History Can-Am: Raw Power

I'm in total lust after going through this thread.....

 

I love this thread

 

That's pretty much Hall's version. He had little respect for Surtees after that year. Said Surtees would go out, run a lap at 1/3 speed, and then ask for shock settings to be changed. They never got anywhere.

When he got Jackie Stewart to run the Sucker Car, Stewart was on his safety push. He got there and first walked the course, demanding that trees be removed, fences be moved, etc. Hall said, he thought, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" - thinking he had another Surtees. Then, he said, Stewart got into the car and STOOD ON IT from the very first lap.

Another note - a lot of engines that were developed for the Can-Am ended up in IMSA's GT class in the late 70s. The Greenwood Corvettes were notorious for their 496 big blocks, but Mo Carter had a big block Camaro, there was a Hemi Challenger, and a couple of Boss 494 Mustangs. I got to see Greenwood run his car at Daytona - hearing that fat-block at full bore running that car well over 200 on the banking was incredible.

 

I've seen the Can-Ams run at vintage events, nothing like the grunt of an injected BB chev at WOT!

There were 427 Chevies and BB Fords, did anyone ever run a Hemi?

 

Yep... And to me, the one that makes the most sense.

I believe Surtees version was that Hall did not have his best interest ( safety ) in mind.


Surtees wasn't just some no talent idiot.

He won Championships on 2 and 4 wheels.
And later, was a Team Owner & Constructor himself.
He has been very succesfull...

But, if a guy isnt really on your side, there probably isnt much sense having him on your Team...

 

Wow that does bring back a lot of memories. I use to watch these guys run Can am at Riverside Raceway when I was a kid. If my memory serves me right wasn't there a car running two front axels? A total of six wheel in all? I would love to see a picture to take me back in time.

 

I worked as a Cal Club tech inspector roughly '62-'66. That mostly meant wiggling the tires on MGB's and stuff before they did their amateur races, but we also got to work the Can-Am races when they came to Riverside. What a treat to watch guys like McLaren, Hill, Clark, Hall and all the other international hot dogs while that series was still very competitive and innovative. And yeah, they made a BIG noise.

 

Don't recall any 6 wheel Can-Am cars, but one fellow thought 4 engines would be a good idea. 4-2 cyl. 2 strokes all hooked together by common driveshafts which, not suprisingly, it had a penchant for twisting up. Showed up at the 1970 Laguna Seca Can-Am where it made some very slow practice laps and was then loaded up and taken away, never to be seen again.

 

This is the Tyrell P34 F1 car. I could have sworn there was a similiar Can Am car back in the days. Innovation has really died off since then.

 

Fantastic thread! I had a friend whose Dad and Grandfather worked at Riverside. I remember some of the last CanAms there - the Shadow cars and then the Donahue Porsche at one of the last races. It was way out in front from the beginning and stayed ahead the whole race. The turbo motor made it quieter than the rest of the field. I used to go to Riverside in the 80's for VARA vintage races and saw 2 yellow McLaren roadsters lapping so fast I couldn't believe it. My favorites.

The track had Mini Mokes as utility cars and we would hang the rear end out all along turn 9. FWD with 10" tires. Fun times!

 

A lot of bad accidents happened in those days.

Here he is powersliding past a burning wreck.

 

Check out this trailer for the CanAm DVD. I love the high-wing Chaparral. Watch him trim the wing out just before blasting down the straight.

http://www.canamfilm.com/

 

I hung out with Jerry Hanson some (Courtney Hanson from HP TVs dad). As a hoot he brought his tall wing Chapparall to Minesota dragways and ran it. Mid 9's with 3.00 gears. This was around 1974-75

 

I remember reading one time in the early eighties, about somebody in Germany, who bought an "old" 917 and turned it into a licened road car.
Pretty wild.
Lars

 

What a Great Thread!!!
Rodney

 

248.5484768800mph, actually!

Seriously, though, what tyre sizes did these cars run? The rears have a drag-race look, but they were obviously about going around corners. It almost suggests a pro-street revival with a twist ...

But to think that the 917 engine began as two 911 flat-sixes sitting on a work-bench flywheel-to-flywheel. One could duplicate the concept, albeit in simplified form, with a bit of ingenuity. Then, that in the front of a Deuce frame, driving a rear transaxle ...

 

Being a young-un at 36 why is it I can remember the tail end of CanAm? I remember having a couple of the Porsche 917 roadsters among other cars tat I used to play with. Swear to god Im not old enough, but Jackie Stewart has always been on of my hero's!

 

McLaren M6BGT. They built a handful for the street. Glad to see one's still running.

 

Donahue was a secret weapon alone...with Penske and Porsche, well...and remember the Trans-Am Javelins? Captain Penske and "Captain Nice" surgically developed that car into a serious contender!

 

bttt

 

A couple of random things to add.

A new book has just been published about Mark Donohue titled Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed by Michael Argetsinger. I got a copy a couple of weeks ago and have only had time to thumb through it but it looks excellent.

I recall reading that when Mark was working with Porsche on the 917 turbo they did the majority of the work at the Porsche R&D center at Weissach. They have a multi-layout road course and a skidpad there. In the process of doing test laps they had the car and parts of the track instrumented. When they looked at the data the engineers were astounded to see that Donohue's line through one corner varied by less than an inch over the course of a number of laps.

