Dream

Lothar (“LOW-thar”) Motschenbacher’s (“MO-shin-BAH-ker”) McLaren (“Mick-LAR-in,” as in Larry) M8D Can-Am car at Mosport (“MO-sport”), about 1971. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the Spotmatic.)

This morning’s (Wednesday, September 3, 2008) dream was about driving a McLaren M8D Can-Am racing-car on the street.
The Sports-Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Canadian-American Challenge Cup to me was the greatest auto-racing ever; fendered cars with two seats and generally unlimited (the formula was called “Group 7”).
They were sports-racing cars, but they also were the ultimate American hot-rod; sportscars with HUGE souped-up Detroit V8s that generated gobs of horsepower and torque.
The first Can-Am series was won by a Lola T70 with a Small-Block Chevy.
In later years McLaren came to dominate with it’s M series powered by aluminum Big-Block Chevys.
A feather-light aluminum chassis tub supported the Big-Blocks, and fiberglass bodywork.
Body shape and inverted wings kept the car on the road at speed. (Otherwise it could fly like a shingle.)
McLarens weren’t that advanced, but extremely well prepared.
In later years Porsche began using a turbocharged racing flat-twelve engine that had incredible speed.
The Chevy Big-Block was vanquished. And turbocharging what was essentially a street engine was unreliable.
Roger Penske fielded a team of two Porsches (“POOR-sha” — the 917-10) sponsored by L&M cigarettes.
They dominated and won the series.
The following year, Penske fielded an even faster Porsche (the 917-30) sponsored by Sunoco, and that was the death-knell of Can-Am racing.
The mighty McLarens were put on the trailer.
(Penske’s driver was Mark Donohue, deceased long ago in a racing-car crash.)
Engine limitations were begun that essentially outlawed the Porsches.
So much for unlimited engines. And sucking the carbody into the pavement with fans, per Chaparral, had also been outlawed. (But Chaparral was using the Chevy Big-Block.)
Powered by the Chevy Big-Block the Can-Am cars could be identified with — even with independent rear-suspension, instead the tractor layout generally used by Detroit at that time.
This was the same Big-Block design that was in the 454 SS Chevelle; although an aluminum casting (instead of cast iron, which was considerably heavier), and Hilborn Fuel Injection.
I remember dreaming of buying a McLaren M8D, the ultimate American hot-rod.
My greatest memory was watching Denis Hulme (“Dennis HYOOM”) power his McLaren out of the hairpin at Mosport. He was probably going through at 80 mph or so, and would boot it on exit.
YOWZUH! Stand back everyone. Rolling thunder! He shook the ground!
Another great memory was an entire Can-Am field approaching on the pace-lap. ROLLING THUNDER!
Hulme, from New Zealand, known affectionately as “the Bear,” died of a heart-attack while racing, but much later.
Bruce McLaren, the founder of McLaren cars, crashed and died testing a Can-Am McLaren, and Hulme, his teammate, ended up being the team-leader.
And no one seemed to get the hang of Can-Am cars as well as Hulme. Incredible strength and daring. He always hammered the cars right up past their limits.
Peter Revson (of Revlon fame) ended up teaming with Hulme on the McLaren Can-Am team; and really was as good as Hulme — yet it was Hulme that was a bear of a man. Hulme could outlast Revvie.
Yet McLaren was toast compared to the Penske Porsches. Hulme and Revvie were using 500 or more cubic inches, but couldn’t keep up with the Penske-wagens.
To Penske and Donohue it was just deserts. McLaren wouldn’t sell them current McLaren practice.
It was always last year’s cars. McLaren was afraid of Penske beating them. (The Motschenbacher car pictured is a last year’s car.)

My dream had me parallel-parking an open Chevy-powered Can-Am Spyder on a narrow university street.
It was similar to other dreams; one of which had me cruising a top-down Cadillac convertible on the expressway.
That Caddy has also negotiated a narrow hairpin-infested hilly road down to waterfront.
There also have been hundreds of bus-dreams — probably a result of having been employed as a bus-driver 16&1/2 years. Those bus-dreams always have me driving into a box, with no exit except over somebody’s lawn. Bus-driving’s worst nightmare. How do we get this 9-ton sucker outta here without calling the radio for supervision? I had that happen once in a snow-filled parking-lot. No reverse. A road-supervisor had to come out and get it into reverse in the back. (No radio either. I had to hike in the snow to a phone-booth. [That was before cellphones.])
So I parked the Spyder and went inside a building.
When I came back out, some flaccid dude had wrenched himself into the driver-seat, and was busily sawing away on the steering-wheel, pretending he was Mario Andretti.
Seeing me coming, and surmising I was the owner (driver, WHATEVER), he climbed back out and handed the car over.
Getting into and out of a Can-Am driver-seat takes athleticism. You have to jump over a wide chassis pontoon, that ya can’t put any weight on, lest ya bend it.
The things had doors, but all they were were small hinged panels in the fiberglass bodywork.
Nothing like street-sedans. The driver had to vault over everything into the seat.
“Ya sure enough don’t boot this thing,” I said. “Put your foot in it and hold on for dear life.”
After that, I climbed in and blasted serenely down the street.
It dead-ended, of course, as dreams always do, and I ended up going up an embankment on somebody’s lawn; expecting the chassis to ground over the ridge-top — but it didn’t. Can-Am cars only had an inch or two of ground-clearance; not enough to negotiate a driveway entrance.

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the SpotMatic.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). The “Spotmatic” is my old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by a Nikon D100 digital camera.

The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the Small-Block. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The Can-Am “Big-Block” was essentially the Big-Block engine, but cast of aluminum, instead of much heavier cast-iron.

“Roger Penske,” once a driver, but by then an entrant, is still entering racing. He’s known as “The General;” and has generally been successful. He and Donohue once won the Indianapolis 500.

“On the trailer” is old drag-racing lingo. (Drag-racing is standing-start to the end of a quarter-mile.) —If a car lost a drag-race, it could no longer race, and was put “on the trailer” it was trailered in on.

“Tractor layout” is solid rear-suspension, with the wheels linked by a solid rear-axle with the differential in the middle. Many cars (especially race-cars) now have independent rear-suspension, wherein the differential is solidly mounted to the car (or its frame; if there is one), and each wheel is independently sprung. Independent rear-suspension came into use in the early ‘60s; although most trucks (and SUVs) are still tractor-layout.

“Hilborn Fuel Injection” was a special racing application, with individual ducting for each cylinder-port. A Big-Block V8 had eight ducts on top. Fuel was sprayed at the bottom of each duct; the rate of which was metered according to fuel-demand. Hilborn Fuel Injection couldn’t accommodate all the requirements of street-running, but could flow the fuel-air charge much better for racing.

“Mosport” was a road-racing course near Toronto. It may still exist.

“Spyder” is Italian for open-roadster; not a convertible. Group 7 required all racecars be open two-seater roadsters, with fenders as part of the bodywork.

To me, “Mario Andretti” was the greatest racecar driver of all time.