Last year the SCCA marked the 50th anniversary of its inaugural Trans-American Sedan Championship event at Sebring, Florida, on March 25, 1966. Eventually known as simply the Trans-Am, the series became the most closely contested road-racing series in America. The Tran-Am blossomed quickly, reached its zenith in 1970 and then decayed until 1972 when the SCCA implemented drastic rule changes that made eligible cars a far cry from the seemingly stock vehicles that ran in the series’ first seven seasons….

Penske Racing was founded in 1966 and also made its first Tran-Am appearance at Daytona in 1967 with driver Mark Donohue and a lightly modified Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. Donohue later revealed in his book, The Unfair Advantage, that he had guessed at the spring rates and suspension setup. He was too embarrassed to admit to Chevrolet engineers and others that he had no idea what was actually required. (Peter Luongo)