Denny Hulme CanAm McLaren M8A

[Murray Maunder]

The McLaren M8A (chassis #2) was Denny Hulme's Canadian American Cup (CanAm) title winning car in 1968. It was then used as the "mule" for the building of the even more successful M8B with it's high wing and sculpted out front wheel wells, and would do duty as the team's spare during 1969. The car was then sold off to Lothar Motschenbacher and eventually crashed and written off. A sad and ignominious end for a beautiful and successful sports racing car. But the story didn't end there. Goodyear used a cobbled together collection of parts, much of it from M8A-2, from Lothar's garage to display around USA as a "show car". They eventually gifted it to Denny around the time of his retirement in 1974. Denny was going to hang it on the wall of his Rotoiti home but outrageous import duties made it untenable for the Bear.

A way around it was proposed where MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) would be gifted the car as an exhibit for their Western Springs site. The car went through a period of being stored/lost/loaned out and almost buried in a landfill, before a group of people saved it at the last hour. Numerous wrangles were eventually solved when the Bruce McLaren Trust were formed and took over ownership of this very significant part of NZ motorsport.

it was the late 90s when I first became involved with the Bruce McLaren Trust in recording and archiving video footage. The main focus has been documenting the transformation of some corroded, bastardised pieces of alloy, butchered fibreglass, generally tired or stuffed mechanical parts etc, into a piece of Kiwi motorsport history to be really proud of.

The story has been told and retold many times and I won't risk getting facts wrong by going into it in too much detail other than to say that Duncan Fox's work has been that of a highly skilled engineer, a private investigator and researcher, and also a perfectionist. The latter, maddening for some, has meant the project took much longer than anyone could have imagined back in 1997 but I would contend that the wait has been worth it after all this.

For me - a 13 year old kid growing up across Tauranga Harbour from Baypark Raceway - this and the other works McLaren CanAm cars were the pinnacle of motorsport in a time of amazing freedom. CanAm was the fastest and most spectacular form of circuit racing of them all, the purists may wrinkle their noses (and I do love F1) but these machines were utterly incredible.

Soon we are going to get to hear the engine roar again! I visited the workshop for a final time in July as Duncan was fitting the engine and transmission and hooking up the various rear mechanicals to the car and we talked about the project. This video is a teaser prior to me shooting the car in action at Hampton Downs Raceway where it is planned to let the beast off it's leash in 2 days time in the capable hands of Roger Williams. I plan to be there to capture some of the essence and passion of this milestone event.

[GD66]

Drool, drool...

EXCITING OR WHAT !!

Can't wait for the next instalment of the fruition of this long but fascinating story.

[Murray Maunder]

Last week, Thursday and Friday the 3rd and 4th of October a 16 year dream to see Denny's 1968 CanAm Cup winning McLaren M8A restored to going condition, reached a major milestone. Bruce McLaren Trust members anxiously gathered to be part of the first serious running of the car on the track at Hampton Downs. Eight fortunate people (including myself and Jan McLaren) lined up in race suits for the chance to ride with Roger Williams in the old McLaren Cars works car, painstakingly reconstructed by engineer Duncan Fox.


Thursday's running was curtailed by a problem in the front hub assembly which Duncan quickly sorted overnight. You can hear the front end juddering into the downhill hairpin in the video. Only other issue was an intermittent misfire thought to be fuel pressure related which had little bearing on the running of the car at brisk pace around Hampton Downs. The 7 litre injected Chevvy propelled the lightweight sports racer around with wonderful music and high speeds across the top of the circuit. For those who got seat time it was quite an amazing experience. I've put together a few shots to try to capture some of the experience of the test session.

[Oldfart]

Brilliant, thanks Murray

[EType]

Pretty sure the air being sucked through those carbs caused the loss of air pressure\tornado in Devonport the other day.

[GD66]

Carbs ?

[EType]

ok - allegory got to tortured...

[darren]

Beautiful car.

[Murray Maunder]

Passenger's "seat" definitely just there to comply with "2 seater" regulation! Lucky I'm a 70Kg slimline model and could get both sides of my butt into the bucket! Any discomfort was well worth it for the urgent acceleration in every gear, and that sound.... Would be great to hear a field of 20 Group 7 cars at Hampton Downs like I saw at Melbourne in 2000 at the GP. This year's "CanAm" class at the Festival was hugely disappointing but just maybe one day....