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Post by René on Jan 2, 2021 17:58:07 GMT
It seems that so many have passed away in 2020, and from all walks of life, a truly terrible year indeed. Excellent material on Oscar there Carl, I just love that photo go him with the high mounted wing on his helmet, that is one brilliant bit of humour, did he race with it  . I don't think his neck could have sustained the downforce generated by that wing !  |
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Post by charleselan on Mar 16, 2021 16:45:17 GMT
In my constant search for great historical motor sport films I came across this beauty last night. Not strictly Can Am as it was more a big national event at Bridgehampton in 1965. The film quality is excellent and it comes from that truly brilliant series "The Glory Days" with Dave Despain.
The race was held on the classic American circuit at Long Island which was a challenging venue and respected by all the drivers. This event was quite a marathon with some drivers completing the 100 laps by themselves, others were entered in a two driver team.
The race was won by Hap Sharp in one of my all time favourite race cars the Chaparral 2C, by 1965 it had grown all sorts of aero aids but still looked fabulous. Hap was quite an underrated driver but was a formidable competitor and formed a great team with Jim Hall.
Great also to see Pedro Rodriguez driving the wheels off the underpowered and lightly modified endurance Ferrari 365P2 entered by NART, and that amazing V12 engine sound was inspiring. Also it marked Mario Andretti's first ever road race in an even older ex-endurance Ferrari 330P.
A wonderful film and well worth watching.
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Post by Carl on Mar 17, 2021 17:10:47 GMT
In my constant search for great historical motor sport films I came across this beauty last night. Not strictly Can Am as it was more a big national event at Bridgehampton in 1965. The film quality is excellent and it comes from that truly brilliant series "The Glory Days" with Dave Despain. The race was held on the classic American circuit at Long Island which was a challenging venue and respected by all the drivers. This event was quite a marathon with some drivers completing the 100 laps by themselves, others were entered in a two driver team. The race was won by Hap Sharp in one of my all time favourite race cars the Chaparral 2C, by 1965 it had grown all sorts of aero aids but still looked fabulous. Hap was quite an underrated driver but was a formidable competitor and formed a great team with Jim Hall. Great also to see Pedro Rodriguez driving the wheels off the underpowered and lightly modified endurance Ferrari 365P2 entered by NART, and that amazing V12 engine sound was inspiring. Also it marked Mario Andretti's first ever road race in an even older ex-endurance Ferrari 330P. A wonderful film and well worth watching. John, A great film with wonderful sounds and great driving well covered and presented by Dave Despain, an excellent broadcast journalist and true motorsport enthusiast, on the Speedvision cable channel. I never missed any of the programs he hosted over the years.
Over time, the land on which Bridgehampton was built became too valuable and it was destroyed for housing and doughnut shops, considered by some to be more important than a world class road course. 
Walt Hansgen was mentor to Mark Donohue, then just on the cusp of greatness, and he way have been there helping to wrench the Mecom Lola T70. The fastest eight were all world class or soon to be and there was a great mix of sports racers large and small, prototypes and GTs, mostly well driven. A bit alarming to see the typical beach resort fencing, designed to control sand dunes, in place as protection, but those were different times.
Cheers, Carl
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Post by charleselan on Mar 17, 2021 18:25:33 GMT
In my constant search for great historical motor sport films I came across this beauty last night. Not strictly Can Am as it was more a big national event at Bridgehampton in 1965. The film quality is excellent and it comes from that truly brilliant series "The Glory Days" with Dave Despain. The race was held on the classic American circuit at Long Island which was a challenging venue and respected by all the drivers. This event was quite a marathon with some drivers completing the 100 laps by themselves, others were entered in a two driver team. The race was won by Hap Sharp in one of my all time favourite race cars the Chaparral 2C, by 1965 it had grown all sorts of aero aids but still looked fabulous. Hap was quite an underrated driver but was a formidable competitor and formed a great team with Jim Hall. Great also to see Pedro Rodriguez driving the wheels off the underpowered and lightly modified endurance Ferrari 365P2 entered by NART, and that amazing V12 engine sound was inspiring. Also it marked Mario Andretti's first ever road race in an even older ex-endurance Ferrari 330P. A wonderful film and well worth watching. John, A great film with wonderful sounds and great driving well covered and presented by Dave Despain, an excellent broadcast journalist and true motorsport enthusiast, on the Speedvision cable channel. I never missed any of the programs he hosted over the years.
Over time, the land on which Bridgehampton was built became too valuable and it was destroyed for housing and doughnut shops, considered by some to be more important than a world class road course.
Walt Hansgen was mentor to Mark Donohue, then just on the cusp of greatness, and he way have been there helping to wrench the Mecom Lola T70. The fastest eight were all world class or soon to be and there was a great mix of sports racers large and small, prototypes and GTs, mostly well driven. A bit alarming to see the typical beach resort fencing, designed to control sand dunes, in place as protection, but those were different times.
