2023: my friends and I were obsessed with Can-Am and spent our summers following it at our homeland tracks of Mosport, Mont-Tremblant and Trois-Rivieres. We got stateside a lot too, including Road America - a 10-hour haul. Given the spectator safety standards of the day you could often get close enough to feel the vibrations in the ground. There will never be, to my mind, a more thrilling motor sport scenario than a pack of these beasts out there making huge noise and spectacle - while featuring infield camping and comradery. My personal sentimental favourite, as seen on my office wall, was the M8D. Bless the Bruce and Denny Show.

Gear lever , straightcut gears, and a big V8,..............Heaven

Just for the 'experts', this M8F was only imported a few weeks before the event, which was a tribute to Denny Hulme at Hampton Downs. On running the car for the first time, it blew the front oil seal our of the engine and dropped oil over 7/8ths of the circuit - a feat not exceeded yet! At the next running the Crown Wheel and pinion failed and had to be repaired. the consequence was that I came in to this weekend with little driving and then found that the gearset was for Road America and very tall all round - hence the lack of gear changing! I had a wonderful weekend of driving this McLaren, but never had the chance to really sort out gearing and handling issues. So my apologies for not showing the perfect drive, but I was doing my best!

I was fortunate to see several CanAm races at Road Atlanta in the early 1970s. Those cars were beasts! Incredibly fast and loud. The sound went through your body, creating a rumbling in your chest. This video shows a couple of CanAm cars. Try to image a grid of 20+ of these running at full speed. God, I wish they had racing like this now.

Boy, that sound gives me chicken skin! And than that buzzsaw noise of the gearbox, AWESOME!!

As a musician, there is no such thing as a favorite song of mine. But there isn't another song that I love MORE than the sound of an incredibly healthy American V-8 at full-tilt. Chevy, Ford, Mopar, it doesn't matter, I love 'em all. As Alice Cooper once said, "it's the sound of rock and roll." Amen to THAT.

I'm glad car 51 came by to play! Great fun on full screen, thanks.

Tony it's Joel Robinson, put more gass on and relax your steering inputs then brake under the 30m board . Get out of the corner faster than you enter. Kenny Smith will tell you I'm correct. Try it. Geoff Manning and designed that track for winding out fast lap times in Sprint racing, and skew tyre wear.

the M8F is the best McLaren CamAm car ever made. Excellent clip

Great driving, great cars and great circuit!

Back in the day we called it “The Bruce and Denny Show” . Not the fastest but always the bestest.

Denny Hulme loved these beasts, they were his favourite cars. I remember a story that when he & Bruce got too close the wheels of the following car would lift off the ground under heavy acceleration. I was lucky enough to see Denny away from big crowds talking about banked ovals, he was quite a story teller when he opened up . An amazing driver. Would love to see a driver of his calibre driving this flat out.

WHAT A FABULOUS CAR THE MCLAREN M8F IS GREAT VIDEO 👍

Almost as fast as my Rover 75 ..... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 No hounestly , what a hell of a racecar that Mclaren was !!!!!

Nice circuit. I saw these guys at Albert Park many years ago and it was really obvious how difficult they must be to drive. The drivers seemed to make very slow and very positive downshifts. The only reason I could think of for this was the amount of compression in such a large engine. I assumed that if you got it wrong, the back wheels would lock. I'm sure the gearbox and shift was very heavy too. I really like that whole open cockpit/wedge shape thing too.

Awesome! It was worth the trip to actually see these amazing cars in action. I can only imagine the glorious earth-shattering noise during the Can-Am heyday.

that was fun even from our living rooms perspective!

I love the whine of straight cut gears!

These cars were mental then, they're still mental now

Great Tony, this is the first time Ivé seen the circuit, I like it, the gearing you had was near to perfect for the car, and your driving was so smooth, I well remember your style... Good stuff, one day I´ll drive you around the Nordscheife, and yes one has to change gears a hundred times a lap, well fels like it anyway... Cheers

Glorious!

I saw Dennis Hulme and Bruce McClaren race at Riverside Raceway. The 4 and 5. They won in that order.

Doesn't sound like they are pushing those cars very hard. Just an easy drive on a sunny day. . Have some fun.....run those dogs!!!

CHEVY POWER !!!!!!

Clever!!!

I agree that the MK8F should be great on der nordschleife. What some choose to call "the green hell" I called home. I first learned driving from grandpa & Fangio on WV roads.

That thing is seriously fast

would love to know how much torque these cars were producing What an absolute weapon of a car great driver too. thanks for the upload

Bruce McLaren was a God! R.I.P.

Good lord! Those Kiwi boys knew how to make ferocious cars! Wow!

Probably a combination of older technology ignition & fuel injection systems.with well set up systems it would not be a flame thrower. The exhaust too has no mufflers which are a requirement in Australia, the only exceptions F1 cars. 8.8 litres of Aluminium engine running at 8000 plus rpm would be great to hear. I remember a comment about Mclarens in Road&Track "a common car built abnormally well". I would love to see this beast!!!

Great..was it Cevert's car in 1972 ?

Nice track for New Zealand. Bruce and Denny probably raced there.

Now that is a fucking race car!!!

I think the blue car this guy dices with is a Lola T165 circa 1970. Anybody know? Anyway, notice the guy never gets past third gear. These machines had that much torque.

such a short track - hardly enough space for him to really open it up

God save us from electric race cars!

what was the blue car challenging this guy?

the McLaren M-6 coupe' is one of the baddest GtTcoupe's to ever roll....roof line like a loboy coffee table. Wanna hear bbbaaaadddd to the bone...find video with the "Blue Goose" (Mangusta).....much kwiker revving than the Panteras He's running with. former Goose owner...8MA-1148...Bladecutter

A fabulous car ,ok but a circuit for a formule ford, not for a can-am race car.

Tesla: We would have kicked Mclaren's ass but it turns out the NZ charging stations are incompatible

sounds to me like the transaxle is ready to grenade

4 thumbs down from chaparall lovers

That Track is suited to Go Karts not a McLaren Can Am

What a lousy race track for thoroughbred race cars. A. 3rd gear race track is like kissing your sister.

go kart track :(