What Happens When Racing Has No Rules?

I wish there would be a spiritual successor to can am because imagine a racing series like this nowadays with modern safety standards but also modern ways on making car go brrrr

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s I was a tech inspector for SCCA. I had the privilege of working the CAN-AM races of ‘69, ‘70, ‘71 and 73 at the (now long defunct, covered over and over built) Riverside International Raceway. I met Jim Hall, Bruce McLaren, Mark Donahue, Denny (“She’ll come right by race day”) Hulme, Roger Penske and a host of other drivers, professional and amateur, of the time. Great fun at a wonderful time in motor sport.

Can-Am was the most creative and exciting period of motor racing to exist. As a child, I marveled at what could only be called supercars back then.

I am old enough to have had these cars as Hot Wheels. All our favorite was the Chaparral 2E. The wing blew our minds.

I saw the Can Am series in 1972 and 1973 at what was then called Donnybrooke Raceway (now named Brainerd International Raceway) in central Minnesota. The '72 race was won by the late Francois Cevert, a good friend of Jackie Stewart. The track boasts the fastest turn one in America. I stood on the inside of turn one and watched the faster Can Am cars enter the corner at or near 200 MPH. Sights and sounds embedded in my mind for life. While turn one is still in partial use the track has been modified to eliminate the long front straight, slowing the approach to turn one. In '72 Milt Minter and Jackie Oliver came in second and third. Mark Donohue finished 17th after a puncture. Others such as Peter Revson, Denny Hulme and David Hobbs failed to finish for typical reasons of that era, smoking engine, cracked block and broken tie rod. The push for safety and the overwhelming dominance of Porsche horsepower spelled the end of Can Am. It was a time when aerodynamics were beginning to be seriously explored and horsepower was limited only by the quality of the materials used. Racing dynasties that live on to this day were born in Can Am.

Literally the best racing ever. Best cars and drivers. I do wish someone could bring back a series like this.

I was working at GM in Europe during this period and was an avid CanAm fan. Pete Lyons wrote the race reports for the British car magazine, Autosport, which I still follow today. There were rumors going around the Jim Hall was running a covert aerodynamics research operation for GM engineering. I'm inclined to believe this as GM engineering were a source of a lot of 'wacky' ideas that never saw the light of day in Detroit, but in Texas, away from the prying eyes of executive management, at Rattlesnake Raceway, Jim's private track, they could play to their hearts content. I'm fairly sure that the aluminum big blocks used by McLaren originated as part of a GM research project into making car engines from aluminum, especially those with linerless sintered metal cylinders for light weight and low friction, as eventually used in The Chevy Cosworth Vega blocks. The low friction surface was essentially sprayed on the linerless bores. That technology is common now but far ahead of the engineering then.

I am forever thrilled to have had a conversation with the great man himself - Jim Hall. It was at Goodwood FoS in the late 1990s; I asked him what car of his was the most fun to drive. Answer: the Chaparral 2A. Very cool experience. Thanks for making this video, Scott.

Two Kiwis who were so successful it was called the Bruce and Denny show! Bruce designed and built the cars and he and Denny drove them. Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme and the McLaren M8F. Over a period of 5 years they together managed to win a total of 38 races.

This is why historic racing is the only one to watch. Seeing, and feeling, cars from this competition and F5000s roaring down a straight is just…. An experience. Words can’t explain the feeling.

I had the great pleasure of growing up going to Can-Am races with my mechanical, engineer, father and then later some Formula One for a dozen years Can-Am was truly magical. Amazing. The chaparral fan carswere just awesome I am thoroughly grateful I got to see them.

As a kid in the late 60's/early 70's, I'd turn every pink eraser I had into a Can-Am racecar. Drawing wheels on the sides, air inlet up front, and a cockpit on top looking down ... so much fun to day dream in class. Can-Am; the coolest racing series ever ... and it's not even close.

The closest you can get to seeing newer innovations and designs for cars or just something new and insane on cars is Time Attack and Hill climbs, always makes for some of the most entertaining watch even though they're just trying to get a better time.

I love the Chapparal 2E. Engineer: How big should the wing be Mr Hall? Mr Hall: YES

I'd always known CAN-AM was beyond ridiculous but your video really captures just how much craziness and innovation happened in this series, fantastic video!

This includes the best description of the Chaparrals (the most innovative race cars of their time and even years later!). They were so unique that most of the people don't take the time to understand what Hall was trying to do and the result was that it sounds like they were just goofy cars. As a Chaparral/Jim Hall fan, I really appreciate the time that was spent to try to accurately explain Jim Hall's creations. I also appreciate the dive into the most amazing racing series ever - CAN AM!!! Thank you!

I loved Can-Am when I was a kid. So much innovation. I am an engineer now and Can-Am had something to do with that. Also as a result of Can-Am I have an appreciation for Sport race cars. In SCCA in the '70's Sport Racers were a popular and favorite class. You video was great, but you are only touching the tip of the iceberg as you mentioned. And those big block V8's sounded great, made lots of power and were reliable, considering how much power they were making. There was so much innovation in Can-Am you can do a series just on engines, then another on Chassis development. Then the teams. My favorite was Chaparral, and second was UOP Shadow.

After the Can-Am died, a lot of the McLarens , Lolas and a few Porsches ended up in the SCCA A-Sports Racing division, I can remember going up to the now closed Westwood circuit outside of Vancouver, BC, Canada and watching them thunder around the circuit. I also go to watch Gilles Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal and other future great drivers between 1975 to 1977, before I got posted to West Germany in June 1978.

"so the suction didn't leak out" - 🙌💪😂 Physics salutes your script sir 🖖

My god we need to bring this back : £150M cost cap, decent safety standards but no limits on fuel, engine size, tyres, aero, etc