OT What ever happened to Can Am racing?

[Daddy Dee]

In some internet wanderings I was searching for some pics of some old favorite racing cars... especially the Chapparal's out of Texas. I'm not a real racing fan, but used to love the cars that raced the Can Am circuit. The Lola's, too. Great sleek, graceful and pent up power in their lines.

Anyway, in looking around, there seems to be nothing out there but some hobby guys, coffee table books and calendars of these old cars.

Anyone know whatever happened to Can Am racing. Seems to have dogged off about 1974.

Any racing info for idiots is appreciated.

Thanks.

Dee

[HDBRbuilder]

Dee,

I used to just LOVE the Can Am racers...the Lola cars, the Chapparals, but my favorites were the McLarens!! I used to just get tickled pink whenever one of those McLarens with the small block Chevy engines in them would just eat the lunch of the other Can Am cars (with their big block engines) in the twisties, even though they normally got caught up upon by those more powerfully-engined cars in the straight-a-ways! I think one of the biggest tragedies in racing history occurred back when Bruce McLaren bought it testing the car he intended for Watkins Glen on a practice run so very many years ago! (about thirty+ years ago, now...isn't it?) Remember Denny Hulme?? Yep, those WERE the days in track racing! I still love those old "SCARAB"-style-bodied racers!...ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS LINES to them! They always looked like they were doing 200+mph in the straight-a-ways while sitting still!

[BusaDude]

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On 8/23/2004 9:52:20 PM Daddy Dee wrote:

Anyone know whatever happened to Can Am racing. Seems to have dogged off about 1974.

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It was called the Porsche 917/30... basically the most powerful road race car ever developed. 1100 bhp from a turbocharged flat 12, with 1300-1500 bhp available for short bursts with just a twist of the boost control. Once this car hit the track in 1973, nothing else could keep up or win. Here are a few links, or you can google "Porsche 917/30" to get more info.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.mv?file=car.mv&num=422

http://www.fast-autos.net/porsche/porsche91730.html

http://www02.exoto.com/Collectibles/RacingLegends/Porsche917-30/Menu.asp

[Tom Adams]

Like so many racing classes, things (as in $$$$) get outta hand to the point that it's no longer practical to field a team/car. As busa points out, the development of the Porsche 917 to it's nth degree drove the cubic dollars equation outta sight for the other manufacturers if they wanted to compete. So, they packed up their R&D engineers & technology and went and applied it to other racing series.

I guess it could be argued, but the modern day relative that inherited CanAm technology would probably be the SCCA TransAm series or the GT Prototype cars.

Strangely enough, in the motorcycle world (I know you know this HDBR seeings how you ride), this same out of control spending led to the demise of Formula 1 GP motorcycles. You had H*nda and their dominance in both talent, technology, and bucks and then there was everyone else fighting for second place scraps. Fortunately, another series came along (MotoGP) for some of the technology to live on; except now it's 4-stroke engines instead of the 2-smokes of old.

(sigh)...how I remember those CanAm cars though. Even had a couple of HO scale CanAm race cars. My fav?? Why that would be a Ford GT40.

Tom

[Tom Adams]

Sorry - double post.

[WMcD]

Yeah. I recall that the earlier version was the blue and orange closed cars with the big tails that appear in the movie LeMan (and of course the track too).

It may have been Steve McQueen in that movie. He drove one of them and said he didn't have the guts to keep his foot down for very long.

Then the Germans did some work in a wind tunnel in France and came up with the open car . . . with a lot fewer obvious aerodynamic parts.

I was at the Glen for the /30. A buddy and I were walking the circumfrence of the track. At that time, some of it was in the woods.

The race started and the cars came by with a Woosh . . blat, blat, blat, blat. Then silence. Then Wooosh . . . . . .blat, blat, blat, blat. Silence. Woosh . . . . . . . . . . . . blat, blat, blat.

Mark D. had bent a sister car in practice. They just rolled a second one off the truck. Wow.

As said by others, superior cars force the rule makers to rewrite the rules to keep the ultra performers off the track. It happened with the STP Indy turbine engine car and the Lotus ground effects car.

Best,

Gil

[Dflip]

We used to go up to Mosport to watch the races, and have a few beverages. We spent the day sitting at Moss Corner with our cooler and had a great time. One year they ran a NASCAR race on the Saturday and Harry Gant's car died on the Andretti Straightaway. He came across the guardrail and we were the first people he ran across in the bush. We gave him a beer and walked back to towards the pit with him for about ten minutes. It was a great race weekend, but then it just got too expensive and the series died. Too bad.

