[ArthurDent]

It appears from some posts in an F-1 thread there is still some limited interest in this historical series. For what it's worth here's a couple of DVDs you might want to invest in if you are an enthusiast.

               
             link  

 This video concentrates on archive race footage, narrated by Sam Posey with additional commentary by Jim Hall. The video and audio are very good, though they focus primarily on the top cars/teams of McLaren, Chaparral, & Porsche. For refreshing memories of how they looked in motion, and what these beasts sounded like, this is a winner imo.

             

  Having had my memories tweaked I figured I'd check out this second offering available at Amazon. link This video has limited archive racing footage (of limited quality), primarily from Laguna Seca, along with recent historical race footage of some of the remaining cars still being campaigned. This would not be the video to get for racing footage, however, that said, if you are into the technical aspects and developmental progress of the series & various models, this is a very detailed presentation. Each competitor, McLaren, Chaparral, Lotus, Lola, Shadow, Porsche, & more is profiled with respect to model development and drivers. There are commentaries and interviews with drivers and builders, including Hall, Elford, Folmer, Surtees, Oliver, & more. So if the hows & whats of the series from 1966-1973 are of interest, this is as good as the other, though a totally different aspect.

[mgalusha]

I ordered the first one after you posted in the F1 thread, I very much enjoyed it, thanks for the post. I was just a little too young when these were racing.

Some years ago I was lucky enough to attend a vintage racing dinner/party hosted at the facilities of The Mathews Collection, at the time they had one of the best collections of the McLaren Can-Am cars and it was way cool to be able to get close to them. Such brutal machines. They even had Bruce McLaren's personal road car, which didn't seem terribly far removed from the racing machinery. The last time the had an Indy car race in Denver, they did a parade lap with the 1970 M8D and though he wasn't supposed to, the driver got into it down the front straight, it made the Indy cars look pale, so cool.

[JerryM]

Best ever:

[Vapor Audio]

Can-Am was a bit before my time, but after getting into racing in my teens I read a lot about the cars and teams ... and of course the tragedy that goes with ridiculous horsepower to weight ratio's and no safety technology.  Those were real men! 

In '95 I had the opportunity to do a few 90% laps around Road America in a McLaren M8F (in full race tune).  I hit 205mph before lifting, and I swear I had 1/2 mile of the back straight left.  That thing was an absolute beast.  The guys that drove those full time must have had gorilla like upper bodies, slower speed corners were like a tug-of-war with the steering.  A couple years later I drove a Porsche 917/30 reproduction around Putnam Park in Indiana.  Totally wrong track for that car, tight and technical.  Manhandling the 917 around there wore me out in 20 minutes, steep learning curve too.  Trail braking and late apex doesn't work, you pretty much have to early apex on every corner and get back on the power as quick as possible and use the right foot to rotate the car.  The one I drove was tuned to about 600hp instead of 900+ like a race tune, but believe me that was plenty! 

Those cars weren't exactly what I'd call fun to drive.  The mental exhaustion was more than the physical.  I felt like I was in a constant battle with the car and the pavement beneath it, one wrong twitch and I'd fly into the tree line.  I can't imagine if I was pushing one  to their limit for 2+ hours.  Anybody who ever drove in that series had to have balls of steel. 

Someday I hope to have a Gen 1 Formula Mazda with a turbo'd 12A doing about 250hp ... in a 1500 pound car that would be plenty.  And that's a car that will let you drive it how YOU want, and do it all day long.

[ltr317]

Best ever:

Mark Donohue was my hero while I was growing up, and ultimately made my decision to go racing.  RIP Mark. 

[ltr317]

Can-Am was a bit before my time, but after getting into racing in my teens I read a lot about the cars and teams ... and of course the tragedy that goes with ridiculous horsepower to weight ratio's and no safety technology.  Those were real men! 

