[Lee Stewart]

In the Trans-Am Series, teams would "acid dip" the race cars to etch away metal, thus making the car lighter which was against SCCA rules.

At Laguna Seca, the first race of the season (April 1970), the Challenger team was last in line for technical inspection. Since all the factories were participating in 1970, the first inspection of the year was highly detailed.

After the Challenger had passed tech inspection and was accepted, the team offered John Taminus, the Chief Technical Inspector, a beer. John rested his elbow on the roof of the car and it dimpled in (from too much time in the acid bath).

When that happened, he told them that they could not run the car until the roof was replaced.

Within an hour of that incident, the Challenger team had received permission from Dodge and torched the roof off a brand new Challenger that was sitting on a dealer's showroom floor in downtown Monterey.

Here is a period photo of the #77 Challenger T/A at that first race at Laguna Seca with it's "new" roof.