[Myhamish]

When I was a kid in '65 and '66, I used to go to Mosport too. I had pit passes and got in to see the cars and drivers. Somewhere, I've still got original photos of the cars closeup, pit action, a program and autographs from the drivers.

Jim Hall and his Chaparral 2C's and 2D's were heartstoppers. There's a special section devoted to the Chaparrals in the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas. I think they're online too.

A factory Ford GT40X was also raced - it was the only open top GT40 ever produced. The first Porsche Carrera 6's were raced there. Lola T-70's - I think one was driven by Bruce McLaren.

When Can-Am died out, the formula 1 and Indy took over. I went to a couple of those too in the mid-70's. Wild, wild parties the night before with thousands staggering around the track in the dark, then race day.

Hamish

[Myhamish]

how's this?

[Myhamish]

Ford GT-40

[Myhamish]

[Myhamish]

all original photos by Hamish at age 16 - Mosport, Sept. '66

[Dflip]

I remember the parties and people brought generators in order to blast music into the wee hours. They put barriers around the track to prevent people from bringing their cars or motorcycles onto the track. The bikes usually went on just after the race cars finished. As long as you knew where your tent was, walking the track was a great thing. If you didn't you might end up walking around the track twice. For those of you who don't know the track, it is about 2.5 miles of up and down terrain.

A great weekend of fun, racing and drinking.

[JohnA]

Hamish,

Do you know what those V's are on the front of the Lola?

I LOVE seeing real GT-40s. Not even Maserati made a car as pretty!

[Sublime40]

I was at the Glen for the /30. A buddy and I were walking the circumfrence of the track. At that time, some of it was in the woods.

And that part of it is still in the woods. Nascar doesn't use this section of track, but the IRL will next year when they return. Too bad Ncar doesn't, it would create many more passing opportunities.

[Tom Adams]

John Albright -

I could be completely wrong, but if I had to take a shot at what those V's are, I'd say they are vortex generators. They are used on aircraft in order to break up the so-called boundry layer air (which is very stagnant) by inducing vortices. These vortices help mix the stagnant air with the free stream air (laminar flow) thus providing more flow over the control surfaces of a wing. You can see these vortex generators, or wedges, on the wings and the horizontal and vertical stabilizers of an aircraft. They're a necessary evil in that they're needed for the control surfaces to be effective (a good thing), but they create drag (a bad thing). Anyhow....

I think they're being used in order to make the air extraction ducts more efficient at drawing air through the various coolers. Otherwise, the boundry layer (stagnant air) would actually cause a "blockage" (if you will) preventing flow from exhiting the cooling ducts. In the worst case, you could actually have a reversion of flow.

Tom

[JohnA]

Tom, You Win!

Believe it or not, they probably reduce drag, too.

My first thought was that they increased pressure at the base of the windshield; an excellent place to put an engine air intake.

I always wanted to put a row on top of my Mustang's rear hatch. I was never able to find a source, though. Yarn tufts would stand straight up or even lay against the window pointing up over much of that rear window. I thought I could cut drag and increase down-force from the rear wing with some vortex generators.

[Myhamish]

great explanation, Tom, I should put a set on my '95 Escort. I think the Lola was driven by Mark Donahue or John Surtees- I've got their autographs but don't have the program for that year, just the '65 one and some photos from that year too.

Here's a few links on the Lola, Mark Donahue and the Chaparrals. Who was into the slot cars? - Monogram - - Revell - Dynakit - and the big tracks in the old bowling alleys?

Here's a few links on the Lola, Mark Donahue and the Chaparrals.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.mv?file=car.mv&num=259

http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1990/Mark_Donahue_main.htm

http://www.petroleummuseum.org/Chaparral/Chaparralhome.html

[Tom Adams]

Listen John....it's waaaaay too early in the morning for you to be springing a pop-quiz like that.

Shame on you.

Interesting what the tufts showed on your Mustang. As for a source, sometimes for drag studies we use T section extruded aluminum and cut the vertical (upstanding) leg at an angle. Hope that makes sense. Once the aero folks get what they want, we take the final shape to a plastics house and get them made outta plastic. Plastic seems to be less, uh, painful to engine compressor blades should a vortex generator come off and get ingested in an engine.

Tom