In '95 I had the opportunity to do a few 90% laps around Road America in a McLaren M8F (in full race tune).  I hit 205mph before lifting, and I swear I had 1/2 mile of the back straight left.  That thing was an absolute beast.  The guys that drove those full time must have had gorilla like upper bodies, slower speed corners were like a tug-of-war with the steering.  A couple years later I drove a Porsche 917/30 reproduction around Putnam Park in Indiana.  Totally wrong track for that car, tight and technical.  Manhandling the 917 around there wore me out in 20 minutes, steep learning curve too.  Trail braking and late apex doesn't work, you pretty much have to early apex on every corner and get back on the power as quick as possible and use the right foot to rotate the car.  The one I drove was tuned to about 600hp instead of 900+ like a race tune, but believe me that was plenty! 

Those cars weren't exactly what I'd call fun to drive.  The mental exhaustion was more than the physical.  I felt like I was in a constant battle with the car and the pavement beneath it, one wrong twitch and I'd fly into the tree line.  I can't imagine if I was pushing one  to their limit for 2+ hours.  Anybody who ever drove in that series had to have balls of steel. 

Someday I hope to have a Gen 1 Formula Mazda with a turbo'd 12A doing about 250hp ... in a 1500 pound car that would be plenty.  And that's a car that will let you drive it how YOU want, and do it all day long.

Interesting you say that trail breaking and late apexing doesn't work for that kind of car, but then again I've never raced anything more powerful than a Spec Racer Ford. 

[JerryM]

Mark Donohue was my hero while I was growing up, and ultimately made my decision to go racing.  RIP Mark.

I still have Mark's poster hanging on the wall. He's still one hell of an inspiration to any driver. RIP, indeed.

[JerryM]

BTW, Mark wrote a pretty good book, too. 

[Vapor Audio]

Interesting you say that trail breaking and late apexing doesn't work for that kind of car, but then again I've never raced anything more powerful than a Spec Racer Ford.

Well, more appropriate is that I couldn't make it work with only a few minutes of track time, and a deathly fear of breaking somebody else's priceless historic car.  There was just too much rubber under me to make it rotate without pushing a lot closer to the edge than I was willing to go.  I did get to drive a Diasio d962 around Putnam Park as well, similar car in vein but much different execution.  Guy who gave me the seat said go nuts, so I pushed it quite a bit harder, and it responded to trail braking much better ... which around Putnam Park you need to go fast.

[ArthurDent]

I ordered the first one after you posted in the F1 thread, I very much enjoyed it, thanks for the post. I was just a little too young when these were racing.

Am glad to hear you liked it Mr. G, video like audio is subjective, and what one finds engaging another can find boring. Since FRM had mentioned Can-Am in his F-1 thread I felt that post wasn't too much of a side track, and timely as I'd just watched the disc. Having rekindled old fires I purchased the 2nd video and felt since there was some interest, even if limited, it deserved comment. For me the series was most timely as I was just getting into sports cars, and growing up in Indianapolis exposure to all motorsports was pretty much a given. If there is anything approaching the gut feeling prompted by the howl of a Can-Am it was the roar of the original Novi Indy car.
  JD

[ArthurDent]

Best ever:

Donohue was truly a unique pairing of engineering & driving skills. Coupled with the resources of Porsche, drive & organizational skills of Penske, an unbeatable team.

[twitch54]

great memories indeed, while not the same (what is !) todays ALMS does provide us with some great racing. Hopefully next years merger with NASCAR (Rolex Grand Am) won't ruin it.

[ArthurDent]

Here's one that will bring back the memories full tilt, and for only a paltry $300K you can have your own original Can-Am.

  link - 1973 UOP Shadow DN-2

Had Penske stayed, and rules/regs not eroded the spirit that drove the participants, this would have been the car to challenge Porsche.

  1974 UOP Shadow DN-4

[FullRangeMan]

A timely thread 
This UOP Shadow prototype on sale is a great opportinity for Jay Leno or other big collector.
A 8 liters engine is awesome and with a turbo add it is a overwhelming experience to drive.
A big sound engine to listen in loco... WOW

[Mark Korda]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chaparral_2J.jpg) Remember this car.It used twin snowmobile engines.The Chaparral 2J(The Sucker)It was like a vacuum cleaner...Mark Korda

[FullRangeMan]

A Chaparral 2F also a big bore engine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWlfkAjZeac
Chaparral 2H:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM56wSPgaWY
Interesting it used snowmobile engines, Porsche used 2 eletric fans to cooling the engine.

