Racing series are governed by rules, and it's
largely the difference between those rules that distinguish one series from
another. Not Can-Am, though. Can-Am had virtually no rules – at least not as
far as the cars were concerned. And McLaren positively dominated.
While the team was just getting started in Formula
One, it was absolutely spanking the competition in the Canadian-American
Challenge Cup, showing the likes of Porsche, Lola, and Chaparral how it was
done.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing won the championship five years running between 1967 and 1971. In 1969
it won every last race on the calendar – and that was the longest season in the
championship's history. In fact McLaren came to dominate the series so
completely that it became known as “the Bruce and Denny show,” in reference to
the team's top drivers – Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme.
Bruce died behind the wheel of one of his Can-Am
racers in 1970 while testing at Goodwood. In the wake of his death, the team he
founded withdrew from the series to focus on F1. But some of the cars they made
for Can-Am are still out there. Like this one that's coming up for auction.
A 1966 McLaren M1B, this was one of the earliest
Can-Am racers, with the series only having started that year. 28 of them were
made, and this one's been painstakingly restored and maintained to the point
that it's not only cosmetically intact, but ready and eager to turn its wheel
in anger in historic racing events. The Chevy small-block has been replaced by
a 5.7-liter Ford V8 built by Pantera Performance out of Colorado with an
aluminum block, dry sump, and Weber carbs, kicking out over 500 horsepower
through a Hewland transxaxle.
RM Sotheby's is set to auction it off in Monterey
next month, where it expects it will sell for about US$ 250,000 (give or take US$ 25k). That's less than a new 720S, which is undoubtedly one of the finest
road-going supercars McLaren has ever made. But the chance to own one of the
manufacturer's earliest Can-Am racers – and drive it on track whenever the mood
strikes – could prove even more tempting.
