This man is an amazing, detailed and intuitive instructor as well. He's calm and extremely positive if you listen and show aptitude for the race scene.
If you take a rough estimate of his lap times, they're up there with some amazing modern cars. Fantastic stuff! This is one hell of a video! Thanks for posting this footage! 👍👍
This is great stuff! Its just too bad that there seems to be way more video of Can-Am cars in vintage racing series than there is of the original Can-Am series. :(
I didn't see many other cars pass him.....exactly 0. Having grown up near Mid Ohio race course I loved when the Group 7 cars came to town. Many great weekends watching Donahue, Stewart, Follmer, Revson, Hulme, et al duke it out on the rolling hills of Ohio and quickly got me hooked on racing. Laguna Seca is a great little course having had the chance to race FF when I moved to the Bay Area.
I find it amusing that when I post a video of myself "shuffle" steering my Formula Ford, a lot of 'experts' have something to say about it. But when you're Rick Knoop in an M8F, no one seems to notice 🤣 Anyway, awesome vid and driving.
I always loved how the Mclarens had that bark when shifting! V8 fire-breathing gods! That's what I loved about the old CAN-AM...run watcha brung & pray to God ya brung enough against "the Bruce-n- Denny show"!
unionrdr yes, pity it had to end, it was just going over the top, with the Porches spitting 1200 horsepower and McLaren fitting turbos to the Chevy's. It would have been magnificent to watch and listen to. Respects to Bruce and Denny The Bear.
It may be returning I think, we can watch as old men and remember being boys. The McLarens will continue to set the standard for that type of racing and everyone else will follow. It will be glorious.
This car has such insane torque, he does not need to upshift in the uphill towards the corkscrew! Combine that with the lightweight and downforce, we will never see a formula like this again!!!
Awesome power to weight ratio, power is more like 1000 RWHP. Ive seen this car in person...absolutely amazing. like someone mentioned, no ABS, No traction control an no lame button Shift and a little over 1700lbs car. I'll be watching it again this spring 2016 April 18-21 at the Can-Am 50th Anniversary Feature Race at Laguna Seca. I believe this is the fastest McLaren M8F in the World!! Rick Knoop can run with the best of um with wins at Daytona and La Mans I don't think he needs any coaching, lol...
Laguna doesn't have the long straights that the McLaren needs to show it's power. It was made for tracks like Riverside and Road America. I saw it race at Mosport going up the Andretti straight and it was like " Hill? What hill?"
I'm almost 63 , I remember going to Mosport for the CanAm races at Mosport on a few occasions , There was Bruce & Denny and all the rest . I will never forget feeling my insides vibrate when they would go down the Andretti straight at the crest of the hill . I can die now because I know what heaven sounds like .
I was fortunate enough to see the all the races at Riverside (and a few at a Laguna Seca) from 1967 until 1973 (I lived about 40 miles from the track at Riverside). There was nothing like the starting lap when you had 20 or so big V-8’s ( and a couple of 8 and 12 cylinder Porsche’s and a random V-12 Ferrari) come blasting past you. I’m getting goose bumps recalling it now, and that was 50 years ago! Wish I could have seen them at Road America! I am grateful I got to see them race where I did.
Laguna Seca is one of many tracks CanAm was raced on and most of them, other than say, Road America, didn’t have particularly long straights. But in the same spirit as “race what ya brung”, you race on the track where the race is held and that’s that. Everyone has to deal with the same problem. It’s a race around a circuit, not a race to see who clocks the highest top speed. By the way, having an 8.8 litre engine isn’t a guarantee of a high top speed, though it helps. The strength of these engines is in their low-mid range torque.
@@thethirdman225 I got to watcgh the older Can-Am cars when they ran SCCA Sports A class at the old Westwood race track outside of Vancouver, BC, when the 8-liter cars would come into the hairpin at the bottom of the track you could hear the ait being sucked into each intake trumpet, it was a glorious sound. Later in the 80s I got to what was then Mosport Raceway outside of Toronto and watch go honking up the Andretti Straight, pretty wild.