This is other rare bird, a euro Formula 5000 monopost and is for sale:
http://jfcracingcom.adhost-temp.com/portfolio/1973-chevron-b24-chassis-b24-73-04-24-72-07

[ArthurDent]

Can-Am was a bit before my time, but after getting into racing in my teens I read a lot about the cars and teams ... and of course the tragedy that goes with ridiculous horsepower to weight ratio's and no safety technology.  Those were real men! 

In '95 I had the opportunity to do a few 90% laps around Road America in a McLaren M8F (in full race tune).  I hit 205mph before lifting, and I swear I had 1/2 mile of the back straight left.  That thing was an absolute beast.  The guys that drove those full time must have had gorilla like upper bodies, slower speed corners were like a tug-of-war with the steering.  A couple years later I drove a Porsche 917/30 reproduction around Putnam Park in Indiana.  Totally wrong track for that car, tight and technical.  Manhandling the 917 around there wore me out in 20 minutes, steep learning curve too.  Trail braking and late apex doesn't work, you pretty much have to early apex on every corner and get back on the power as quick as possible and use the right foot to rotate the car.  The one I drove was tuned to about 600hp instead of 900+ like a race tune, but believe me that was plenty! 

Those cars weren't exactly what I'd call fun to drive.  The mental exhaustion was more than the physical.  I felt like I was in a constant battle with the car and the pavement beneath it, one wrong twitch and I'd fly into the tree line.  I can't imagine if I was pushing one  to their limit for 2+ hours.  Anybody who ever drove in that series had to have balls of steel. 

Someday I hope to have a Gen 1 Formula Mazda with a turbo'd 12A doing about 250hp ... in a 1500 pound car that would be plenty.  And that's a car that will let you drive it how YOU want, and do it all day long.

Those are experiences I'd make the proverbial eye teeth swap for        Road America has always been one of my favorite tracks, having taken one of the then req'd two driving schools there for my SCCA license. One of our instructors was Augie Pabst  . Having left the midwest in '76 not familiar with Putman Park, at that time all the local activities were at Raceway Park. A very nice 2.5 mi road course in it's own right. We ran a lot of Autocrosses there as well as races, what would have been classified speedwise as IIs, if they'd had classifications at that time. Insurance regs changed a lot of that. Thanks for sharing. 

[ltr317]

Those are experiences I'd make the proverbial eye teeth swap for        Road America has always been one of my favorite tracks, having taken one of the then req'd two driving schools there for my SCCA license. One of our instructors was Auggie Pabst  . Having left the midwest in '76 not familiar with Putman Park, at that time all the local activities were at Raceway Park. A very nice 2.5 mi road course in it's own right. We ran a lot of Autocrosses there as well as races, what would have been classified speedwise as IIs, if they'd had classifications at that time. Insurance regs changed a lot of that. Thanks for sharing. 

One of my friends in college went to prep school with a couple of August Jr (Gussie) younger sons at St Louis Country Day School.  Arthur - I think you meant Busch, not Pabst.  Was your instructor August III? 

[ArthurDent]

One of my friends in college went to prep school with a couple of August Jr (Gussie) younger sons at St Louis Country Day School.  Arthur - I think you meant Busch, not Pabst.  Was your instructor August III?

Interesting that both families would have members with the August name, something to do with the brewing tradition ?  It was Pabst, of Milwaukee Blue Ribbon fame.  Did a search and came up with this from '76  http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067132,00.html, and this which doesn't note a date  http://www.tomstrongman.com/ClassicCars/Scarab/Index.htm.    Appears he was a Jr, and I think he had the noted Scarab at the class for demonstrations.

           

[a.wayne]

Donohue was truly a unique pairing of engineering & driving skills. Coupled with the resources of Porsche, drive & organizational skills of Penske, an unbeatable team.

Agree and Similar  to but not in the same league as  Bruce mclaren  .....