Cheers, Carl
Carl. I think we in the UK used to have something similar at motor sporting events (both bikes & cars) called chestnut palings that were primarily used for agricultural and garden perimeter fencing. They used to use these at some motor sporting events and I remember they crept in at international motocross meetings, replacing the more traditional rope and post that had been used from the 1930's onwards. Neither offered much protection as you mention but such were the times, and to be honest i would rather that than our current period. Walt Hansgen was another fine driver indeed and very successful at Bridgehampton apparently. Skip Scott was another excellent driver and he partnered Peter Revson in the Essex Wire Team Ford GT40 before it moored into J W Automotive sponsored by Gulf Oil. Skip was really tramping on int that big old Cobra in this film and a nice little cameo interview with him as well. John  |
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Post by Carl on Dec 14, 2021 19:47:55 GMT
Episode 4: Robin Miller and Dan Gurney celebrate a different shade of orange in a hallway of great memories...
The blind downhill left turn in which Dan Gurney was able to gain on Jackie Oliver is either Turn 2 or Turn 4. Turn 2 is where Jody Scheckter, three years later at the Canadian Grand Prix, removed both himself and Francois Cevert with a reckless inside pass. Turn 4 is the sweeping downhill turn on which a still photograph of the starting grid on the pace lap is shown. The right turn leading onto a straight where Oliver's sudden snap oversteer allowed Gurney to pass would have been either Moss Corner or the final turn.
A 1940 Ford with one of the best hotrod colors and a very cool license plate 
...and the only film I could easily find of the 1970 Mosport Can-Am
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Post by robmarsh on Dec 16, 2021 13:13:23 GMT
Thanks Carl, loved Can-Am especially the McLaren Team.
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Post by René on Dec 16, 2021 17:07:07 GMT
Fantastic stuff Carl!  |
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Post by mikael on Dec 17, 2021 23:10:56 GMT
Apropos of the present banner image: Chris Amon in yet another March car of 1970, the Chevrolet-powered 707 Can-Am racer.
The STP logos, for the American oil treatment product, also bring back some childhood memories (as STP stickers were seen often also in national racing). As I recall it, the reputation of this product was mixed, as it was often used in worn-down engines with good effect (in terms of raising the oil pressure). Hence, I think STP became associated with this: as a life-extender for engines that had their best years behind them ...
Same as the first photo, but with more background.
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Post by René on Dec 18, 2021 10:22:30 GMT
Wonderful pictures and what a cool looking car!
CanAm was fantastic!
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Post by charleselan on Dec 18, 2021 16:01:01 GMT
Some excellent photographs of the March 707 Mikael, how aptly named was the beast well the type number is  , for she is a big old bird. It is interesting to see the March's from 1970 as they all had a very similar design in bodywork styling, you could clearly see the parentage. Other than in 1971 this was very much continued through most of the manufacturers history. Returning to the banner image of the March 701 Formula One car the comments about the car here encouraged me to revisit the very good book on March by Mike Lawrence (if you haven't a copy it is worth getting). There are some excellent quotes from Robin Herd about many different issues and one in particular caught my eye. This concerns the design of the rather attractive six spoke wheels that became a March trademark over the years. According to Robin Herd he became interested in wheel design following his time at Cosworth working on the abortive 4WD F1 car; wheels were a particular thing with Keith Duckworth apparently and he designed wheels for the 4WD car that inspired Herd with his March wheels. When Robin abruptly left Cosworth to pursue his own direction Duckworth never forgave him and to quote Herd behaved like a "spurned lover". This manifested itself when Keith Duckworth was showing someone the 4WD car, the unfortunate soul came out with "it's got March wheels", Duckworth according to Herd "reached 100,000 feet". Interestingly Robin Herd does say that Duckworth's design concept for wheels was light years ahead of others at the time. |
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Post by René on Jan 8, 2022 17:44:10 GMT
Not sure if this was posted here before but it's a great recap of the 1970 Can-Am race at Road Atlanta. Not only some great racing action but also a wonderful image of the time.
