Can-Am Thunder

[COOPERMAN]

Anybody have any memories of these great titans as they battled it out on great tracks like elkhart lake, mosport,
road atlanta,and watkins glenn etc.... as a mere youngster of 24 i first come across these whilst at silverstone celebrating the 40th birthday of the mini and they had some races going on which included some of these monsters(lola's Mclarens and all followed by a gaggle of chevron's,march's..) what series was/is this called as i would like to visit some more events?

[dscwall]

see this site,www.orwell-supersportscup.com/Ossc_uk.htm, not sure if the race you saw was the same but today this is all thats available.

[racerkeke]

I grew up at Mosport with the Can-Am groundpounders -- I still have photos taken with my precious Kodak pocket Instamatic, of Chaparrals and Matras and Lolas going over the hill at 2. I also remember drunks getting up into the Players bridge a
t 4 to "see what would happen" if they dropped a stubby (beer bottle) onto the track to be sucked up by a "groundsucker".

In 1995 Mosport's annual vintage festival featured the travelling Can-Am Reunion circus, some thirty cars of various sizes (there seemed to be two classes, which as a child I had not noticed). I was stationed as the communicator on Turn 4, up on the platform. When the pack came over the brow of the hill on their pace lap the sound of those big blocks was so much like coming home that I burst into tears. Luckily it's a long track so I'd gotten myself together for the first race lap, when all h*ll broke loose in the braking zone for 5 and we had to clean it up. The cars (and many drivers, includin g Brian Redman and George Follmer) may be getting on in years, but they do not spare the horses!

In North America the Can-Am Reunion shows up at one major vintage event every year, sometimes two if they're close together. So if you're up for a trip to the colonies, keep an eye out around now for ads for Watkins Glen, Mosport, Pittsburgh, Monterey, Portland, the NW Historics in Seattle, Miami, etc. to see where they'll be this year.

keke

[Andrew Kitson]

I would have loved to have had the opportunity to have seen a real Can-Am race over in North America and am green with envy of anyone who did. As a small kid I saw one of the first Group 7 races at Brands, in 1966, won by John Surtees' Lola T70. Also in the race were Amon, McLaren, Hill, Clark, Gardner, Hobbs, Stewart etc. Can-Am grew from Group 7, but the great days of the Bruce and Denny show against the likes of Gurney, Donahue etc must have been the high point of the series. We did of course have Interserie over in Europe and I saw a few of these races too which gave us a taste of the awesome cars regularly being raced in the US. In the 80s the Atlantic Computer Historic GT series featured a few of the old Can-Am cars and as pointed out above, the best place to see them now over here is in the Supersports Cup.
Anyone got any photos of the great days of Can-Am? I'll have a look to see what I can find worth posting.

[COOPERMAN]

Down here in sussex we get treated to a few of these monsters at the festival of speed apart from the usual lovely mclarens lolas and march's i remember seeing a shadow and it was turbo'd at that,i know a few teams experimented with turbocharging the v8's to bring on more even terms with the "panzer" wagons but i don't think they liked having forced induction!

[Lee Janotta]

"The Unfair Advantage" by Mark Donahue is a must-read.

[TimD]

I'll second that. Cracking book.

I've seen just enough of SuperSports racing to have learned two things - first that one of the most glorious sights in motor sport is an orange McLaren M8F at full chat, and second, that I really kick myself for being born 20 years too late, and on the wrong continent!

[racing fxgt]

Here's a photo from one fo our race meetings, Tony Roberts
McLaren M12 1969 7440cc.

[OVERSTEER]

Well i'm only 19 and I think that McLaren is gorgeous

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Lee Janotta
"The Unfair Advantage" by Mark Donahue is a must-read.

Lee, I worked at Royale Racing in the 70s - as the 'lad', you know, sweeping up, polishing the cars etc. Rory Byrne, now probably the best F1 designer and Pat Symonds of benetton/Renault F1 also worked there. I recall them both raving about this Donahue book and how they regarded him as the master in setting cars up and in the way he went testing. Therefore we can assume that Mark's influence can be seen in the modern techniques in F1 today!

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by TimD
I'll second that. Cracking book.

