History Can-Am: Raw Power

The koolest McLaren of 'em all!!

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3316/McLaren-M8E-D-Chevrolet.html

ROCK ON!!

Marty

 

I had the distinct pleasure of being in the hot pits at the Monterey Historics a few years back when the Chaparral cars were there, with Jim Hall driving. Amazing experience seeing the slot cars of my youth full size and in full song just inches away.

 

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine had a family friend that raced a scary fast mini and would invite us to come along as his crew. Once in Portland a friend of his showed up with a CanAm car called a Chevron which he had just got. He made a few laps and spun it twice, so he gave Bob, the mini racer, a turn. Bob said it was the only car that had ever given him 'tunnel vision' down the PIR front straight, and he had never felt anything accellerate as hard. This from a guy who had been behind the wheel of almost every type of road race car. I think it had an aluminum 427 chev, would have been about 1975. I'll never forget the sound as it dissapeared down the straight, made me shiver.

 

The 1964 Webster Special. Hand formed alum body, 255 cu.in. Olds alum block/head V8, Weber Carbs.... AMAZING sound.




my favorite view

 

These cars are the ultimate hotrods.

 

http://www.chaparralcars.com/

New 2E cars !

 

Reading this thread and looking at the pics brings back some cool memories of Riverside.Makes me want to go stuff something with horsepower into a curb.LOL

 

For those of you that say these are the ultimate hot rod, you might get some satisfaction out of checking out an asphalt super modified. The eastcoast are same engines as the cam am. Not trying to hyjack this thread, i just think that lots of people aren't aware of the asphalt supers. Heres a pic of one at oswego.

 

Very cool to see this thread on the HAMB; the Can-Am has a special place in my heart as I spent my youth around a fair amount of those races.

My late father in various Can-Am cars over the years:

John Mecom's Lola T-70 at Sebring 1965. This was the first Lola brought to the US. The car led the first hour or so but retired when the steering rack parted company with the bulkhead!



Dad on his way to winning a very wet Laguna Seca in 1968. Lapped the field. Twice.



Filling in for an injured Lothar Motchenbacher, Mosport 1973.



And at the wheel of the fearsome twin-turbo big block McLaren M20. Laguna in 1973. The only car he ever described as actually having too much horsepower - close to 1200hp in a 1800lb car.

 

Great to see you on here. IMO, John was a very under-reted driver. Would have been great to see him get some consistently better rides over the years.

 

They had a Can-Am and Mark Donohue Reunion at Road America this past weekend. Even in vintage racing, there is nothing like the start of a Can-Am race.

 

ChopTop,

Some great pictures of Laguna Seca..................love to race there!
Here is a picture of one of our own local guys, Joe Huffaker(yellow #17)...............and this is one fo the last Genie's made, I think #13 or 14. It's got a very healthy 327 with 4 Weber 48's and does over 160mph down the front shoot at Laguna. A guy over in Az did the restoration and races it on occassion. It is a wicked nasty little car.....................IMHO

 

What an awesome thread! I have loved the CanAm cars since I was a kid.

 

Yeah, "we" won it!

 

Tom Armstrongs garage/museum. I just missed the Christmas party at his place with the PSAMA. The tricks on that Camaro in the background are legendary, like how he put 22 gallons of gas in the 20 gallon tank..... Dry Ice packed around it, and 12 feet of radiator hose for a fuel line....Sneaky

 

I love these cars!! John

 

When ever I hear any form of traditional racing from the 60's early 70's I think of Stewart Van Dyne, I was blessed to work with such a part of our racing history greats for a short stint doing some R&D very seldom we get to meet or even work with a true legend. I feel even better when I call he knows exactly who I am a true blessing for someone I respect. This is a dyno shot from years ago im chewing on a pic tool while Stew jr. is watching..

 

Unless my memory is totally failing me, USRRC was the series that was the forerunner for the Can-Am series. Mid-1960s. Had a Cooper-Monaco with Chev small block power. Blindingly fast and quick (not necessarily the same thing), but nothing like the Group 7 cars that followed. Those were the days.
Also, GREAT THREAD!! Thank you to all who posted words and photos.

 

Sexy beasts make me want to watch Speed Racer...

Not quite, but close... Karts are running about 1hp/5lbs and are limited to a min weight with driver. I believe the 250 class karts are a around 475lbs. and make right around 100hp. It looks like most of the CanAm cars weighed in the 1800lb range or so. Hayabusa's put out over 200hp very easily with no turbo and close to 300 with some work, and still no turbo. So the math says no turbo, but I get your drift...

Yep the M10 block used in the majority of BMW 4 cylinders from the 70's all the way through to 90. Got one in my 2002.

 

I don't know If anyone mentioned this but check out canamfilm.com it's a great movie about the series. These cars are sick! I was born too late unfortunately

 

Great thread. Only got to see a couple of races in the day because Atlanta was as close as they got for us deep southerners, but never miss an opportunity to look close at vintage events. Here's one of the Shadows mentioned earlier (honkin' 427, tiny frontal area!), the Sunoco 917 and a McKee Plymouth at Amelia last year, plus the Amalfitano 917 Interserie... a car I know pretty well. I'm surprised at the comments about the frames. The welds are stout, not pretty but perfectly puddled.

Very light and strong: able to handle unbelieveable power, these chassis were one of the reasons Porsche were so successful.

 

Got to love the only thread (so far ) on the HAMB with word Weissach in it. Just seeing if someone has built a hot rod with a "Veesock" transaxle, and bam get hit with these pics. Have to watch the vids later. Looking forward to seeing more videos of the series guys.

Ok, now back to dreaming up a cool hot rod project with a transaxle.

Regards,

 

Not much call for compliance-geometric effects in hot-rod suspensions

 

From SIR a few years ago

 

In 1973 with the Riverside Can-Am race coming up I discovered the Mark Donohue 917 was at the Vasek Polak car dealership in Manhattan Beach, Ca., being worked on by a large number of German mechanics. I waited around the race car for hours in the hope Donohue would come by. The salesmen at the dealership kept saying "He's here all the time." I even took my older sister to the dealership for moral support and because she had a "crush" on Donohue. My sister even got a date with a car salesmen just for sole purpose of maybe meeting Donohue. But, to cut to the chase, Donohue NEVER showed, I didn't ask how my sisters date turned out but we both spent a long time trying to meet Donohue but it never did quite work out. DRAT!

 

Thanks to whoever resurrected this thread, I missed it first time around.

I LOVE this stuff. Used to go to the Can Am and Trans Am races at Mosport in the '70's, present- day ALMS brings back memories of Can Am at times, especially David Brabham's Panoz LMP-1. Trans Am was some great racing, right up into the 2000's when Paul Gentilozzi and Brian Simo were always dicing. Then Gentilozzi bought the series and destroyed it...

Personally, I'd rather watch road racing than drags.

 

All I ever got to do was watch them on TV and build a model of the orange McLaren that Revson and Hulme drove. I loooove those cars.

 

I will say the 1972 Can-Am season, as written in the pages of Autoweek (Competition Press) was by far the best stories of auto racing I've ever read. Incredible dramas unfolding at every race and the behind-the-transporter secret stuff goings on. That year, 1972, that series, the Can-Am, was argueablly the best racing ever.

 

I can't help but feel a real sense of pride when lookin at any of the McLaren can am cars....awesome power ,sheer beauty and a race record thats right up there...created from the mind of one of THE most talented people to come from this beautiful little country of ours..