Photos: The Charles Houser Collection

[Steve Holmes]

Just a small one, this one. Only ten photos, unless more emerge. But what beautiful photos they are! I might have to stick Bryan Colechin (Bry3500) on the pay role, because he has found some amazing collections lately, and this is all down to him.

This collection was taken by Craig Houser, and all centres upon Round 2 of the 1970 Can-Am Championship. This race was at the Canadian circuit St. Jovite, Quebec. As Charles’ son David explains: "A PR executive at Reynolds Aluminum had gotten dad press credentials providing full access for him to take pictures with his trusty Pentax SL.

"In the summer of 1970 my dad made his way from an army base in California to Quebec for the Can-Am race at Circuit Mont-Tremblant.

“Back then a military uniform and ID could get you a cheap stand-by ticket on nearly any air line and on Wednesday before the race dad had successfully made it to the Montreal airport and figured he'd bum a ride with someone else headed to the track. He asked the first person he recognized and Dan Gurney graciously offered to take him. Gurney won the season opener at Mosport two weeks earlier driving the dominant McLaren M8D.

“Dan's a really personable guy and they talked about drivers behaving badly in rental cars, how seriously a driver should examine a spin (or other close call) and the intricacies of club and pro racing. Dan went on to win the race, his last win in the top ranks of professional auto racing and after the race he agreed to take dad back to airport”.

This race was held on June 28, 1970, less than one month after McLaren owner and leader Bruce McLaren had been killed testing one of his new M8D Can-Am cars at Goodwood. Just a few days prior to Bruce’s death, team mate Denny Hulme suffered severe burns to his hands in a fire at Indianapolis. In a typically brave move, Hulme put the good of team ahead of his own wellbeing, and despite the obvious pain and discomfort, raced at the opening round at Mosport, on June 14, while Dan Gurney was drafted in as his team mate, in both the Can-Am and Formula 1. Gurney’s time with McLaren was brief; just three Can-Am races and three F1 races, before he left, due mainly to complications through his personal sponsor, Castrol, being a competitor of Gulf, who sponsored McLaren.

But while he was there, Gurney won two of the three Can-Am races he entered, including this one at St. Jovite. He qualified on pole, while team mate Hulme, still suffering from his burns, sat alongside. On row two were Jackie Oliver in the impressive Ti22 Autocoast, designed by Peter Bryant, and which had shown up well upon its arrival late in 1969. Next to Oliver was Lothar Motschenbacher in one of the Team McLaren M8B’s that had dominated the season before.

On row three was John Cordts in a McLaren M8C, Bob Brown in the ex-Gurney McLeagle, followed by Peter Revson in the stubby Lola T220, and Jerry Titus in a McLaren M12, while George Eaton in the BRM P154 and George Follmer in the mad little Shadow rounded out the top ten.

The race itself was a procession, despite the opening half lap suggesting it could have been a classic. Off the start, Oliver really took it to the two orange McLaren’s, and latched onto the rear of Gurney and Hulme, until they reached the infamous ‘hump’, at which point the two McLaren’s went up, and dropped back down, while the Ti22 went up, and kept going, as the air lifted its sharp nose up and over, eventually landing upside-down, in a blaze of fibreglass and titanium. Following cars dived every-which-way, two piling into each other, and the only real threat to McLaren was gone.

Gurney let Hulme go ahead, but Hulme’s motor began overheating, and after a couple of pit stops, he retired. Gurney drove off into the distance, until his engine also began overheating, and he had to nurse it to the finish, with a fast closing Motschenbacher reeling him in quickly towards the end, but ultimately finishing 11sec back. Eaton was next, albeit two laps down, followed by Brown and Roger McCaig in another McLaren.

* Please visit David Houser's own blog site at: http://www.beaterblog.com/p/davids-garage.html

[Steve Holmes]

Here is Gurney, at speed, in the M8D. Note the extra roll-hoop added above the standard M8D bar, to allow for Dan's extra height. Many of the cars he raced had to be modified to allow for his height.

[Steve Holmes]

One of my favourite Can-Am paint schemes, that of Oscar Koveleski's McLaren M8B. In 1970, Oscar bought one of the ex-factory cars that had dominated the championship in 1969. Lothar Motschenbacher bought the other one. Koveleski had support from hobby car company Auto World, who sold kitset models, slot car ets etc, and his fantastic paint scheme was created to look like a Scalextric slot car set wrapping itself around the body.

Of the three factory McLaren M8B's from 1969 (one being an updated M8A from 1968), two are now in New Zealand. The M8A became the spare car in 1969, and was then updated again to M8D spec by McLaren, who kept it, and eventually this was the car gifted to Denny Hulme, and is now with the Bruce McLaren Trust. Can someone tell me which is the second car now in NZ? Is it the car that wet to Motschebacher, or this car that went to Kovaleski?

Koveleski qualified 14th, and finished 6th in the race. Behind him is the elderly Horst Peterman McLaren M1C.

[Steve Holmes]

BRM entered the Can-Am in 1970 with their Tony Southgate designed P154. A handsome car, and well designed and laid out, it boasted a couple of nice features, including the clever rear shaping of the front wheel openings to let under body air out through the side, rather than the top of the car. Aerodynamically it fired through the air well, and interestingly didn't feature a rear wing of any kind. Unfortunately BRM were more interested in their F1 efforts, and the P154 was never developed as well as it should have been.

Here, long-time Can-Am privateer George Eaton gets set for his second outing as a factory driver. He'd be joined later in the season by Pedro Rodriguez in a second P154, but sadly these cars never achieved the results they might have.