After the Porsche program in Can-Am Penske ran the factory AMC Matador program in NASCAR. One thing they pioneered was disc brakes in NASCAR. Up to that time the stockers all ran huge drum setups, usually from trucks. This was back in the days when they still had to run mostly factory parts. Well, since the 917 program had ended and the cars had no place to race, there were lots of leftover parts. So Penske ordered a bunch of sets of 917 brakes and then had the guys at AMC give them AMC part numbers and put them in the catalog. So, that's how the Matador ended up with Porsche brakes.

When Penske ran the Camaros in Trans-Am they usually had to make a fuel stop. Back then the cars were usually refueled from dump cans. Penske came up with a refuelling rig that had a pretty small diameter cylindrical tank mounted vertically on stilts. The refuelling hose was actually two flex hoses with a dry break connector. The advantage was that the weight of the fuel in the tall tank pushed the fuel into the car much faster. Donohue said that the fuel filled so fast it was like someone jumped on the back end. Another thing, the tank on the refueling rig was double walled and they would pack the void with dry ice to chill the fuel because it reduced the volume. They could get almost an extra gallon in the tank that way.

The next two tricks may have been developed for endurance races, I don't recall if they did these in the shorter Trans-Am races. Remember they were running mainly stock components on the Camaros, or at least stock based components. Anyway, during the course of a race they would have to change front brake pads. This took alot of time, mainly because the crewman had to lever the old pads to push back the caliper pistons so the new pad would drop in. Well, Penske and Donohue came up with an idea. They fitted a vacuum tank with a hose connected to the top of the master cylinder and a valve on the dash. They roll into the pits and the car goes up in the air. Donohue (or whoever was driving) hits the valve on the dash. The vacuum tank sucks the air out of the master cylinder and pulls the fluid back into the cylinder causing the caliper pistons to be retracted back into the calipers. Pull the clips, the old pads fall out, drop the new ones in, close the valve, two pumps of the pedal and you are back in business. The other trick had to do with adding oil. It took time to unpin the hood and add oil to the engine. So, they came up with a clever little device that looked like a coffee pot. It had a quick release fitting on it and contained a quart or two of oil and was presurized with compressed air. Car would come into the pits and they would hand the coffee pot to Donohue, he would plug it into a fitting on the dash, oil goes in, he unplugs it and tosses it back out.

All part of the "Unfair Advantage".

Cheers,
Kurt O.

 

Mark is still underappreciated. I think his general "Captain Nice" low profile obscured the absolute cunning that lay under the surface. I met Roger Penske early in the AM in the paddaock at Lime Rock at an ALMS race. (Yeah, I know...how unreal is that!) He was with his Penske racing RS Spyder LMP2 prototypes. A SLICK operation. He was alone, no one around, and I extended my hand, greeted him and said if only Mark were here with you and the Porsches again. He agreed, and wistfully reminisced that he had met Mark for the first time at Lime Rock! He remarked how great Donohue was, and seemed to ponder on that for a moment. I later read in Road & Track that he mentioned how friendly a track Lime Rock was...one of my most memorable brushes with fame!

 

I crewed a car at the end of Can Am,the way I remember it Porsche winning all the races killed it,cus the rules just could not keep up in anyway to let other teams be in the hunt at all,I still dislike Porsche for that,even though it wasn't anything but out $$$ all others.
I like how open it was,but add unlimeted $ and you going to end that way every time.

 

Lola T334 was designed to be a "Porsche-killer". Eric Broadley got two cars out of the shop. One for Jackie Oliver and one for Jacky Ickx. But it was too late, sponsorship flight and the first "gasoline-crisis" is 1973 spelled the end of real Can-Am racing. Oliver kept his car, and IIRC Ickx sold his to Bruce Langston in Houston. Later T334's were converted to that "Formula5000-with-a-body" class. Saw Laqngston's run once in 1977 at a SCCA race at Texas World Speedway in College Station. Damn thing was fast. Whole thing sat so low it looked like a cloud shadow coming out of Turn 4.

Boodlum the Hoodlum

 

sorta like the these?

 

The "Martian Bra" of the Chaparral 2J

 

Check out the names on the rear cover.

 

Dodge it was.............not the whole season tho.
Jim

 

First pic is Webster Special USA designed and built.

Red and white cars are big block Lolas. 905 hp with the waterpump pulley rubbing a hole in your seat back!

Pic 053 headers are McLeagle (Gurney modified McLaren .......basically raised suspension pick-up points to lower the car) The headers are sand-bent titanium done by Gurney/Shelby fabricator Phil Remington in the day.........they are still in use today! They weigh about 4 pounds each side.

Pic 036 at the bottom is the rear of a Lola T212 (?) tub showing the engine/transaxle mounting frame.

Most pics at Robin Auto, Sears Point. McLaren specialist restorer.

 

Those cars are rebodied F5000 cars that were used in the single seat Can-Am that ran from 1977 to 1986. The cars shown all look to be versions of the Lola T-332. Here's a photo of mine of Jackie Ickx in a T-332 at Riverside.



The car that could have challenged the Porsche 917-30 was the Shadow DN2 with the twin turbo all-aluminum big block Chevy. By the time the car was developed enough, Porsche had pulled out of Can-Am having won two championships on the trot.

Cheers,
Kurt O.