This class will be called "American Pony Car" (APC) and I'll reveal more details soon. In the mean time, check out the action in this 3-part video focused on the Mercury Cougar team, but still somewhat summarizing the 1967 Trans-Am season:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/Epz2Ari5SEM
Part 2: https://youtu.be/OVp5LZN-ksk
Part 3: https://youtu.be/TexJQfWCM1Q
Are you in the mood for some Trans-Am pony car slot racing now?
It could be a "dark day" for slot-car racing 
