Can-Am

History

During the 1960's in the United States, there were many forms of racing. There were drag races, stock cars, midget cars, and the crown jewel of motorsport, the Indy 500. Unlike Europe, race teams had cheap access to large & powerful engines. The Canadian-American Challenge Cup or Can-Am, grew out of taking a big-block Chevy and plopping it on a tube-frame chassis. This 'gearhead' approach to prototype sports car road racing grew from the amataure races organized by the sanctioning body, the SCCA. It yielded a series that was uniquely American. Its 'rugged individualist' spirit was a refreshing change from the calculated European teams.

It started out as a high-paying championship that pulled in drivers from other disciplines such as F1, USAC, and Trans-Am series. It evolved into what had the fastest, most powerful cars in racing history.

While it was great fun to have as few rules as possible, the down side is that one car would dominate the whole season. First it was Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, then it went to the Porsche 917/10, then to Mark Donahue's 917/30. The winner of the races was all but predetermined, so there was little to cheer about. Can-Am folded in 1974.

In 1977 it re-emerged as part of the privateer Formula 5000 series. In a unique move, the cars were center-seat open-wheel chassis with bolt-on shells. There were some big names like Bobby Rahal and Jacques Villeneuve (Gilles brother, not son) who took part.

The Book

I could go on and on repeating the Can-Am stories done over the years. And since I was five years old when I saw my last Can-Am race, I can probably say I have nothing origial to add. But I do distinctly remember the UOP Shadow cars being loud and black.

The thing to do is buy Pete Lyons book simply called "Can-Am". I'll do a link to Amazon one of these days

Diecast

Quality diecast Can-Am cars were unavailable until 1999. Best of Italy put out a few Lola T70's, and then Minichamps followed up with the famous 917/30. There are actually quite a few "period" diecast cars from Solido and Mercury which vary in quality. Be aware that the standards are nowhere near a modern manufacturer's, and you are buying for the "historical relevance" and not the detail.

For a while everyone was jumping on the bandwagon, as FLY and GMP released other versions of the Lola T-70 and Mclaren M8A cars too. This seemed great at first but eventually GMP pulled out.

1966

Surtees Lola

John Surtees ran a works Lola T70 and helped develop the T70MkII .

Mark Donohue Lola

The Penske Donohue car is a special from Ste. Jovite 1966, the first-ever Can-Am Race. Mark was classified dead last after a steering fire? I mean really, how does a steering mechanism catch fire? Must have been a bad day, as he even had to tack on a 1 to make his car number 16.

Incidentally, Ste. Jovite returned to somewhat competitive racing when it hosted a Grand-Am event in 2002.

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1966
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	Lola T70 Spider John Surtees	7	Best	9176
			Fly	FLY 01
			GMP Surtees Box	12402
		3	GMP Surtees Box	12402
		Test	GMP Surtees Box	12402
2	Lola T70 Spider 'Sunoco' Mark Donohue	16	Best	9214
			Best Special Edition	WAW001
7	Lola T70 Spider Dan Gurney	30	Best	9189
			Best	FLY 04
N/C	Lola T70 Spider Parnelli Jones	98	Best	9179
Nassau (Independent Governour's Cup Group 7 Race)
1	Lola T70 Spider 'Pepsi' Mark Donohue	7	GMP Penske Donohue Box set	12401
DNF	Lola T70 Spider A. J Foyt	83	Best	9292
USRRC "Regular Season"
1	Lola T70 Spider 'Sunoco' Mark Donohue	6	GMP Penske Donohue Box set	12401
0	Lola T70 Spider 'Bardahl' Jerry Grant	8	Best	9262

"I am Lothar of the Hill People"

Lothar Motschenbacher (no relation to Engelbert Humperdink or Rumpelstiltskin) had eneough talent to almost win more races than anyone else amost won. Even Sam Posey.

1967

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1967
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
9	Lola T70 Spider Peter Revson	52	Best	9177
			Fly	FLY 02
9	Lola T70 Spider Roger McCluskey	52	Fly	FLY 03
0	Lola T70 Spider Lothar Motschenbacher	11	Best	9226
?	Lola T70 Spider George Follmer	16	Best	9237

1968

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1968
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	McLaren M8A Denny Hulme	5	Minichamps	530 684305
2	McLaren M8A Bruce McLaren	5	Minichamps	530 684304

1969

Bruce rocked all in '69. The NART team ran a one-off race of the 3-litre 312P and did well against far more powerful cars.

