Nissan Skyline GT-R Debut in SPEED GT

[Octagon]

No Mike, actually it's from the Daytona 24 Hour race in 1977. www.racingsportscars.com has a wonderful IMSA photo archive with plenty of great pictures from my all time favorite era in sports car racing.

Their Trans Am gallery is a little lacking, but fortunately Group 44 used the same car for SCCA Trans Am and IMSA GTO competition.

[Octagon]

Mike, I'm afraid you somewhat missed my point with what it is about Formula Drift that carries the Trans Am spirit.

The "showroom appearance" malarkey that is supposedly the Achilles Heel of modern Trans Am has nothing to do with the series' downfall. Poor marketing and an unbalanced rules package favoring one racing package (specifically the Rocketsports Jaguars, owned and operated by former series director Paul Gentilozzi) were what killed Trans Am.

The Trans Am's "production based" days ended in about 1974, with tube frame cars already beginning to make appearances due to the radical modifications of men like Roger Penske, Bud Moore, Smokey Yunick, *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* Greenwood, and Ray Moody. The series has carried on since then to GREATER POPULARITY as a tube frame silhouette series.

It was the outlaw atmosphere of Trans Am, the rowdy, unruly, violent feel of the cars that made Trans Am popular. It was road racing that was at home in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin or Lexington, Ohio, or Portland, Oregon. Every race was a brawl, a fight, an outright war on tarmac, and sure as hell a Trans Am car sounded like a war machine.

I see this kind of machismo in Formula Drift, that glimmer of one-upsmanship and violence that makes REAL racing fun. Speed World Challenge is too genteel, too reserved and polite, too - in all honesty - continental to take the title of the SCCA's TransAmerican Challenge.

DO NOT GIVE SWC THE TRANS AM TITLE! Keep the tube chassis tyrants, the carbureted 310's, and the Jerico crashboxes. That's the Trans Am, and it has been for over 30 years.

[Mike Peters]

i see what you mean. but im really a fan of getting back to production based stringent rule series with a LOT of beating and banging with a playing feild where you dont know who will win or when. the drifting stuff is awesome to watch on tv but just doesnt have that competitive spend 20 laps of back and fourth beating and banging neck and neck for the lead racing with no grip, too much power and a lot of driver. i honestly think a formula drift type rulebook wheel to wheel racing series would be very very cool. street tires, no real rules other than keep it production based and resembling a street car, and not too crazy on the suspension would make some great racing, for everyone. and imo thats what trans am is about, although it did go tube frames and they were still running carbs and stuff. but i think a modern interpretation of what was started when trans am 1st fired up would totally rock modern motorsports if the right people did it with the time money and resources needed to launch it.

[Octagon]

I don't disagree that production based racing has its place and can be a lot of fun. I love Speed World Challenge GT and have been a fan of it for some time now.

I just feel that Speed World Challenge is plenty good enough as its own series, and doesn't have the automotive gravitas to take on the Trans Am name and mystique.