Make rules that force cars like this to exist again. IE only for real manual transmissions, dictate that the drivers has to manually activate clutch h with his foot, mandate H pattern shifters, pushrod only engines, 4v heads if you are smart enough to make it work, complete computer controlled engine if you want, limit displacement to 500 CI, closed wheels, flat bottoms, one Aero device on front fenders etc. Make the driver the most important part of the equation!
Even though this is an older comment, i would have to say that some Aero and better brakes just for safety would be enough. I do agree though, much engine, much fun :D
How did you guys get the audio soooooo right? Most of these videos, the only thing you can hear is the Go Pro rattling against whatever it's mounted to.
I doubt if any of them made much more than 800 hp (is that not enough for you?). There’s a video out there of a McLaren M8F getting its arse handed to it by a Matra MS670 - a 3 litre V12 which is only one or two years younger - at Silverstone.
@@thethirdman225 Ok. I see that. And it's what I thought. Bigger heavier car gets passed by smaller lighter car in the corner and then can't catch up.....Lol. Still has no bearing on my post about the guttural sound. And at the time, (70's) the M8F had roughly 700-800hp. They were 494ci all aluminum BBC's. Today they have 1000HP.
What kind of camera is Racer using to get this? I'm not aware of any camera small enough to fit inside the visor AND record such high-quality video AND audio.
Brandon Kaiser It clearly isn't. The camera is too low and too far inside the cockpit, plus we get no wind noise. Also, in the first of these videos they did, with Simon Pagenaud at Detroit, it is very clear that the camera is INSIDE the visor as you hear some light wind as he leaves his pits, then he pulls down the visor and the wind noise stops.
zoomosis To be honest it's kinda fitting with this monster. This way you get an impression of the raw power and rush this must be. Nothing digital about this thing! Peace
terrific drive...so little time at full throttle, each turn comes up way too quick. few tracks fit these cars...road america, half of road atlanta, half of the indy road circuit. great car.
They were made to race on tracks like Laguna Seca, Mosport, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Road Atlanta and Road America. I realise none of these tracks have long enough straights to please some people but those are the cards they were dealt. In the same spirit as “run what ya bring”, the track is an equal playing field for everyone. Either the cars are suitable or they’re not. If they’re not then perhaps someone brung the wrong car.
I would like to have seen a video of a drive when the limits of the car were being explored. Nice camera views, etc., etc.....but not very revealing of the car’s capabilities. 7/10
I seem to remember that quite a few Europeans did quite well in Can-Am cars such as John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Jo Siffert, Jackie Oliver and Patrick Tambay to name but a few. But American drivers were just as good ... Mario Andretti, the brilliant Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Jim Hall, George Follmer, Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney. A score draw I reckon. American drivers are just as good as Europeans but so many of them just turn left and Europeans just don't understand or appreciate oval racing.
@@thethirdman225 Hey boy .... just so you know.... all these guys are doing these days is putting on a show..... Big chevy can am cars ruled when the money was on the line .......pro drivers back then ..... amateurs now. There's a reason your the third man, I'm two ahead of you! LOL!
Awesome video!The Can Am was the ultimate in Sports Car racing..Great battles my dad had with this car in the 917..
That ability to pull from seemingly idle to omg top end is amazing. Very untemperamental, and the sound!
Fabulous video. Thanks so much. I wish someone with deep pockets would fund a national CanAm series once again. Such beautiful, brute racecar power !!
This man is an amazing, detailed and intuitive instructor as well. He's calm and extremely positive if you listen and show aptitude for the race scene.
My god these historic videos have just made this channel that much more incredible. I love it!!!!
Maybe its the best onboard video about Can-Am monsters! Thank you so much! These were the greatest era of autosport!
