2023: my friends and I were obsessed with Can-Am and spent our summers following it at our homeland tracks of Mosport, Mont-Tremblant and Trois-Rivieres. We got stateside a lot too, including Road America - a 10-hour haul. Given the spectator safety standards of the day you could often get close enough to feel the vibrations in the ground. There will never be, to my mind, a more thrilling motor sport scenario than a pack of these beasts out there making huge noise and spectacle - while featuring infield camping and comradery. My personal sentimental favourite, as seen on my office wall, was the M8D. Bless the Bruce and Denny Show.
I too remember those days brother, heady stuff to be sure. Now 68. Only in the Can Am could a family 'privateer' race business become king. Totally agree with you sir...God bless both Bruce and Denny! As a side note: May I also give great and honorable mention to JIm Hall of Chaparral fame. Between Bruce and Jim (imho) came some the most revolutionary concepts in motorsport that were ever put into motion (yes pun) lol.
Just for the 'experts', this M8F was only imported a few weeks before the event, which was a tribute to Denny Hulme at Hampton Downs. On running the car for the first time, it blew the front oil seal our of the engine and dropped oil over 7/8ths of the circuit - a feat not exceeded yet! At the next running the Crown Wheel and pinion failed and had to be repaired. the consequence was that I came in to this weekend with little driving and then found that the gearset was for Road America and very tall all round - hence the lack of gear changing! I had a wonderful weekend of driving this McLaren, but never had the chance to really sort out gearing and handling issues. So my apologies for not showing the perfect drive, but I was doing my best!
I was fortunate to see several CanAm races at Road Atlanta in the early 1970s. Those cars were beasts! Incredibly fast and loud. The sound went through your body, creating a rumbling in your chest. This video shows a couple of CanAm cars. Try to image a grid of 20+ of these running at full speed. God, I wish they had racing like this now.
As a musician, there is no such thing as a favorite song of mine. But there isn't another song that I love MORE than the sound of an incredibly healthy American V-8 at full-tilt. Chevy, Ford, Mopar, it doesn't matter, I love 'em all. As Alice Cooper once said, "it's the sound of rock and roll." Amen to THAT.
dream on brother - so tell me why the Porsche 917/30's completely destroyed them so badly the Canam series was scrapped? they started a series in Europe, the Interseries Sports Cars, which was short lived for the same reason - total Porsche domination.
Tony it's Joel Robinson, put more gass on and relax your steering inputs then brake under the 30m board . Get out of the corner faster than you enter. Kenny Smith will tell you I'm correct. Try it. Geoff Manning and designed that track for winding out fast lap times in Sprint racing, and skew tyre wear.
Denny Hulme loved these beasts, they were his favourite cars. I remember a story that when he & Bruce got too close the wheels of the following car would lift off the ground under heavy acceleration. I was lucky enough to see Denny away from big crowds talking about banked ovals, he was quite a story teller when he opened up . An amazing driver. Would love to see a driver of his calibre driving this flat out.
Nice circuit. I saw these guys at Albert Park many years ago and it was really obvious how difficult they must be to drive. The drivers seemed to make very slow and very positive downshifts. The only reason I could think of for this was the amount of compression in such a large engine. I assumed that if you got it wrong, the back wheels would lock. I'm sure the gearbox and shift was very heavy too. I really like that whole open cockpit/wedge shape thing too.
Awesome! It was worth the trip to actually see these amazing cars in action. I can only imagine the glorious earth-shattering noise during the Can-Am heyday.
Great Tony, this is the first time Ivé seen the circuit, I like it, the gearing you had was near to perfect for the car, and your driving was so smooth, I well remember your style... Good stuff, one day I´ll drive you around the Nordscheife, and yes one has to change gears a hundred times a lap, well fels like it anyway... Cheers
I agree that the MK8F should be great on der nordschleife. What some choose to call "the green hell" I called home. I first learned driving from grandpa & Fangio on WV roads.
Gareth Duncan bruce mclaren was a Kiwi as we all know but his entire race team and engineers were in the UK...as they remain to this day. Bruce mclaren was a genius though.
Petyr Kowalski. Ask the early years McLaren staff where they were raised and did their apprenticeship and the answer from a considerable bunch would be New Zealand or Australia .Bruce didn’t forget his roots.
