The Nov/Dec 2021 Vintage Motorsport issue is in the mail to subscribers and if you are a subscriber, thank you! It’s also headed to newsstands at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide. If you’re not a subscriber, you can go to Subscribe or call 877-425-4103. Single copies can be purchased at our online store here.
By 1965, Detroit’s muscle car wars had heated up considerably and in drag racing, NHRA Factory Experimental classes were all the rage. And with Ford’s “Total Performance” campaign at full revs, it meant that one of its factory supported drivers, Gas Ronda, would receive one of the 10 very special A/FX Mustangs constructed to do battle at dragstrips across the U.S. In VM’s 7-page Salon feature, we explore the Holman-Moody A/FX Mustang’s history and origins, and why it is important enough to grace the Nov/Dec cover.
And for champion driver Tom Gloy, what could be better than beating the Chevys at a downtown Detroit Chevrolet sponsored street race, driving a Mercury Capri in the SCCA Trans-Am Motor City 100? Gloy rates that as his favorite race and read all about it here.
In the “Search Party” feature, we chronicle a collector’s 25-year barn search for the long missing first Penske Racing Trans-Am ’67 Camaro Z/28 that was driven by Mark Donohue back in the day. Long missing, the car eventually turned up on a used car lot in Austria. More sleuthing ensued and eventually a deal was made for the car, which by this point was pretty much a body shell and a pile of parts. Back in the U.S., a three-year documentation and restoration project got it finished just in time for the 2020 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance where Roger Penske would be honored.
We also wrap up our three-part series on race car designer Lee Dykstra, who had a huge hand in the design of earlier Trans-Am Mustangs, Can-Am prototypes, the radical John Paul Racing Porsche 935 and Jaguar’s XJR5. He also did race engineering for CART teams and the Mazda factory on a three-year IMSA RX-7 GTO and GTP program. Winding down his stellar career he served as CART’s technical director and helped design the ’94 Toyota Celica Pikes Peak car for Rod Millen, Millen setting a record time on the unpaved course, one that can never be broken since the course was partially paved the following year.
And what are the odds for three family members filling a CART podium after a 200-mile Indy car event? Very slim, indeed. And yet, at the Milwaukee Mile on June 2, 1991, Michael, John and Mario Andretti finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively for a podium “sweep.” Read what Michael and Mario have to say about that amazing day for the family in the feature titled, “Those Are My Boys.”
As summer wound down, many races took the green on schedule, including the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Lime Rock Historic Festival, the Goodwood Revival, VSCDA’s Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival and SVRA’s Watkins Glen Speed Tour.
Columns by Burt Levy, Pete Lyons, Jeff Allison, Jochen Mass, Jim McCraw and D. Randy Riggs are here as well, along with all the auction scene action by John L. Stein.