If you take a rough estimate of his lap times, they're up there with some amazing modern cars. Fantastic stuff! This is one hell of a video! Thanks for posting this footage! 👍👍
Thanks for the video. Can Am at Laguna Seca was the ultimate in auto racing.
This is great stuff! Its just too bad that there seems to be way more video of Can-Am cars in vintage racing series than there is of the original Can-Am series. :(
Amazing driving what a thrill!
With a headset we can almost feel this big V8 breathing and thundering in our back!
The Racer Channel you rocks!
I didn't see many other cars pass him.....exactly 0. Having grown up near Mid Ohio race course I loved when the Group 7 cars came to town. Many great weekends watching Donahue, Stewart, Follmer, Revson, Hulme, et al duke it out on the rolling hills of Ohio and quickly got me hooked on racing. Laguna Seca is a great little course having had the chance to race FF when I moved to the Bay Area.
Wow, that looks incredibly hard to drive but a lot of fun...Great video!
I find it amusing that when I post a video of myself "shuffle" steering my Formula Ford, a lot of 'experts' have something to say about it. But when you're Rick Knoop in an M8F, no one seems to notice 🤣 Anyway, awesome vid and driving.
I really enjoy these videos. Keep them coming, please!
I can't imagine how difficult it was for a driver as good as Rick to keep everything simple and not go balls-out, Great video
I always loved how the Mclarens had that bark when shifting! V8 fire-breathing gods! That's what I loved about the old CAN-AM...run watcha brung & pray to God ya brung enough against "the Bruce-n- Denny show"!
unionrdr yes, pity it had to end, it was just going over the top, with the Porches spitting 1200 horsepower and McLaren fitting turbos to the Chevy's. It would have been magnificent to watch and listen to. Respects to Bruce and Denny The Bear.
Yeah, I hated to see it all end. I remember a magazine article at the end calling it the " can't-Am"...
It may be returning I think, we can watch as old men and remember being boys. The McLarens will continue to set the standard for that type of racing and everyone else will follow. It will be glorious.
McLaren were testing twin turbo Chevy Rat engines when Bruce died. What might have been.
Yeah, He was testing the MK20 when he died. A true innovator was lost...
This car has such insane torque, he does not need to upshift in the uphill towards the corkscrew! Combine that with the lightweight and downforce, we will never see a formula like this again!!!
Love the visor cam, and letting the car and driver do the talking.
Never saw him look down at his guages tho
What a monster. Wonderful.
Awesome power to weight ratio, power is more like 1000 RWHP. Ive seen this car in person...absolutely amazing. like someone mentioned, no ABS, No traction control an no lame button Shift and a little over 1700lbs car. I'll be watching it again this spring 2016 April 18-21 at the Can-Am 50th Anniversary Feature Race at Laguna Seca. I believe this is the fastest McLaren M8F in the World!! Rick Knoop can run with the best of um with wins at Daytona and La Mans I don't think he needs any coaching, lol...
Not 1,000 hp.
Damn fine driving: hitting the line the entire time. It's wild to hear the bottoming out on the corkscrew. See you in August!
Laguna doesn't have the long straights that the McLaren needs to show it's power. It was made for tracks like Riverside and Road America. I saw it race at Mosport going up the Andretti straight and it was like " Hill? What hill?"
Yeah Laguna sucks!
I'm almost 63 , I remember going to Mosport for the CanAm races at Mosport on a few occasions , There was Bruce & Denny and all the rest . I will never forget feeling my insides vibrate when they would go down the Andretti straight at the crest of the hill . I can die now because I know what heaven sounds like .
I was fortunate enough to see the all the races at Riverside (and a few at a Laguna Seca) from 1967 until 1973 (I lived about 40 miles from the track at Riverside). There was nothing like the starting lap when you had 20 or so big V-8’s ( and a couple of 8 and 12 cylinder Porsche’s and a random V-12 Ferrari) come blasting past you. I’m getting goose bumps recalling it now, and that was 50 years ago! Wish I could have seen them at Road America! I am grateful I got to see them race where I did.