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Post by Carl on Jan 9, 2022 2:26:15 GMT
Not sure if this was posted here before but it's a great recap of the 1970 Can-Am race at Road Atlanta. Not only some great racing action but also a wonderful image of the time. Thanks René, It may have been posted before but is well worth watching again for the sights and sounds of vintage Can-Am. The Lolas, especially Peter Revson's cranberry red T220, lack nothing in design beauty, as did the early Road Atlanta as seen here, before the distracting optional loops were added between Turns 1 and 5. Tony Dean and Porsche, after an inherited but well-deserved win, were heroes to many owners of small displacement sports cars, but the sad loss earlier that summer of Bruce McLaren, whose great team leadership had elevated Can-Am to its highest glory, haunted the entire 1970 season. A lasting memory of Can-Am when rules were minimal (fenders covering wheels, two seats and safety equipment) and engine development unlimited, was the sound and fury of the insanely powerful Group 7 cars on the first race lap. It's hard to describe the impact of the field still in loose formation with 20,000 angry horsepower at full throttle and bellowing down the high speed esses at Riverside in your direction. The grandstand at Turn 6 had a steel frame with wooden stairs and seats that would bounce ominously and fluctuate with the sound waves of the passing atmospheric disturbance. First-time spectators would glance nervously at their companions and women sometimes take hold of the nearest arm for assurance; once I was a designated friend for the day when a nice woman held my arm for comfort. No-one even thought about sitting until the field had settled down, when normal breathing would resume. The violent phenomenon had passed like a controlled category 5 tornado, leaving everyone smiling like idiots, comparable to riding a huge wooden roller coaster having a near vertical drop, with the thrill of primal fear survived. |
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Post by mikael on Jan 9, 2022 9:46:57 GMT
Interesting to ponder, that while "progress" in many ways has made contemporary racing less interesting, it has also made it much easier to enjoy great racing from the heyday of motorsport.
As a kid, I marveled at photos of these "beats" (as the series impressed the whole World, and virtually any motorsport magazine wrote about it) but I had no idea what they actually sounded like, or how fast they actually went around the circuits. Fascinating, actually, to be able to find out, now, fifty years later ...
A fantastic period in history also, with so much technological progress following in the wake of the "space race" (although, again, too much of it (technological progress) has proved to be damaging in so many ways ...).
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Post by René on Jan 9, 2022 12:39:15 GMT
Not sure if this was posted here before but it's a great recap of the 1970 Can-Am race at Road Atlanta. Not only some great racing action but also a wonderful image of the time. Thanks René, It may have been posted before but is well worth watching again for the sights and sounds of vintage Can-Am. The Lolas, especially Peter Revson's cranberry red T220, lack nothing in design beauty, as did the early Road Atlanta as seen here, before the distracting optional loops were added between Turns 1 and 5. Tony Dean and Porsche, after an inherited but well-deserved win, were heroes to many owners of small displacement sports cars, but the sad loss earlier that summer of Bruce McLaren, whose great team leadership had elevated Can-Am to its highest glory, haunted the entire 1970 season. A lasting memory of Can-Am when rules were minimal (fenders covering wheels, two seats and safety equipment) and engine development unlimited, was the sound and fury of the insanely powerful Group 7 cars on the first race lap. It's hard to describe the impact of the field still in loose formation with 20,000 angry horsepower at full throttle and bellowing down the high speed esses at Riverside in your direction. The grandstand at Turn 6 had a steel frame with wooden stairs and seats that would bounce ominously and fluctuate with the sound waves of the passing atmospheric disturbance. First-time spectators would glance nervously at their companions and women sometimes take hold of the nearest arm for assurance; once I was a designated friend for the day when a nice woman held my arm for comfort. No-one even thought about sitting until the field had settled down, when normal breathing would resume. The violent phenomenon had passed like a controlled category 5 tornado, leaving everyone smiling like idiots, comparable to riding a huge wooden roller coaster having a near vertical drop, with the thrill of primal fear survived. Wonderful memory Carl. That must have been an overwhelming experience!
I've never seen Can-Am cars driven in anger but I do remember the times when Formula 1 was still very loud, sometimes almost scary. Those were the days...  |
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Post by René on Jan 9, 2022 13:00:45 GMT
Interesting to ponder, that while "progress" in many ways has made contemporary racing less interesting, it has also made it much easier to enjoy great racing from the heyday of motorsport.
As a kid, I marveled at photos of these "beats" (as the series impressed the whole World, and virtually any motorsport magazine wrote about it) but I had no idea what they actually sounded like, or how fast they actually went around the circuits. Fascinating, actually, to be able to find out, now, fifty years later ... A fantastic period in history also, with so much technological progress following in the wake of the "space race" (although, again, too much of it (technological progress) has proved to be damaging in so many ways ...).
Interesting thought indeed. In this digital age there is now so much data available, we could only dream about that when we were young. The pictures, the videos, the websites with statistics and analysis. And many of the original footage has even been enhanced so we can enjoy it in better quality then possible at the time. Amazing actually.
But you're right, all this technological progress has also taken away a lot of the 'charm' of our favorite sport. The unpredictability, the sounds, the surprising design ideas and yes, also the danger. These were key elements that made motorsport so fascinating. The rough edges have been polished away over the years.
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, for she is a big old bird.