@@thethirdman225 There will be those people who like noise though. There is an amazing bit of footage of a V10 Ferrari at Monza. The sound was just amazing. It must take a little away from racing though. But it is very hard to overtake at the moment, because of the dirty air behind high ground force cars .
@@beagle7622 If motorsports want to continue, they have to be relevant and if that means better battery life for people’s electric cars then I won’t complain, regardless of what the spectators think of the noise.
Probably a combination of older technology ignition & fuel injection systems.with well set up systems it would not be a flame thrower. The exhaust too has no mufflers which are a requirement in Australia, the only exceptions F1 cars. 8.8 litres of Aluminium engine running at 8000 plus rpm would be great to hear. I remember a comment about Mclarens in Road&Track "a common car built abnormally well". I would love to see this beast!!!
No, there are circuits in Australia where you can run without mufflers. the S5000s have run at both Tailem Bend and Albert Park without them. Not sure about SMSP.
@@thethirdman225 I know they put them on at Sandown. It was Denny Hulme who said the 8.8 litre motor was wild to drive. Denny had driven both the MK11 & Mk1V Ford GT’s at Le Mans. Came second in 1966 with Ken Miles. In 67 Lloyd Ruby beached their MK1V at about 2 am, they couldn’t get it out. Denny started driving with Bruce in 1967. One of those quiet drivers but he was a really great racing driver.
I think the blue car this guy dices with is a Lola T165 circa 1970. Anybody know? Anyway, notice the guy never gets past third gear. These machines had that much torque.
the McLaren M-6 coupe' is one of the baddest GtTcoupe's to ever roll....roof line like a loboy coffee table. Wanna hear bbbaaaadddd to the bone...find video with the "Blue Goose" (Mangusta).....much kwiker revving than the Panteras He's running with. former Goose owner...8MA-1148...Bladecutter
EnglertRacing96 At the 2017 spring classic at Laguna they combined the 1983-2007 LMPs with the 1966-1972 Can Am in Group F and a 2005 Audi R8 won easily every session.
@@demonsbutterfly I find that less and less important with every race I see. All I care about is close racing. Nice if you can have colour and noise and some nice shapes to go with it.
2023: my friends and I were obsessed with Can-Am and spent our summers following it at our homeland tracks of Mosport, Mont-Tremblant and Trois-Rivieres. We got stateside a lot too, including Road America - a 10-hour haul. Given the spectator safety standards of the day you could often get close enough to feel the vibrations in the ground. There will never be, to my mind, a more thrilling motor sport scenario than a pack of these beasts out there making huge noise and spectacle - while featuring infield camping and comradery. My personal sentimental favourite, as seen on my office wall, was the M8D. Bless the Bruce and Denny Show.
I too remember those days brother, heady stuff to be sure. Now 68.
Only in the Can Am could a family 'privateer' race business become king.
Totally agree with you sir...God bless both Bruce and Denny!
As a side note: May I also give great and honorable mention to JIm Hall of Chaparral fame. Between Bruce and Jim (imho) came some the most revolutionary concepts in motorsport that were ever put into motion (yes pun) lol.
Gear lever , straightcut gears, and a big V8,..............Heaven
Just for the 'experts', this M8F was only imported a few weeks before the event, which was a tribute to Denny Hulme at Hampton Downs. On running the car for the first time, it blew the front oil seal our of the engine and dropped oil over 7/8ths of the circuit - a feat not exceeded yet! At the next running the Crown Wheel and pinion failed and had to be repaired. the consequence was that I came in to this weekend with little driving and then found that the gearset was for Road America and very tall all round - hence the lack of gear changing! I had a wonderful weekend of driving this McLaren, but never had the chance to really sort out gearing and handling issues. So my apologies for not showing the perfect drive, but I was doing my best!
Any man who gets to drive a Mclaren M8, is truly a blessed man. Best car, in my opinion.
You killed it out there despite the gearing!
Don't appologise , you handled that beast verry well indeed !!!!!
I was wondering about the lack of gear changes.
I thought something was off.
I was fortunate to see several CanAm races at Road Atlanta in the early 1970s. Those cars were beasts! Incredibly fast and loud. The sound went through your body, creating a rumbling in your chest. This video shows a couple of CanAm cars. Try to image a grid of 20+ of these running at full speed. God, I wish they had racing like this now.
yes i saw them too at Silverstone, where the Porsches made them look pretty ordinary. pushrod engines have their limits, no matter how large!