Laguna Seca is one of many tracks CanAm was raced on and most of them, other than say, Road America, didn’t have particularly long straights. But in the same spirit as “race what ya brung”, you race on the track where the race is held and that’s that. Everyone has to deal with the same problem. It’s a race around a circuit, not a race to see who clocks the highest top speed.
By the way, having an 8.8 litre engine isn’t a guarantee of a high top speed, though it helps. The strength of these engines is in their low-mid range torque.
@@thethirdman225 I got to watcgh the older Can-Am cars when they ran SCCA Sports A class at the old Westwood race track outside of Vancouver, BC, when the 8-liter cars would come into the hairpin at the bottom of the track you could hear the ait being sucked into each intake trumpet, it was a glorious sound. Later in the 80s I got to what was then Mosport Raceway outside of Toronto and watch go honking up the Andretti Straight, pretty wild.
Thanks for these videos!!!
Can't wait for my seat time, because I'm coming for y'all!
Can-Am McLarens and Shadows are the only cars I'd be scared to death to drive. So much power, no traction control and no brakes
I just love this stuff.
great video and sounds!
It's probably been said elsewhere, but the M8F is the 1971 model. The M20 was the factory car in '72, and was the last new Can-Am car from McLaren.
Make rules that force cars like this to exist again. IE only for real manual transmissions, dictate that the drivers has to manually activate clutch h with his foot, mandate H pattern shifters, pushrod only engines, 4v heads if you are smart enough to make it work, complete computer controlled engine if you want, limit displacement to 500 CI, closed wheels, flat bottoms, one Aero device on front fenders etc. Make the driver the most important part of the equation!
Big engines, mechanical grip only, manual gearboxes, steel brakes and lots of exhaust noise. That would be worth watching.
Even though this is an older comment, i would have to say that some Aero and better brakes just for safety would be enough. I do agree though, much engine, much fun :D
Now ZAT iz a zymphony of aight zylinderz!
How did you guys get the audio soooooo right? Most of these videos, the only thing you can hear is the Go Pro rattling against whatever it's mounted to.
The turquoise monster! What a marvellous noise that v8 puts out!
1:53-2:00,
What 800+HP (with torque to match) in a car weighing barely 1000kg must feel like 💙
680 kg
Nothing like the sound of BB Chevy's at full song. Guttural roar of 750ft/lbs of torque and 1000HP @7200RPM!
While I mostly agree with you, the 427 SOHC Cammer would like to have a word.
I doubt if any of them made much more than 800 hp (is that not enough for you?). There’s a video out there of a McLaren M8F getting its arse handed to it by a Matra MS670 - a 3 litre V12 which is only one or two years younger - at Silverstone.
@@thethirdman225 Show the link to this 3L passing the M8F.
@@raymondbanks4103 Mate, it’s not hard to find but RUclips keeps deleting my reply. ruclips.net/video/ikjTT59RyPc/видео.html
@@thethirdman225 Ok. I see that. And it's what I thought. Bigger heavier car gets passed by smaller lighter car in the corner and then can't catch up.....Lol. Still has no bearing on my post about the guttural sound. And at the time, (70's) the M8F had roughly 700-800hp. They were 494ci all aluminum BBC's. Today they have 1000HP.
This defines brutal acceleration. Holy shit!
I Know Rick..Good Guy..Very Quick
what a beast !!
Hey Rick! I’m still on the planet
Torque MONSTER
What kind of camera is Racer using to get this? I'm not aware of any camera small enough to fit inside the visor AND record such high-quality video AND audio.
It's most likely a GoPro mounted to the outside of his helmet.
Brandon Kaiser
It clearly isn't. The camera is too low and too far inside the cockpit, plus we get no wind noise. Also, in the first of these videos they did, with Simon Pagenaud at Detroit, it is very clear that the camera is INSIDE the visor as you hear some light wind as he leaves his pits, then he pulls down the visor and the wind noise stops.
road racing: if you're not driving on the limits of chaos and adhesion, you're driving too slow.
