Traco Engineering

[Dave Koehler]

Thanks Jack
Interesting. Yup, mine were also pretty shiny and were used on my first jr fuel car. That wasn't what I zoned in to at the time. I was impressed with the shape and straightness of the ports in some areas. If you looked at it today you would swear it was a cnc job plus polishing. It was that uniform. Almost artful.

I used these as an example to create my own heads after I mine became too cracked to carry on. Kind of wish I had kept the cracked heads and tested them a decade or so later when I had a flow bench.

Neat picture. Looks like that might be a Woody car. Woody was also one of the neatest builders at the time.

[CamKing]

Donohue won the 1972 Indy 500 in a Traco powered turbo Offy.

Not actually.
That was actually a R&D Engineering engine. R&D engines won the triple crown that year.
R&D Engineering was owned by Parnelli Jones and Dick Jones.

[Turbo231]

Traco Engineering was started by Jim Travers and Frank Coon in 1957. The business started picking up around 1962 and they hired their first employee Frank Schmidt that year who was an engine mechanic for Lance Reventlow's Traco powered Scarab race cars. Schmidt was eventually promoted to shop foreman and worked on aluminum Olds F85 engines, and many small block Chevrolet's including the aluminum 377cid Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport power plant. Schmidt was hired by John Mecom, and he gave notice to "the engineering company" in 1964. Traco hired his replacement Al Bartz a former Stu Hilborn employee, and had Schmidt train him on Traco's particular style of engine construction. Bartz did not stay long at Traco. He quit, and took what he learned from Traco to start his own race engine business. Travers and Coon soon realized that Bartz was trying to beat them at their own game with the knowledge he gained while working for them. Traco hired Gordon Chance in late 1964 to replace Bartz. Chance was specially trained by Travers and Coon, and given "privileged" information on an as needed basis. It was during this period that Traco engines were starting to win with big names like Foyt, Unser, and Roger Penske with his driver Mark Donohue. Donohue won the 1972 Indy 500 in a Traco powered turbo Offy. Traco primarily built Chevrolet's, but also worked on Oldsmobile, AMC, Offenhauser, and Ferrari engines. "Raceman Jim Travers and the Traco Dynasty" is an excellent book written by Gordon Chance covering the history of Traco. One interesting fact that not many are aware of is that Frank Schmidt was the only employee (out of many) to come out of Traco and go on to win the Indianapolis 500 (John Mecon Racing Team 1966). Schmidt was proud of his win in his rookie year and was eager to brag about this with his former employer, and good friends Travers and Coon. When told about his victory Travers mentioned to Schmidt that "there's nothing to brag about until you win Indy back to back". Schmidt nearly accomplished this as he came in second place at the 1967 Indianapolis 500 during his second and final year with John Mecom Racing.

Travers retired from Traco in 1980, and Coon then hired Jim Jones. Coon worked another 6 years before selling the company to Jones. Jones closed the business in 1996. In 1999 I was approached by our long time family friend Frank Schmidt to learn his (Traco) way of designing and building engines. I jumped at that and spent nearly 5 years learning. In 2004 after leraning that the Traco name was almost extinct I re-opened Traco Engineering Co., Inc. in Santa Monica, CA. Since re-opening the business I have been involved in engine development with Ed Iskenderian and Nick Arias. Traco was a regular participant at the Popular Hot Rodding Engine Masters Challenge from 2004 till 2013. Fellow EMC competitor Ron Shaver was a Traco employee in the 70's. Schmidt and Travers remained friends until Schmidt's passing in April 2008. I kept in touch with Travers regularly until his passing in Feb. 2016. I've known Travers and Coon from my parts salesman days at Santa Monica Ford since the late 70's.Travers and I both shared the same birthday (July 12). I've recently started a Facebook page on the history/facts of Traco Engineering.
https://www.facebook.com/TracoEngineeri ... page_panel

Larry Salisbury
President
Traco Engineering Co.,Inc

Thank you for sharing this Larry. I am trying to find a copy of "Raceman Jim Travers and the Traco Dynasty". I have just recently developed an interest in the Can Am and Trans Am stuff of the '60s. I loved watching this stuff when I was a kid but now I am trying to piece together what was going on behind the scenes from an engineering standpoint.

[DCal]

Larry
I could hardly wait to login today because I knew that you would respond to the Traco Engineering post. I really enjoyed dealing with you guys when I worked at Arias because I knew that those pistons would be involved in Trans Am motors-a series that I followed closely. Also cool to see Lockerman's name, a very well respected name in SoCal. I see Jim Jones from time to time as he lives close by.

I'm sure you know that the Arias company is part of CP-Carrillo now and they are doing quite well.

See you soon I hope
Dave Calvert

[Turbo231]

Looks like I have gotten some responses from members who have actual connections to Traco or have worked with people who came from Traco. This is awesome. Thanks guys. I saw a comment awhile back (not on this site) that said Traco's success was not necessarily that they had all these wonderful "speed secrets" but that they were the most thorough and detailed oriented shop in the business at that time. Also, I have not seen any accusations that they "bent the rules", like some of the more colorful NASCAR builders from that era. Comments ??

[Larry Salisbury]

Larry
I could hardly wait to login today because I knew that you would respond to the Traco Engineering post. I really enjoyed dealing with you guys when I worked at Arias because I knew that those pistons would be involved in Trans Am motors-a series that I followed closely. Also cool to see Lockerman's name, a very well respected name in SoCal. I see Jim Jones from time to time as he lives close by.