Boy, that sound gives me chicken skin! And than that buzzsaw noise of the gearbox, AWESOME!!
It sounds like a kart with a motorcycle engine but naturally more powerful
Those straight cut gears! Gotta love em!
As a musician, there is no such thing as a favorite song of mine. But there isn't another song that I love MORE than the sound of an incredibly healthy American V-8 at full-tilt. Chevy, Ford, Mopar, it doesn't matter, I love 'em all. As Alice Cooper once said, "it's the sound of rock and roll." Amen to THAT.
I'm glad car 51 came by to play! Great fun on full screen, thanks.
the M8F is the best McLaren CamAm car ever made. Excellent clip
dream on brother - so tell me why the Porsche 917/30's completely destroyed them so badly the Canam series was scrapped? they started a series in Europe, the Interseries Sports Cars, which was short lived for the same reason - total Porsche domination.
M20 was the ultimate design
Correction --Bruce McLAREN was interwiewed and was asked what car was the best overall that HE Built and he said --The M6--B
Tony it's Joel Robinson, put more gass on and relax your steering inputs then brake under the 30m board . Get out of the corner faster than you enter. Kenny Smith will tell you I'm correct. Try it. Geoff Manning and designed that track for winding out fast lap times in Sprint racing, and skew tyre wear.
Great driving, great cars and great circuit!
Back in the day we called it “The Bruce and Denny Show” . Not the fastest but always the bestest.
Yeah, they were the fastest.
@@thethirdman225 Really, CanAm cars are freakin' beasts.
@@raynic1173 I know. I've seen them in historic racing.
I love the whine of straight cut gears!
Denny Hulme loved these beasts, they were his favourite cars. I remember a story that when he & Bruce got too close the wheels of the following car would lift off the ground under heavy acceleration. I was lucky enough to see Denny away from big crowds talking about banked ovals, he was quite a story teller when he opened up . An amazing driver. Would love to see a driver of his calibre driving this flat out.
Almost as fast as my Rover 75 .....
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
No hounestly , what a hell of a racecar that Mclaren was !!!!!
Still is,...
WHAT A FABULOUS CAR THE MCLAREN M8F IS GREAT VIDEO 👍
that was fun even from our living rooms perspective!
Nice circuit. I saw these guys at Albert Park many years ago and it was really obvious how difficult they must be to drive. The drivers seemed to make very slow and very positive downshifts. The only reason I could think of for this was the amount of compression in such a large engine. I assumed that if you got it wrong, the back wheels would lock. I'm sure the gearbox and shift was very heavy too. I really like that whole open cockpit/wedge shape thing too.
Not really surprising considering the amount of extra weight that would have been needed to make it in anyway reliable.
Glorious!
These cars were mental then, they're still mental now
Awesome! It was worth the trip to actually see these amazing cars in action. I can only imagine the glorious earth-shattering noise during the Can-Am heyday.
I was earth shattering ...saw them at Laguna Seca...big block chevys 8000 rpm
Great Tony, this is the first time Ivé seen the circuit, I like it, the gearing you had was near to perfect for the car, and your driving was so smooth, I well remember your style... Good stuff, one day I´ll drive you around the Nordscheife, and yes one has to change gears a hundred times a lap, well fels like it anyway... Cheers
I saw Dennis Hulme and Bruce McClaren race at Riverside Raceway. The 4 and 5. They won in that order.
CHEVY POWER !!!!!!
Doesn't sound like they are pushing those cars very hard. Just an easy drive on a sunny day. .
Have some fun.....run those dogs!!!
theyre a big block chev , they dont rev very hard to make their power , and their huge torque comes at relatively low RPM
Clever!!!
That thing is seriously fast
I agree that the MK8F should be great on der nordschleife. What some choose to call "the green hell" I called home. I first learned driving from grandpa & Fangio on WV roads.
Bruce McLaren was a God! R.I.P.
would love to know how much torque these cars were producing
What an absolute weapon of a car
great driver too.
thanks for the upload
@Kiwihere18 - Torque should be close to HP output, maybe slightly less because its not forced induction.
Good lord! Those Kiwi boys knew how to make ferocious cars! Wow!
Gareth Duncan bruce mclaren was a Kiwi as we all know but his entire race team and engineers were in the UK...as they remain to this day. Bruce mclaren was a genius though.
Yeah.....and those Swiss people at Chevrolet really knew how to design a motor, too.