FWIW the video quality of this would've been much better if it had been deinterlaced before upload. The audio is great, though.
zoomosis also it could go through a stabilization pass in digital post production.
zoomosis To be honest it's kinda fitting with this monster. This way you get an impression of the raw power and rush this must be. Nothing digital about this thing! Peace
terrific drive...so little time at full throttle, each turn comes up way too quick. few tracks fit these cars...road america, half of road atlanta, half of the indy road circuit. great car.
Watkins Glen
They were made to race on tracks like Laguna Seca, Mosport, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Road Atlanta and Road America. I realise none of these tracks have long enough straights to please some people but those are the cards they were dealt. In the same spirit as “run what ya bring”, the track is an equal playing field for everyone. Either the cars are suitable or they’re not. If they’re not then perhaps someone brung the wrong car.
Super
that looks to be a hard , heavy car to drive over the duration of a Can-Am race
its a gocart with big block chevy
8 liters od displacement?
Oh lord .wat does it do on a long straight
Probably not as much as you think. But it’s pitifully slow in corners.
The gearing does not appear to be right for Laguna Seca. Car can't really use all the power available.
I would like to have seen a video of a drive when the limits of the car were being explored. Nice camera views, etc., etc.....but not very revealing of the car’s capabilities. 7/10
Dinosaure monster
Funny how it actually sounds like a p1 on crack
He need's to brake a lot later.
+antonio Pu layy o ...perhaps an education about these cars, their strengths and weaknesses, and their value is needed here.
He can’t. Rick Knopf is a pretty good driver. He knows the limits.
The car is incredible , driver goes too quiet in and and of of turns .
I’m not a man of faith…but JESUS IS LORD HOLY COW
those, 1000+ hp bigblocks, no brakes, little downforce, no abs... and yet, europeans think us North Americans couldnt/cant road race.....
Still the Porsches won...
*the 917/10 - 917/30
I seem to remember that quite a few Europeans did quite well in Can-Am cars such as John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Jo Siffert, Jackie Oliver and Patrick Tambay to name but a few. But American drivers were just as good ... Mario Andretti, the brilliant Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Jim Hall, George Follmer, Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney. A score draw I reckon. American drivers are just as good as Europeans but so many of them just turn left and Europeans just don't understand or appreciate oval racing.
Not 1,000 hp.
Block chevy ....enough said
Yes, pitifully slow in corners, isn’t it?
@@thethirdman225 Hey boy .... just so you know.... all these guys are doing these days is putting on a show..... Big chevy can am cars ruled when the money was on the line .......pro drivers back then ..... amateurs now. There's a reason your the third man, I'm two ahead of you! LOL!
@@hilleryclifford2367 CanAm cars were a one trick pony.
@@hilleryclifford2367 Would probably be slower than a GT3 today. LULZ!
Keep driving your Kia 😂😂😂😂😂
amazing. but this track sucks. this poor car has a leash on it because theres not straights to open it up. Road America is much better for can-am cars
Nevertheless that was one of the tracks they had to race on. Bad luck if you don’t like it.
@@thethirdman225 Laguna Seca is a dusty mess. These cars need to be opened up. Road America is the best for can-am
@@slashracingproductions5593 So? They still ran CanAm races there. Not the track’s fault if the cars find it tough going.
A little conservative
Jonathan Sanchez
Read the description. 800 horsepower, no downforce, no power steering, no ABS...
I know what you mean, but shit man.
Jonathan Sanchez Well, Bring your ride out to Laguna and lets do a track day together sometime.
Jonathan Sanchez
What a ride. Ha. I would probably be out on every corner. Hahaha
Um...watch at 4:15 and 10:48
@@Stoppahpowah No downforce? Are you kidding?