I'm sure you know that the Arias company is part of CP-Carrillo now and they are doing quite well.

See you soon I hope
Dave Calvert

Dave,
It was great news when I found out that Arias is now part of C-P Carrillo. My mentor Frank Schmidt was a longtime friend of Nick (The Spy) Arias, Bob (Spider) Toros, and Fred (Spade) Carrillo. Schmidt was hired to replace Nick (Arias) when he cut his ties with with Tor Cam (a story within itself), and Schmidt also worked as foreman for Spade. I've only met Jim Jones once, and that was in 1979 at Santa Monica Ford (parts dept). Frank (Coon) walked up to our parts counter with with a guy that looked exactly like Ray Manzarek from the 60's band The Doors. Mr. Coon introduced Jim Jones to us as "the new guy" that was authorized to charge parts on Traco Engineering's open account.

I'll make it a point to stop on over for a chat the next time I'm in Irvine.

Larry Salisbury

[427dart]

Didn't they build the engines for the mid 70's IROC Camaros? Seems I remember reading about that.

[Larry Salisbury]

Didn't they build the engines for the mid 70's IROC Camaros? Seems I remember reading about that.

Yes, the 70's IROC Camaro engines were built by Traco. There were two versions. The first version from 1974 - 1976 was a 336cid SBC that put out around 440HP, and the second version from 1977 - 1980 was a 355cid SBC that was 450HP. The 1984 -1989 IROC Camaro engines were built by Katech. The 74 -76 IROC Camaro's were production based steel bodied cars specially prepared by Penske Racing. The 77 -80 versions were light weight tube framed race cars ( with fiberglass panels) built by Banjo Matthews.

Larry

[jed]

What a joy to read about these legendary men and their engine building carriers and businesses.
I would have loved to have worked in one of those shops. Anyone know how many employees ther had
Or pictures of their shops

[hoffman900]

Didn't they build the engines for the mid 70's IROC Camaros? Seems I remember reading about that.

Yes, the 70's IROC Camaro engines were built by Traco. There were two versions. The first version from 1974 - 1976 was a 336cid SBC that put out around 440HP, and the second version from 1977 - 1980 was a 355cid SBC that was 450HP. The 1984 -1989 IROC Camaro engines were built by Katech. The 74 -76 IROC Camaro's were production based steel bodied cars specially prepared by Penske Racing. The 77 -80 versions were light weight tube framed race cars ( with fiberglass panels) built by Banjo Matthews.

Larry

A friend of a friend worked for Penske on those Camaros (also the Indy car team).

[Jeff Lee]

A MUST READ for anybody that is interested in race development in the 1960’s-1970’s is Mark Donohue’s “Unfair Advantage” and even at the going rate of $50 +/- is a fascinating read. One Traco story in the book is you walked into the Traco shop and there was a full sized poster on a wall of Roger Penske. I guess that’s a close relationship!
I was just talking to a friend the other day that has known somebody from Traco many years and the conversation was about the Trans-Am AMC. It made 15-20 HP more than the SBC & SBF but they just couldn’t make it live as long as those engines.
A guy up in Colorado has made a beautiful clone Donohue ’71 TA Javelin. He spent $15,000 on an exact copy exhaust system and just recently had Barry Allen (well known AMC engine builder) build a 304 CID (4.125” x 2.96” I believe) TA engine. It dyno’ed at 584 HP. I don’t know all the particulars and I may be wrong that it’s nostalgia legal (I have no clue), but that shows a 100 HP improvement "from the day”.
Bucket list is to attend a nostalgia TA meet at Sonoma one day.

[Turbo231]

A MUST READ for anybody that is interested in race development in the 1960’s-1970’s is Mark Donohue’s “Unfair Advantage” and even at the going rate of $50 +/- is a fascinating read. One Traco story in the book is you walked into the Traco shop and there was a full sized poster on a wall of Roger Penske. I guess that’s a close relationship!
I was just talking to a friend the other day that has known somebody from Traco many years and the conversation was about the Trans-Am AMC. It made 15-20 HP more than the SBC & SBF but they just couldn’t make it live as long as those engines.
A guy up in Colorado has made a beautiful clone Donohue ’71 TA Javelin. He spent $15,000 on an exact copy exhaust system and just recently had Barry Allen (well known AMC engine builder) build a 304 CID (4.125” x 2.96” I believe) TA engine. It dyno’ed at 584 HP. I don’t know all the particulars and I may be wrong that it’s nostalgia legal (I have no clue), but that shows a 100 HP improvement "from the day”.
Bucket list is to attend a nostalgia TA meet at Sonoma one day.

I read "Unfair Advantage" a few years ago and have the book somewhere in the house. I need to find it and read it again. It is a great read. I have nostalgic Trans Am and Can Am races on my bucket list. Unfortunately most of them are on the west coast.

[grandsport51]

VIR See below

3F14EF6F-F5C6-4B56-8277-3B0BB9BF34D1.jpeg

Lime rock park historic
Labor Day Weekend

[GerryP]

Traco Engineering was started by Jim Travers and Frank Coon in 1957...

Thank you, Larry, for taking time to bring this to light and for carrying the torch.