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69 Donohue Camaro

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69ss350

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Been a little out of touch...

What's the news on the 69 Donohue Camaro.......a "friend of a friend" told me it was sold.....

I thought is was smashed beyond repair.....then I hear it's been fixed and sold..... how can you fix 40 yr-old metal that's been acid dipped????

If it's fixed, then Canepa must have spent a fortune to fix it.

SOLD???? Please tell me it's still in the US, and not in Abu Dhabi or some place like that.....:confused:
 
#3 ·
This year Mark Donohue's career and race cars were featured at Road America's Vintage Racing weekend. I managed to get a photo of myself with #6 and proudly sent it to my CRG colleagues.

Turns out things are not what they seem.

There are quite a few people studying the history of Trans-Am racing during that period. The current #6 Camaro is in fact one of the Penske cars but not the car driven by Mark Donohue. That car went to Mexico years ago and is rumored to have been destroyed in an earthquake. The current #6 was driven by Ron Bucknum and Ed Leslie for the '69 season, sold at the end.
 
#4 ·
Canepa owned the Hall 70 Trans Am car not the Sunoco car .

Wow... Ken Epsman is going to be shocked to hear this news about this not being THE car... so is the guy who paid the dough! But I did also hear he sold the car ... here is a photo of it from 1999 or 2000. apparently a few things on the resto were incorrect and Ken had Scott Rubins at McGee Motorsports at Infineon fix the rear quarters and radiator shroud. My car is about 20 feet to the left having a new cage put in the back half so I got to watch this car get spruced up at the same time. Unfortunately the digital camera I had back then was a POS

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#6 ·
The history of an old race car can get fuzzy sometimes.

You can have anything from a original barn find to a car built from oil stains :)

They were raced, wrecked, rebuilt, 2 cars could get combined into 1, cars got modified to fit new class rules, cars sit out in a field, parted out, etc.
 
#7 ·
I believe that is an accurate statement as applied to '60s-'70s drag cars, not so much with the Trans-Am racers. Most of the genuine T/A racers of that era have known traceable histories. Race entrants were well documented; there were logbooks, ads in Competition Press, etc. There weren't that many cars involved.

Drag cars are a whole different topic. There were thousands of them; repeatedly sold, modified, painted, wrecked. Very common for body and VIN tags to be removed. There was little national coverage of the many NHRA/AHRA meets, no logbooks, nothing. To this day famous cars allegedly from Landy, Jenkins, Harrrell, Yenko remain in dispute because there is no provenance.

Easy to make claims, tough to prove.
 
#8 ·
Joe is correct but Trans Am cars were a little better than most. I have a few cars that race in Europe , North ,Central and South America in many different series . And many of the car owners had multiple cars so it is often times difficult to tell what car did what and who sold what car to whom.... With an SCCA log book it was a little easier to track a car .

Many of the car that raced in Trans Am and IMSA series ended up in places like Mexico , El Slavador , Columbia , Costa Rica , Puerto Rico etc. To this day many of the current Trans Am cars end up in Central America where they are campaigned heavily .

Here are a few pictures of a Tom Gloy 1984 Capri Trans Am championship year team car that I took a few years ago. It has been in Central America since 1986 and until four years ago it was raced frequently . Next to it is an original 1974 Porsche RSR ( A 700k car restored) both sitting in a coffee warehouse . The 74 Porsche has been in Central America since 1977 . Unfortunately it has been spliced and diced and all the numbers are gone so it will take some work to trace the heritage of the car.

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#9 ·
Here is the same Trans Am car when Gloy raced it and the last photo is the car in one of its first races in Central America. The man who bought it was the Alfa Romeo distributor for Central America so he put an Alfa grill in the car no one knew where this car was for years .... until I found it :)



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#11 ·
I don't know if he still races that car . My shop used to be across from Scott's and down the row behind turn ten but I am now up the hill in the new shops and don't go out to Infineon as much anymore. Scott usually races one of Ken's other Trans Am cars ... I think the Mustang or the Penske AMEX that he found in a candle factory in Mexico . Nice gig eh :)
 
#12 ·
The first Z/28 Camaro ever built is said to have been raced and put back to a street car and sold.

From HOT ROD web site........
"Would you believe this is the first Z/28 Camaro ever built, in December 1966? Believe it; owner Jon Mello has full documentation identifying this very car as the Trans-Am Series racer campaigned in 1967 by Johnny Moore. The car was subsequently street driven by various owners for 30 years before Jon bought it, unaware of its history. Not until he uncovered the original fuel-filler opening (driver side) and fuel-vent hole did Jon begin to suspect that he'd purchased one of the special Camaros delivered to race teams in early January 1967"

I have researched some of Don Yenko's SCCA race cars and some of his early B/P Corvettes were sold as street cars.
Many stories on Yenko Stingers used in SCCA racing some where cars were sold "in an envelope".
The Camaro Don raced in some 1969 Trans Am races was an ex Smokey Yunick Camaro

Have heard of old Trans Am cars sold to race in Mexico and other countrys.
SCCA Log books did not always stay with the cars
SCCA inspection marks were put on the roll cages but cages got replaced after wrecks or ungrades.

I have read that some of the Penske Camaros were rebuilt using body in white replacement bodys from Chevy during 68-69 racing season but not sure if that is correct.
 
#13 ·
Last weekend at the Shelby meet at Infineon, Ken was eatin up the Fords with his vintage Challenger TA car. That 304 can scoot.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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#14 ·
3forme said:
Last weekend at the Shelby meet at Infineon, Ken was eatin up the Fords with his vintage Challenger TA car. That 304 can scoot.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Click to expand...
That would be the Posey car... Ken is a good driver. He bought my friends Dekon Monza and wheels that in our FIA/GT class
 
#17 ·
ChevyThunder said:
That would be the Posey car... Ken is a good driver. He bought my friends Dekon Monza and wheels that in our FIA/GT class
Click to expand...
Kenny is a fantastic driver,always very smooth compared to the throttle-heavy style of say Jimmy Hague,lol...:D

I chatted with Bruce Canepa at the Gooding auction,he was wheeling this Lancia LC-2 on stage which didn't meet reserve:
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So many TA cars have sold recently.Mark Mountanos,sold a bunch of cars including the Chaparral Camaro,the TireBird Titus car and the Smokey Yunick '66 Chevelle among others.
Kenny sold the Camaro after fully restoring it before the crash @ Infineon...then having to re-restore it while going through a divorce...that had to be tough.
Ken never liked driving it,always preferring the Challenger over it...and he absolutely loves driving the Monza.:yes:
I took closeup pics of the Camaro after the wreck and I will say it was major-league fubared,pics are actually sickening to look at.
 
#18 ·
Rest assured that the #6 car displayed at the Donohue reunion at Road America in July IS the Mark Donohue Trans Am Championship car from 1969. The Bucknum/Leslie car was sold by Penske to a Mexican businessman. Documentation exists that confirms a Penske employee delivered the #9 car after the 1969 Riverside race to Juarez and took a briefcase full of cash back to Roger. This car was destroyed in a Mexico City earthquake.

Further, the #6 car was sold to Roy Woods. The crew chief of RWR recalls the #6 Donohue car was delivered to them after the 1969 Trans Am season. They bought the Donohue car because they were unable to get 'Cudas from Gurney in time for the 1970 Trans Am season and they needed an extra car for Milt Minter to campaign. RWR raced two Camaros in 1970. One was the former Mark Donohue/Roger Penske car.
 
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