I remember seeing one of the P154's racing at Silverstone in the mid-1990s at a historic event. It looked and sounded fantastic, and was a match for the McLaren's, although of course cars in historic racing are rarely driven to the same levels they were in period. Interestingly, the car I saw had sprouted an adjustable rear wing which wasn't part of Southgate's design.

[bry3500]

I had a bit of a fiddle to try and improve the detail

[Steve Holmes]

Here it is! The amazing, tiny, AVS (Advanced Vehicle Systems) Shadow MkI, which was built to slice through the air creating minimum air disturbance, and minimum drag. It was built around 10" diameter wheels, and everything was done in small scale, except the big block alloy Chevy. The car was designed by Trevor Harris, and was only achievable because Firestone agreed to produce the tiny tyres, which stood at 17" tall, compared to 24" for a conventional Can-Am tyres.

Note the attachments fitted to the front wheels. These were created as fans, that drew air inside the wheel, to help cool the tiny brakes, which featured 8" diameter rotors. The wheel attachments were actually from a Chev Corvair air cooled engine!

To keep the front body height to the very minimum, the drivers feet had to be splayed out almost horizontally, which meant there was only room for an accelerator and brake pedal. The clutch was operated by a hand lever.

The front suspension included four very small coil springs on each side. Damping was achieved through lever actuated friction discs.
The Shadow was supposed to first appear in 1969, at a time when moving aerodynamic devices were still allowed, and was designed to be fitted with three air brakes; two in the front, and one rising up at the rear.

The Shadow was intended not to have any rear wing, for further drag reduction, but it was soon revealed a wing would be required. Also, the Chevy couldn't get enough cooling. On its race debut at the opening 1970 Can-Am at Mosport, the rear wing featured radiators fitted to its top side, running the full width of the car. This appears to have worked, but the SCCA banned this set-up, so here at St. Jovite, the car appeared with a twin-plane wing, in which radiators were sandwiched between the two wings.

Unfortunately, the concept didn't work. At anywhere close to full speed it bounced and darted alarmingly, the tiny suspension being too stiff and not able to cope with the demands placed upon it. The car only did as well as it did because of its driver, George Follmer, who was impressively brave. But this is what made the Can-Am so great. The opportunity for engineers to come up with such marvelous creations.

It was, however, extremely fast in a straight line, at around 20mph faster than the McLarens.

[bry3500]

AVS Shadow Mk1 Prototype

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, that is awesome Bry! I'm trying to figure out if there was more than one MkI Shadow built, as there was a version in the Rosso-Bianco museum for many years, and it was in its earliest 1969 form, as in your clipping. But I've also seen photos from vintage racing events of a MkI Shadow, but in its later guise.

Note the large ducts at the rear behind the back wheels. These fed air to the radiators, but kept getting knocked off, hence bringing about more design changes.

[Steve Holmes]

Here is the Shadow again, at speed.

[John McKechnie]

Love that wing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bry3500]

Wow, that is awesome Bry! I'm trying to figure out if there was more than one MkI Shadow built, as there was a version in the Rosso-Bianco museum for many years, and it was in its earliest 1969 form, as in your clipping. But I've also seen photos from vintage racing events of a MkI Shadow, but in its later guise.

Note the large ducts at the rear behind the back wheels. These fed air to the radiators, but kept getting knocked off, hence bringing about more design changes.

From what I can gather Steve, there were 2 prototype Mk1's. The initial prototype ( depicted on the road and track cover) was damaged in transport and a second car was created in time for the Mid-Ohio CanAm Championship race.

[duncan fox]

Hi Steve, Oscar was AutoWorld he was based in Scranton PA not big but always came across as such and in later years branched out into automotive accessories.
The team M8 that the trust owns was the Lothar car after McLaren .He fitted the D body work for GoodYear(he was an agent for their race tires) and they used it as a show car before giving it to Denny. Bruce car became Oscars then Warren Agors and is now with Lance Smith via his father in LA,the 2nd car is the Denny car.

[Jerry Entin]

That is George Bolthoff on the left rear. Of the first picture. He was Bruce McLaren's engine man.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jerry.

[Steve Holmes]

Hi Steve, Oscar was AutoWorld he was based in Scranton PA not big but always came across as such and in later years branched out into automotive accessories.
The team M8 that the trust owns was the Lothar car after McLaren .He fitted the D body work for GoodYear(he was an agent for their race tires) and they used it as a show car before giving it to Denny. Bruce car became Oscars then Warren Agors and is now with Lance Smith via his father in LA,the 2nd car is the Denny car.

Hi Duncan, sorry for taking so long to reply, I've not been around much lately. Thanks heaps for filling in the gaps for me on the M8B cars and their later owners. Re the Hulme/Motschenbacher M8B, this car must have taken quite a heavy hit at Elkhart Lake in 1970 if the race entries are correct. Lothar raced this car for the first 6 rounds, crashed heavily at Elkhart, switched to his customer 1969 M12 for 2 rounds, then finished out the season in a 1970 customer M8C. If that is correct, he didn't race the M8B again after Elkhart Lake?

[Steve Holmes]

More from Charles Houser: Dan the man!

[Steve Holmes]

...............and then theres this guy!

[Steve Holmes]

A great interior shot of the little Shadow.

[Steve Holmes]

This is the last photo in this collection. I wish there were more, these are completely fascinating. Here is George Follmer, getting ready for another wild ride in the tiny Shadow.



My thanks again to David Houser, and also to Bryan Colechin who arranged permission to post these images here.

[GD66]

The Can-Am Thunder dvd from Pete Lyons has quite a bit of info on these remarkable machines, including plenty of anecdotes from Peter Bryant. Worth a look...