Plymouth AAR Cuda at Laguna Seca

Gary Savage in the factory AAR 'Cuda Trans-Am racer at Laguna Seca at the Monterey Historics. The car had a bad brake master cylinder that weekend. Updates on other events can be found at: www.myspace.com/garysavage

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Laguna
• Seca
• Cuda
• Trans-Am
• Plymouth
• AAR
• Vintage
• Racing

[SomethingDumb666]

What does AAR stand for.

[garysavage]

Dan Gurney's All American Racers

[cidrock427]

They made a nice street car, as a race car in this class they were a failure.

[garysavage]

That isn't an accurate statement. Are you familiar with the history? The deal to even run the cars was done a couple months prior to the first race. Chrysler pulled the plug half way thru the season, so they only ran 1 car. Still, several pole positions, a 2nd at Road America and 5th in the championship. If they would have gone a 2nd season, they probably would have won. Even Parnelli Jones thinks so. Just 1st year teething problems like any new team...then or now.

[pFhUCKpFhACE]

it looked like the 'Stangs had more bottom end coming out of the corners, but damn...that Cuda sure pulls on the straights when it gets it's legs stretched out...and good God...what a sound. Great video!!

[garysavage]

Thanks. It had more to do with an old set of tires, which kept me from really jumping on the gas coming off the corners. The next race at Sears with new rubber was awesome, where I qualified on the front row! :-)

[Zando24]

American Muscle cars my not be world class handling cars, but this video proves they CAN handle, not just go down the 1/4 mile

[Anlushac11]

The way that Cuda shot past those Mustangs coming out onto that long straight and just accelerated right part them it was clear he had lots more power.

Oddly enough the Cuda IIRC had a torsion bar front suspension and classic leaf spring rear so I was surprised to see the Cuda hang with the Mustangs and appear to out brake them.

My poor little Mustangs

[charlessmileyvideo]

@floyd318 What you hear is about 50-percent audio-distortion from the microphone being overloaded. Check the video called "Bud Moore Trans Am Boss 302 Monterey Historic Vintage Races ". The sound is exactly the same. It's a tough job to get the sound undistorted in that environment with it reverbing and resonating all around inside a bare steel body shell.

Trackside they did sound a bit different though.

[charlessmileyvideo]

@Zando24 Anyone that thinks American Pony cars couldn't handle never spent any time trackside or in a driver's seat back in those days. In Trans Am racing, the U5 class pony cars were just as fast in the turns as the imports in U2 Tran Am class. But the American cars would roar by them in the straights. It was such a big difference they had to stop running them together and have separate races.

[MrRikard1994]

Man this really sounds good !

[rcollis37]

340 T/A motor baby

[mrpedalsworth]

Oh, and sponsorship money wins races. Mopar didn't spend nearly as much as the Chevy and Ford teams.

[mrpedalsworth]

And Fords was tied together by the rubber motor mounts and the block. The Mopar rear springs are asymmetrical so the front half act like trailing arms. Ford and Chevy had symmetrical springs, like trucks. Yes the '70 Cudas and Challengers were bigger. The A-Body Mopars which are lighter then the Mustangs and Camaros, weren't used as the E-Bodies were Brand new in '70 so Chrysler was pushing them. And PLEASE, let's not go into why the 340, was WAY better then the 289. The 340LA wedge was one of

[mrpedalsworth]

Mopars suspension was WAY better then Fords or Chevy's. Have any of you taken any apart? Mopars torsion bars sent shock loads back to a beam that is part of the uni-body. While Ford and Chevy had coil springs that sent the shock loads to sheet metal inner fenders. Mopars had beefy K-members that anchored the whole front end. Chevy's had a smaller I-beam style. And Ford,

[ShadowtheRotarygod]

@nwojason What's the title of the book? I might have to try to find it! I'm on old mopar gearhead but have since branched out into all performance cars, hence my screen name.

[nwojason]

damn he dusted those mustangs

[nwojason]

@ShadowtheRotarygod i have a hardbound book of these cars your right the trans am class was limited to 5 litres which all american race cars had engines between 302 and 305 but believe me they all made alot of horsepower all of them made around 450 hp