1966 Marlboro Trans Am
I know we’re supposed to stay focused on Alfa’s here, but the entry list for the Marlboro Trans Am brings back another great memory for me. In the 1300cc class, car #58 is a Renault Gordini from Knoxville, Tennessee sponsored by Clayton Motors. While living in Knoxville in the early 70’s I heard about that car being for sale and went to look at it. (This would have been about the time I had the Autodelta Ti Super) The Clayton family had had a car dealership back then (don’t remember which franchises, but I do believe they had Peugeot and Renault, which makes sense here) and was a huge mobile home dealer as well. I tracked down the car at another, smaller mobile home lot, owned and operated by one of the two drivers that are on the Marlboro Trans Am entry list for the car. I don’t remember now which guy it was, but I do remember him saying that he had worked for Clayton and had started his own mobile home business (BTW, mobile homes were BIG in East Tennessee back then. Cheap housing, and the mountainous terrain prevented the formation of tornadoes, which are a mobile home owner’s biggest fear.)
Anyway, he said he had raced it in some SCCA club races and at least one Trans Am race, so it was obviously the Marlboro event. It was a neat car. Either factory prepared, or prepared at Clayton Motors and equipped by them with all of the factory race parts, I don’t recall which now. The engine was out of the car with a fresh rebuild and dyno tune/break-in by Ed Zink. I have mentioned in another post how Zink actually started out in Knoxville operating an import race/tune-up shop. The guy said it dyoned at 125 HP. I showed my surprise at the idea of that little car competing in a Trans Am race, but he said that, while it obviously couldn’t keep up with bigger engine cars, it was very competitive in its class. He said he had a ball running with his fellow small bore competitors.
Two things stick out in my mind about the car: the tach needle had come loose and was lying in the bottom of the huge factory (Veglia?) tachometer…and there was a rust hole at the base of the C pillar on the driver's side that I could stick my fist thru. The tach needle was an odd failure to me but no biggy; however, that huge rust hole scared me off. He only wanted $600 and I know it would have been a blast to sling around the twisty East Tennessee back roads. But I was afraid its life was approaching an end due to the tin worm.
Ted
OldAlfaGuy