Photo/Text: Gary Rosier
Mark May now resides in Edgewater Florida, having moved from a Speed Shop and Auto-Parts business that he worked and owned for many years in Wisconsin. Too many years of cold and snow, he says with a laugh. Never mind that his wife Rosemarie was as agreeable to get out of town to seek greener and warmer pastures too!
He visited Florida several years ago and told Rosemarie how he would love to get out of that dreary and cold Wisconsin weather! In the fall of '09 he acquired the shop he had been looking for.... in Edgewater, Fl..... that happened to have a house with it. His wife was easy to please, he said, and off they went!
At a very early age Mark had worked in a Dodge Dealership that his Dad's best friend owned. He worked his way up the ladder starting with washing cars, chasing parts and learning to use the various machines around the shop. He was a MOPAR guy all the way, he says, Dick Landy, of course, being one of his early favorites! He LOVES all cars, as witnessed by his latest creation here.
Mark had always wanted a period correct Trans-Am car. Something always got in the way it seemed: like a job, family and making ends meet. His ability to do most anything on the car was gleaned from so many years in the auto parts business, including owning his own speed shop (12 years) that morphed into a regular auto parts store for 35 more. This particular car - his most recent build- was recently completed after a slew of other project cars.
Now Mark has done the whole deal - raced drag cars, ovals, even some ice racing so he was no stranger to all this go fast, make it work stuff. Mark has always been a hands-on guy, fabricating most all of his own material.
It's been written here before ('59 Thunderbird, page 5) but Mark May is like the superman to us "normal" hot rodders. He just kicked it up a few notches with yet another new project; a 70 Dodge Challenger - built from a '73 and bits and pieces from a 70 (see pics)! He keeps churning out these cool cars that we just can't fail to show off!
Mark did the painting also and it's painted a Chrysler Plum Crazy Purple (70 Dodge) and a Ford "Grabber Blue", with rainbow micro-flakes in three coats of clear that makes it glisten in the bright Florida sunlight. Mark has always loved the purple/blue color combination. He had the car lettered from "Striper Bill" of Port Orange, Fl. Mark always ran his cars with the double 00 numbers, so this was a no-brainer in lettering this one up.
The car is powered by a 305 small block (it's actually an "undisclosed" cubic inch he says laughing - as he wanted to represent that period where a 305 was the maximum allowed cubic inch size - but wanted more "grunt" for this particular application and cruise around town). It's covered by a Trans Am fiberglass hood, similar to that time period and still popular with the MOPAR crowd today. It's fitted with such goodies as JE pistons, Eagle crank, Eldebrock manifold, headers and special Dan Gurney Style dual exhausts, though Mark split them!
A Mopar bell housing and Tremec 5 speed backs the power plant up and connects to a MOPAR 8 3/4 rear with Sure Grip gears (3:91 ratio).
He fabricated his own cage, similar again to the T/A cars using 1 5/8 in tubing. A rear Lexan window with adjustable aircraft vents and hold down straps, as was required in the series (front and rear), fits the bill nicely. Period Kirkey T/A seats with a Simpson harness nestle in around the custom fabricated shifter. Stewart Warner gauges and Moroso mechanical tach keeps track of the rpm's and other vitals. An aftermarket (swap meet find) 15 inch steering wheel with quick disconnect and purple skin helps point it around the streets. A 16 gallon Speedway Automotive fuel cell holds the juice to light this puppy's fire!
It rolls on a set of Mini-lites 15x8 all around with Nitto Drag Radials out back (275/60R15's rear and 235/50R15's fronts). A PST sway bar and torsion bars help plant those meats. It stops with factory disc brakes up front vented from the front air dam to keep them cool. That front air dam was patterned after the real deal too! It's HUGE, but very cool! The rear brakes are a Speedway Motors aftermarket upgrade kit.
The cage (and car) was patterned after a 70 Challenger Trans Am series car of that era, particularly his good friend Larry Detjens car, which was sponsored by Mark. Larry ran it up in Wisconsin as a Late Model oval track car for many years. He died tragically in a racing accident in 1981 and is the reason Mark dedicates this car to his memory.
You can bet your sweet bippy that this is one ride that will eat up many another rides. To be able to see it, hear it and watch her go down the road in street trim lets you hear and visualize all those proper early 70 Trans Am Cars all over once again!
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