Technical section T/A details

[TA Coupe]

The Bud Moore George folmer 70TA car had a bowl inside the tank that would hold a few gallons of fuel. But when you drained it to check for the 20 gallon limit, That's what would come out, but as soon as the car would take off, the extra fuel would splash into the tank thereby giving an extra couple of laps.

       Roy

[gt350shelb]

[propayne]

Bud took his well sorted racing Cougars into the new NASCAR GT series and cleaned house, winning the '68 Championship with "Tiny" Lund driving.

Here is a shot of the engine bay of Wayne Andrews' ex-BME Cougar.

- Phillip

Notice the slightly bent Monte Carlo bar. This is the type is what I have seen on many historically correct 67  68 vintage TA cars and not the silly one with the big hoop in the front of the distributor. That hoop compromises the structural integrity of the bar in a way that renders it a little better then being totally cosmetic. The straight bar is of course structurally the best but the slight bend minimizes any adverse structural effects of a less then straight bar.

This is likely the restored gurney  car that ross myers has . when it was found it had been reskinned as a 69 and had nascar style jack screws in front towers

Remarks below are speculation on my part - gleaned from many years of collecting and reading vintage magazines and race programs and speaking with the drivers and team owners and their children. I am here to learn and share - feel free to correct me or add any additional information you might have.

I believe Ross's Cougar was resurrected from the remains of the BME TA Cougar that Bud sold to "Tiger" Tom Pistone. That is the Cougar "Tiny" Lund drove to the 1968 Grand Touring championship. The Cougar in this photo (shared with me by Dennis Andrews, son of driver Wayne Andrews. Wayne drove for Reid Shaw Racing) is one of the 2 Cougars Reid Shaw bought from Bud Moore - one Cougar was an ex-Trans-Am Cougar (this one) and the other was a dedicated Grand Touring (later Grand American) Cougar Bud built in '68.

The Pistone Cougar was converted to '69 Cougar sheetmetal and then '70 sheetmetal (I believe).

The dedicated NASCAR Cougar Bud built and sold to Shaw was also converted to 1970 Cougar sheetmetal.

I think the ex-BME TA Cougar in my picture retained it's '67/'68 sheetmetal, was sold by Shaw and can be seen racing as late as 1971 by Randy Bannister at the Citrus 250 at Daytona.

I don't think that ex Bud Moore 1967 Trans-Am Cougar's fate is known and has yet to surface - if it still even exists.

- Phillip

[gt350shelb]

yes Ross' s car came  from pistone ..  the above picture is it be hide tiger toms shop. It is my understanding that you were not allowed to run cars with body style tat was more than 2 years old .  this was why it was reskinned as 69  in 69 or 70.  same fate with  the 69 body in white that was built by paul pettey . that was also  re bodied to look like a 70     

[gt350shelb]

BME TA Cougar engine shot scanned from one of my magazines.

- Phillip

This is the daytona test car  that was rolled /  then sold for parts and was cut up to build the paul pettey  car .

pins  from that car

[gt350shelb]

[gt350shelb]

the Pettey car that was built with parts from the crashed bm cougar

[propayne]

Great photo on reply #80 - have not seen that one before.

Here is a vintage shot of the Estes Cougar gas filler tube.

- Phillip

[propayne]

BME TA Cougar twin filler necks.

Notice the notch in the trunk lid. One way to track which Cougars running in NASCAR could be ex Trans-Am Cougars.

- Phillip

[gt350shelb]

[gt350shelb]

[gt350shelb]

[gt350shelb]

[shelbydoug]

I like mine better.

[gt350shelb]