Mark Donohue Trans-Am Javelin

[Scotty54]

Recently seen at the Knoxville AMC show, a real piece of AMC racing history. The Penske Javelin driven by Mark Donohue in 1970 and 1971. This is actually the same car raced in 1970 but transformed with 1971 body panels for the 1971 season. The 304 engine was developed to satisfy the SCCA requirements for cubic inches (Ford and Chevy ran 302's, Pontiac ran a destroked 326). There was a second driver, I think it was Peter Revson. AMC won both seasons. Donohue and Penske had previously been sponsored by Chevrolet and ran Camaros before being wooed by AMC.

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[Yeller]

Very cool piece of history

[Stuka]

Going off all the modern parts, I am going to assume this thing is still raced?

Its a very cool car. The dash is so clean looking.

[tgreese]

Modern parts? As opposed to seats and stuff that are use-worn? To me, it looks too polished and scratch-free to be an active race car. Dunno, maybe the Indy circuit cars look this clean. Or maybe because rally/Baja cars are a big part of what I remember.

Beautiful car though. AMC did some great work when they styled the Javelin.

[Yeller]

We have a local road coarse track that does a lot of historical car events. A lot of those cars historical cars are very, very highly detailed, better than they were when built. They do get used, I was at a Sheby event last week that had some $2M+ irreplicable cars out on the track running hard, it gives you goose bumps watching.

[tgreese]

Heh. Seems the rule for restored cars. I look at modern Jeep restorations and think they were never this nice from the factory. No skim coat from the factory.

[Stuka]

It has a modern MSD ignition, the dual fuel pump setup is current, and certainly not required for a show car.

The classic car races we have here at Laguna Seca and such have very clean cars at the start of the race. Pretty dirty by the end though.

[Scotty54]

I don't know if it is still raced. I do know some of the vintage Javelins have been raced in historic/vintage races.

My first date with my wife was to a vintage race at Mid-Ohio. It was mostly SCCA imports and it looked more like a parade. But, there was one Mustang and that guy didn't get the memo. He was there to win. Very cool. That was 1981.

[Yeller]

I don't know if it is still raced. I do know some of the vintage Javelins have been raced in historic/vintage races.

My first date with my wife was to a vintage race at Mid-Ohio. It was mostly SCCA imports and it looked more like a parade. But, there was one Mustang and that guy didn't get the memo. He was there to win. Very cool. That was 1981.

The Shelby event has a race but that’s the small attraction. The big attraction is the “touring” classes out for a track day, just you and the clock, no passing in corners if being passed you have to let them by ect. To me that’s the real attraction, some of those guys run those vintage cars hard just like they would in a race except they have a much lower risk of damage, their chance of damage is from driver error of the driver and not so much some other driver. Nothing like a restored GT350, Trans Am racer or a 427 side oiler in cobra screaming by at full song to get your blood pumping. And if you hang out and make a new friend you might get to make some laps riding shot gun

[ntsqd]

Y'all should track down a copy of "The Unfair Advatange", Mark Donohue's biography written by P. Van Valkenburg. Donohue was a very smart guy who was backed by Penske's coins (no dummy himself). Lots of stuff modern racers take for granted were created or invented by Donohue.

And if you get on that kick I'll also suggest "The Stainless Steel Carrot" about BRE racing and John Morton. Not so technically informative, but a great picture of a racing season in the very early 70's.

[badaboom]

My other project: Early 1969 javelin 390 manual rally pack go pack.
The list of parts for this restoration project is long.
I NEED A AMC Trans Am PIT CREW FOR A COUPLE WEEKS, it would be on the road.
I'm getting younger everyday.

[tgreese]

I dig the 390 badge on the rear quarter.

[Harry Dawg]

Slick ride.

Maybe I am just too young to remember, but I always felt that AMC was under represented in the performance / race sphere.

Cool to see this piece of AMC racing heritage was preserved.