Seems everyone loves a muscle car, but everyone tells you that when said muscle car reaches a corner it falls off the road. As usual the pub bores are wrong and the Trans-America Sedan Championship is proof of that. Organised by the Sports Car Club of America and first run in 1966, it allowed engines up to five litres – 302cu in – and was mainly contested by pony cars such as the Mustangs, GTOs, Barracudas then later Camaros, Firebirds, Cougars and Javelins. In 1967 Chrysler fielded a Dodge Dart, but when Chevrolet won the 1969 title Chrysler staged its first serious effort to win.
Wanting to promote its new 1970 Plymouth ’Cudas and Dodge Challengers, Chrysler engaged Dan Gurney’s All American Racers to campaign a pair of ’Cudas, while fellow racer Sam Posey drove a Challenger. AAR had previously constructed Indy cars, champ cars and Formula 1 single-seaters and built the new Chryslers under the strict TASC rules which emphasised factory stock parts. It would take 50 AAR employees more than 75,000 hours to construct the Challenger and three ’Cudas for the 1970 season, using bodyshells