@@petyrkowalski9887 Agreed, they were in the UK, but a large percentage of the McLaren crew in the 60's were from NZ, so I believe.
Anthony Petty i am not so sure..... Watch the brilliant documentary on Mclaren.
Petyr Kowalski. Ask the early years McLaren staff where they were raised and did their apprenticeship and the answer from a considerable bunch would be New Zealand or Australia .Bruce didn’t forget his roots.
Nice track for New Zealand. Bruce and Denny probably raced there.
God save us from electric race cars!
I didn't see any in this video.
They are coming though. The problem is they are so fast, & battery technology is improving vey quickly.
@@beagle7622 I don't see _that_ as a problem!
@@thethirdman225 There will be those people who like noise though. There is an amazing bit of footage of a V10 Ferrari at Monza. The sound was just amazing. It must take a little away from racing though. But it is very hard to overtake at the moment, because of the dirty air behind high ground force cars .
@@beagle7622 If motorsports want to continue, they have to be relevant and if that means better battery life for people’s electric cars then I won’t complain, regardless of what the spectators think of the noise.
Probably a combination of older technology ignition & fuel injection systems.with well set up systems it would not be a flame thrower. The exhaust too has no mufflers which are a requirement in Australia, the only exceptions F1 cars. 8.8 litres of Aluminium engine running at 8000 plus rpm would be great to hear. I remember a comment about Mclarens in Road&Track "a common car built abnormally well". I would love to see this beast!!!
No, there are circuits in Australia where you can run without mufflers. the S5000s have run at both Tailem Bend and Albert Park without them. Not sure about SMSP.
@@thethirdman225 I know they put them on at Sandown. It was Denny Hulme who said the 8.8 litre motor was wild to drive. Denny had driven both the MK11 & Mk1V Ford GT’s at Le Mans. Came second in 1966 with Ken Miles. In 67 Lloyd Ruby beached their MK1V at about 2 am, they couldn’t get it out. Denny started driving with Bruce in 1967. One of those quiet drivers but he was a really great racing driver.
Great..was it Cevert's car in 1972 ?
Now that is a fucking race car!!!
such a short track - hardly enough space for him to really open it up
I think the blue car this guy dices with is a Lola T165 circa 1970. Anybody know? Anyway, notice the guy never gets past third gear. These machines had that much torque.
Sorry for the late reply...that's a McLaren M8F. Just like the car giving us this video. Hope this helps.
Amazing! I counted a maximum of 6 gear changes in a lap. Last time I went around that circuit it was at least 12 gear changes
the McLaren M-6 coupe' is one of the baddest GtTcoupe's to ever roll....roof line like a loboy coffee table. Wanna hear bbbaaaadddd to the bone...find video with the "Blue Goose" (Mangusta).....much kwiker revving than the Panteras He's running with. former Goose owner...8MA-1148...Bladecutter
what was the blue car challenging this guy?
Another McLaren M8F
+lencycler1
nothing can touch a can am except a F1 car!
supposedly, at laguna seca they are still faster than current lmp..... LOL
You are quite correct. One of the main draws to the Can Am was the speed, which brought a lot of 'the' drivers of the day.
EnglertRacing96
At the 2017 spring classic at Laguna they combined the 1983-2007 LMPs with the 1966-1972 Can Am in Group F and a 2005 Audi R8 won easily every session.
A fabulous car ,ok but a circuit for a formule ford, not for a can-am race car.
Tesla: We would have kicked Mclaren's ass but it turns out the NZ charging stations are incompatible
sounds to me like the transaxle is ready to grenade
lorian Stadler Sounds like a Hewland gearbox a.k.a. the "Howlin' Hewland".
Straight cut gears. They make a glorious sound.
go kart track :(
4 thumbs down from chaparall lovers
That Track is suited to Go Karts not a McLaren Can Am
You get to watch a ride in a McLaren M8F and you're complaining. Good grief.
@@thethirdman225 the Car is magnificent. But it never gets out of 2nd and third gear!!
@@demonsbutterfly Still complaining...
@@thethirdman225 just waiting for a long Straight to really open her up that’s all
@@demonsbutterfly I find that less and less important with every race I see. All I care about is close racing. Nice if you can have colour and noise and some nice shapes to go with it.
What a lousy race track for thoroughbred race cars. A. 3rd gear race track is like kissing your sister.