Quote Originally Posted by Murray Maunder View Post
This rebuild has been on the floor of Duncan Fox's workshop nearly as long as the Trust's M8A. Duncan and Tony (Roberts) of Group Seven Sportscars took the opportunity to pick up the remains of the car which had indeed been one of 3 McLaren M8Bs in 1969. That opportunity was to be able to build the two cars in parallel. For example the tubs of the two cars were almost identical. In fact the Trust car started life as Denny's CanAm winner in 1968 before becoming the "mule" for the M8B and subsequently the team's spare car. The other M8B (of original 3 which included the above "continuation" car) was trashed, as I understand because of severe corrosion on the salt-laden roads of Nth America on the way back to the McLaren base.

This means of the original 3 (or 2.5!) M8Bs there will only ever be one true M8B - the one pictured in the Trust's garage at the Festival. I can't recall if this was Bruce's racecar or Denny's racecar (the Trust car being at different times an A and the spare B). The M8B high wing car was the most successful of all the CanAm McLarens, winning all 11 races in 1969.

Incidentally the Trust car didn't run again this weekend because of major problems with the starter which is proving a headache in term of sourcing the parts. A less authentic set of internals is now going to be used to overcome the absence of any originals.
I was stunned to see this car at the event. As you've said Murray, McLaren built two new M8Bs for the 1969 Can-Am season, and upgraded Dennys 1968 M8A to '69 B specs to use as a test mule and spare. My understanding based on the chassis numbers, would be that the M8B on display was Bruce's 1969 car, and therefore the car which he drove for much of that season. He won the 1969 Can-Am championship, and given the McLaren Trust M8A was the car was Dennys, and he won the 1968 Can-Am, then these are the two championship winning cars from 1968 and 1969. Pretty impressive stuff!