I've seen just enough of SuperSports racing to have learned two things - first that one of the most glorious sights in motor sport is an orange McLaren M8F at full chat, and second, that I really kick myself for being born 20 years too late, and on the wrong continent!

Tim, you could not have said it better!

[Andrew Kitson]

Here are some Pete Lyons photos I have found from the 72 seasion - the year when Porsche came in and beat McLaren at it's own game!
Here are Follmer and Donahue in the 1000+ bhp Porsche Turbocars.

[Andrew Kitson]

Cevert's McLaren leads Hobbs' Lola T310 as they lap Reinhold Joest's Porsche 908 at the Glen.

[Andrew Kitson]

Jack Oliver's UOP Shadow heads a bunch at Elkhart. How I would have loved to have seen Can-Am at this circuit!

[Fogelhund]

Luckily, I do remember seeing the Can-Am cars racing when they were current, though I was fairly young at the time. They certainly were incredibly cars, and are still incredible cars today.

I have also seem them driven recently in Historic Racing, and it is a wonderful experience. A few years ago, I was at Elkhart Lake for the Can-Am reunion, that assembled the largest number of cars on track ever. There were over 40 cars on the track at once, though I can't recall the exact number. The Saturday was a hot and humid day, and we watched on the downhill straight between turn 3 and 5. At one point you can get within about 8 feet of the track along the fencing, and the cars are VERY close to the edge of the track there. They were throwing off very visible vortexes of air off the wings, and the sound at full speed was incredible.

At Daytona, for the first year of the Historics there, the Bennett owned Shadow, the one with Oldsmobile Turbo engine was clocked at 227 mph on the banks, not too shabby.

Actually Keke, the cars normally do several events a year, typically Elkart and somewhere else.

The feature at Mosport this year should be fairly special, so that is one worth looking forward to.

[Peter Mallett]

There's a thread in the F1 forum which talks about 900 bhp and no wings. Albeit a bit extreme but these babies could do it years ago with those innefficiennt wings and big slicks so why can't we do it now?

[racerkeke]

Fogelhund:
I wasn't sure about how many they did per year. Unfortunately the eastern races aren't possible for me, but my family races at the Mosport event every year and I will ask them to take pictures.

One of these days they will come back to Pacific Raceways (old SIR). I can hardly wait to see them take the 2-3-4 series of switchback hairpins down the hill. We had Trans-Ams a couple of years ago at the NW Historics and they were spectacular too, but the track at the time was not up to carrying a Can-Am. With the new repaving and other amenities the new owners have added, it may happen soon.

keke

[gfm]

Peter - I think that sadly, by it's very nature motor racing categories sooner or later disappear up their own arses. ‘Race Winning’ technology is pretty much available to anyone with enough money. Tyre development and aerodynamics mean that there is a ‘perfect’ design where things work at their optimum so there’s little chance of variations there.
So ultimately, you have to control formulae and hey presto, you have boring one-make/formulae racing. The periods that we enjoy through this ‘Historics’ board I don’t think you will see again.
The only area where there is variety for me is GT/Sports car events where reliability, weather, traffic and darkness generally provide opportunities for something unscripted and amazing to take place.
I’m not in the least bit cynical but I think that that’s where things have arrived. You need very firm control in order to maintain control. NASCAR is a good example. Really crude simple agricultural cars giving breathtaking racing.
I wouldn’t miss a Grand Prix though but look at the struggle they are having.

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by Fogelhund
The feature at Mosport this year should be fairly special, so that is one worth looking forward to.

WHAT!!?!? They're coming this year?!?

Which weekend would that be, the VARAC weekend?

[Fogelhund]

Yes, the VARAC weekend. Me thinks it is F1 cars... 20+.

[NGS]

Does anybody know if there's any videos available of Can-Am? I'd like to get one. I have to start work on my motorsport video collection

[mickj]

NGS
www.foxyventures.com is a site that has videos for sale of CAN AM,origianl and the reunions.

[NGS]

I owe you one for that. Thanks a lot!

[mickj]

Glad to help NGS. I visited Road America in 2001 to see Jim Halls Chaparrals. CAN AM's are the best.

[Leigh Parkes]

I remember seeing them at Spa in 1999 (Supersports race??). They had free practice at 8am on a Sunday. The sound going down into Eau Rouge was enough to wake anyone trying to have a lie in!