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1969
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	McLaren M8B Chevrolet Bruce McLaren	4	Minichamps	530 694304
			Solido 100 Series	176
2	McLaren M8B Denny Hulme	5	Minichamps	530 694305
Brigehampton
5	Ferrari 312 Pedro Rodriguez	12	Best	9180
Edmonton
1	Chaparral 2H (High Wing) John Surtees	7 P	Minichamps (Unreleased)	436 691497
Laguna Seca
1	Chaparral 2H John Surtees	7	Minichamps (Unreleased)	436 691407
Riverside
1	Porsche 908 Tony Dean	8	Minichamps (Unreleased)	9201

1970

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1970
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	McLaren M8D Denny Hulme	5	Minichamps	530 704305
			GMP	12427
2	McLaren M8B Lothar Motschenbacher	11	GMP	12426
3	McLaren M8D Peter Gethin	7	Minichamps	530 704307
7	McLaren M8D Dan Gurney	48	Minichamps	530 704348
			GMP	12428
11	March 707 'STP' Chris Amon	77	Solido 100 Series	199
Laguna Seca
1	Chaparral 2J Vic Elford	66 P	Minichamps (Unreleased)	436 701466
Watkins Glen
1	Chaparral 2J Jackie Stewart	66 P	Minichamps (Unreleased)	436 701496

1971

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1971
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	McLaren M8D Peter Revson	7	Minichamps	530 714307
2	McLaren M8F Denny Hulme	5	Minichamps	530 714305

1972

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1972
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	Porsche 917/10 'L&M' George Follmer	7	Solido 100 Series	18A
4	Porsche 917/10 'L&M' Mark Donohue	6	Solido Racing	1944

1973

Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1973
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	Porsche 917/30 Mark Donohue	6	Minichamps	436 736006
13	Porsche 917/10 'Air Canada' Hans Wiedmer	4	Verem Edition Limitee'	608

USRRC - 1965

The precursor to the Can-Am was the United States Road Racing Championship. This series began in 1963 and was sanctioned by the SCCA. It was their first attempt at a professional-level road racing championship.

There was a very similar championship in Canada, with many of the teams racing on both sides of the border.

GT Classes

While the series top level was the open sports-racer class, they also ran a concurrent GT championship until 1965. The first year was a single class of large-bore Shelby Cobras, Corvettes and the occasional Jaguar or Ferrari GTO. An under 2.0 litre class was added for 1964 and 1965.

By far the most famous car of this era is Ken Miles' 1965-chamionship winning #98 Shelby Cobra. There are many examples of this car in all scales of models (especially 1:1).

Possibly as the result of shifting fan and competitor interest, the GT class was eliminated in 1966. In it's place, the Trans-Am championship was created for pony cars in the AS (Sedan) class.

Chaparral 2

The fearsome white Chaparral cars absolutely dominated 1965. Who could have predicted that they would only win only one Can-Am race?

United States Road Racing Championship 1965
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
1	Chaparral 2 Jim Hall	66	Auto Art	66956
0	Shelby Cobra 427 Ken Miles	98 GT+2.0	Bang	7341
Mosport (Part of the Canadian Sports Car Championship)
0	Lola T70 Spider Hugh Dibley	5 Group 7	Best	9194

A young person's guide to the Lola T-70 (Under Const.)

Along with the Porsche 917, this is definitely one of the coolest-looking cars ever produced. First of all, T-70 means "Type 7.0". This was a change in naming pattern as the previous Lola was called the "Mark VI".

The first version was the T-70 Spider, which John Surtees developed and raced in 1965 in England.

The next version was the T-70 Mark II Spider, which was an improved version and was sold to privateers.

For 1967 there was the T-70 Mark III Spider, raced by George Follmer.

The last open version was the T-70 Mark IIIB Spider, which John Surtees started using but gave up on.

There was also the T-70 Mark III Coupe. It was not a Can-Am car but was for the Sportscar class (Group 4) of World Championship races like Le Mans and Daytona. The recent models by BEST of Italy show this version.

Finally there came T-70 Mark IIIB Coupe, which is probably the most attractive of all.

T70 T70 Mk.2 Chevrolet/Ford 1965-66 Can-Am (Gr.7) 48
T70 Mk.3 Chevrolet/Ford/Aston Martin 1967 GT (Gr.4) 25 (More likely 35)
T70 Mk.3B Chevrolet/Ford 1968-69 GT (Gr.4) 26 (More likely 16)
104 Total?

Best Models Lola T70

Great car, mediocre diecast...

Best Lola T70
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
0	Lola T70 Spider		Best	9175
0	Lola T70 Spider George Follmer	16	Best	9237
0	Lola T70 Spider 'Bardahl' Jerry Grant	8	Best	9262
0	Lola T70 Spider Lothar Motschenbacher	11	Best	9226
1	Lola T70 Spider John Surtees	7	Best	9176
2	Lola T70 Spider 'Sunoco' Mark Donohue	16	Best	9214
			Best Special Edition	WAW001
7	Lola T70 Spider Dan Gurney	30	Best	9189
9	Lola T70 Spider Peter Revson	52	Best	9177
N/C	Lola T70 Spider Parnelli Jones	98	Best	9179
0	Lola T70 Spider Hugh Dibley	5 Group 7	Best	9194
1	Lola T70 Spider Dennis Hulme	4 Group 7	Best	9185
3	Lola T70 Spider Jackie Stewart	5 Group 7	Best	9178
DNF	Lola T70 Spider 'Pepsi' Mark Donohue	7 Group 7	Best Special Edition	WAW003