At one time a small, brick-front building crammed between Helen’s Café and Jim Narin’s Machine Shop on West Jefferson Street in Los Angeles, housed the most important race shop in America.
The sole indicator of its purpose was a large Champion Spark Plug sign over the door, and above that, “Traco Engineering.”
In the 1960s and 70s if your sprint car, Indy car, Trans-Am car, Can-Am car, or sports car wasn’t powered by a Traco-built engine, you were running for second.
The proprietors of the little shop of horsepower were Jim Travers and Frank Coon. The “Whiz Kids” who created the first Indianapolis roadster, and wrenched Bill Vukovich Sr. to back-to-back 500 wins in 1953-54.
The duo got into the engine-building business when their eccentric Indianapolis car owner, Howard Keck, unexpectedly pulled out of racing in 1956.
They were unemployed, but not for long.
In 1957, Ford Motor Co. clandestinely initiated an Indianapolis engine project. For advice, they contacted 1925 Indianapolis 500 winner Pete DePaolo. DePaolo recommended Travers and Coon.
The Henry Ford Museum possessed a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR, powered by an engine with a desmodromic valve system. A system Ford desired for their Indy engine.
But they had no drawings, and the engine mystified Ford’s engineers. So, they tasked Travers, and Coon to disassemble the engine, explore how it functioned and collect critical details and dimensions.
The museum’s curator was adamantly against it, but relented when Henry Ford II got involved and assured him the engine would run afterward.
Travers and Coon completed the daunting task, and to the curator’s glee, fired the engine. Travers commented later, “…that damn thing probably didn’t run before we tore it apart.”
“Ford was pleased,” continued Travers, “and in a meeting with the upper brass about the project, they asked our company name. We didn’t have one. So, I thought real quick, combined our last names, and said Traco.”
Ford eventually shelved the Indy engine, but Travers and Coon put the data gleaned from Ford to use. Betty Hutton’s son, Lance Reventlow, dreamed of creating an American Grand Prix car and hired Traco to design the engine.
Working with famed Miller/Offy engine designer, Leo Goossen, the result was a 2.5 liter, 4-cylinder engine, incorporating a desmodromic valve system similar to the Mercedes.
The engine proved powerful and reliable. Unfortunately, the Scarab was overweight and front-engined at a time when Formula 1 was transitioning to rear engines. Before the 1960 season concluded, Reventlow dropped the project.
Though done with Scarab, Traco had no shortage of work. They turned their focus to USAC oval racing where the Chevy was beginning to challenge the venerable Offy for supremacy. When Roger McCluskey won the 1963 USAC National Sprint Car Championship with a Traco Chevy, customers lined up at their door.
A.J. Foyt was in the queue and liked his Traco Chevy so well, he ran his sprinter as the Traco Special.
“God almighty,” exclaimed Travers. “Talk about somebody hard to work with. Hell, Foyt was never happy. But we won a lot.”
Foyt also figured prominently in the diversification of Traco’s business. Driving John Mecum’s rear engine Scarab sports car with a Traco Chevy, Foyt beat a bevy of international racers at Nassau, in December, 1963. The entire road course community took notice, not the least of which was Roger Penske and Bruce McLaren.
McLaren, just beginning to build his namesake cars, used Traco engines in his sports cars, and Can-Am cars. When he built his first Formula 1 car in 1966, a Ford four cam engine, built by Traco powered it.
Penske, equally enamored by Traco’s ability, used Tracos in his successful Daytona Corvettes. Still driving at that time, Penske trounced Carroll Shelby’s highly touted Cobras at Nassau in 1964. In 1966, Penske’s Traco Corvettes won both the Daytona 24 hours and the Sebring 12 hours.
With that, Traco’s business spread internationally, and an extensive list of international drivers won with Traco power. Among them, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Chris Amon and John Surtees.
Penske remained a loyal customer until he took his engine program in house. The famed Trans-Am Championship winning Sunoco Camaros, the Trans-Am Championship AMC Javelins, Penske’s NASCAR cars, and the 1972 Indianapolis winning McLaren of Mark Donahue, all used Traco power.
Travers and Coon are gone now, but the shop Travers described as, “…2100 square feet of organized confusion,” remains on West Jefferson Street. A unique landmark in auto racing history.
