Silver 1969 Trans Am RAIV==Prototype==

[Bigmoe]

I am new to this group but wanted to share this amazing story of Pontiac history and the development and introduction of "The Trans Am" by Pontiac as I have uncovered and been apart of for the last several years. Currently this car is at Supercar Specialities in Portland Mich.where Scott Tieman and his crew are doing a nut and bolt restoration on it. I always figured the best way to prove something was try to disprove it first. So,after my talks with Eric Dahlquist(writer of the 1969 Motor Trend article that showed the Silver TA,Jerry Titus and one of Titius\Godsal Racing 1969 Trans Ams) I always wondered why the Silver car was even in the picture...Well that is because its his car! He is showing the street TA and the race car. According to Rick Titus his father bought 6 cars from Royal Pontiac in early 1969,5 cars that TG racing turned into race cars and the Silver car. It was wrecked in the left frt suspension according to Rick when Jerry bought it(hence the big discount on the PHS) and the car was taken to TG and repair by Jerry himself. His signature welded steering box bolt washers he did to the race cars is present on my car as well and the steering box that displays P "prototype" with stamped id numbers not cast and contains 16-1 ratio blueprinted internals. Rick says that Paul Lamar took the car and areo tested it. I talked to Paul and he said he had it at ElMiage drylakes and Stardust in Vegas testing the downforce & lift for both street car & TG's race cars. Talked to Steve Kelly(writer of Hot Rod article)about his test,he said that John Delorean himself called him and brought the Silver TA to him for a 2 week test drive. Steve said he had the car at Riverside twice for press tests and that John D told him that they were behind on the car compaired to the Judge and would him do the article. All these happened before Jerry got the car. Rick said the Silver car was his senior prom date car and that later in the summer of 1969 Annie Titus(Jerrys wife) traded the car for $2500 at Universal City Datsun for a new Datsun and he would drive by and see it sitting on the Used Car lot and was so mad that she got rid of it like that. Thats is when it turned into just another muscle car sitting on a car lot and not a protoype,magazine test car or a Trans Am Racing Superstars dailey driver.
What I still am trying to track is who bought it from that point. Its just amazing the number of people that touched this car are still around and that they remember this stuff. I was connected by Rick to Doug Innes,DustyRhodes they were TG employees and talked about the 1968-69-70 Trans Am season and have sent me some amazing photos of back in the day stuff. The latest issue of High Performance Pontiac has PMD achive photos of the Riverside test day and just a story of the development of the TA

[Bigmoe]

2011

[Fast67VelleN2O]

Awesome car! I would love to see the prototype steering box.

[Bigmoe]

14-1 ratio

[Xplantdad]

Cool!!

[69VN]

Love it! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

[GaryC]

Always liked the 69 Trans Am's. Use to see a white one every morning when I was walking to the school bus in Atlanta. The silver one looks great without the stripes. Man!!!

[jbsides]

Great pics and story, Bigmoe.

Although I think they have moved at least once, Universal City Datsun (now Nissan)is still in business in West LA. The guy who opened it back in the day was from the old country and somewhat of a business success story. His employees were very loyal to him. I bet if he were still around he would remember the car!

[RealBoss302]

GREAT car and story, a genuine piece of Muscle Car history. Thanks for taking the time to share, I'm confident everyone enjoyed it like I did.

[70 copo]

Art Flynn a former Engineer at Norwood assembly actually drove the first production TA off the line and right out onto I-75 for a test drive.

WOW...That was a great looking car in '69 [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]