AHC: Other Can Am winners.

In a world where McLaren exists and uses Chevrolet engines what plausible ways can other cars and particularly other engines win Can Am races?

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Ford is an easy one, they did build a Can Am car that Mario Andretti raced (he said it was the worst car he ever drove), so making them more successful is an easy place to start.

Having turbocharging be more prevalent in the racers (maybe have the Toyota 7 or Nissan R381 come stateside) or have big V12s get into the series (Ferrari made a 7.3-liter V12 for a Can Am car, but it wasn't real successful) are easy ways of moving others into the top of Can Am.
 
Honker II was like a lot of non McClaren cars needed development and testing, Dan Gurney was in a similar situation with a ford engine with his weslake heads.

Looking for example at the 66 Laguna Seca race 40 cars were entered, 11 were Ford powered and one each by Olds, porsche and ferrari. The rest were Chevs of various sizes and configuration.
 
Honker II was like a lot of non McClaren cars needed development and testing, Dan Gurney was in a similar situation with a ford engine with his weslake heads.

Looking for example at the 66 Laguna Seca race 40 cars were entered, 11 were Ford powered and one each by Olds, porsche and ferrari. The rest were Chevs of various sizes and configuration.

Then you kinda have to get the development done, then, and have people want to use other engines. That takes money, of course. One other potentially-useful option would be somebody developing the turbocharged Offenhauser Indycar engine earlier than OTL - Offys are beastly-strong engines and handle boost really well, though they cannot run as efficiently as some other racers. Alcohol-burning Offy Indycar engines made 1000+ horsepower in the early 70s, running as much as 45 pounds of boost. In a lightweight Can Am chassis (and the Offy is a pretty small engine in terms of size and weight) you could conceivably make it competitive.
 
I would love to see Frank Matich get into the money with his SR3 Repco so he could come back with the awesome SR4. He got an 8th in a USRRC race early in 67 but DNFs in the 4 can am races he started later in the year.

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Matich SR3 Repco at Riverside 1967

I watched a you tube video with Matich racing Chris Amon in a Ferrari P4 (be still my beating heart) and an Elfin chev in Australia, so maybe the series could incorporate a round or two in both Australia and Japan.
 
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In 2012 Frank Matich (he died in 2015) posted in the comments section of an article on the SR4 that ........"The SR4 did not race in the CanAm because the Americans changed the rules to exclude the Repco 769 four cam engine as they thought it would beat the big American engines and injure the series."........ Does anyone know what rule changes he could be talking about?

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The Porsche 917 was a multicam engine, so I cannot see the use of the Repco 769 being a rules hold up. I can, however, see it being somewhat underpowered against 500-plus cubic inch big block Chevrolet V8s and turbocharged Porsche Flat-twelves.
 
The Porsche 917 was a multicam engine, so I cannot see the use of the Repco 769 being a rules hold up. I can, however, see it being somewhat underpowered against 500-plus cubic inch big block Chevrolet V8s and turbocharged Porsche Flat-twelves.

That's right, the Ferrari 612P was a 6.2 litre quad cam V12 raced for most of the 1969 so Frank, who would have been 77 at the time, might be misremembering 1969 events.

The SR4, if it had 625-640 bhp might have done OK in 1969, not a world beater but certainly not disgraced. 1969 MacLaren was running 430 Chevs; basically big bore, short stroke 427s, putting a 427 crank in got 465 but Bruce said it shook the car apart, these 430s were putting out about 650 bhp. The 6.2L V12 in the Ferrari was putting out 620-650 bhp and got 3 podiums as well, so the 5.1 litre Repco would not have been totally out of its depth.

 
One possiblity. Oldsmobile puts it 32 valve Big Block into production. An all aluminum version is in the same size range as the BBC. Weight should be comparable. But it wasn't just the engines. MacLaren simply had a better chassis through 1970
 
One possiblity. Oldsmobile puts it 32 valve Big Block into production. An all aluminum version is in the same size range as the BBC. Weight should be comparable. But it wasn't just the engines. MacLaren simply had a better chassis through 1970

Last first, yes MacLaren just has their shit together, usually from the first race. However I think the likes of the Lola T160/2/3 weren't so bad that with a decent team willing to do the preparation and testing couldn't get a win.

I don't think we need to look as far as an exotic, never produced 32 valve engine for alternate to the SB ad BB Chevs. Ford had the 351-377 with Gurney/Weslake Heads in 1966-67 when MacLaren were using an iron block 358 SBC with about 530 bhp. I'm not all over the 427 FE engines, but I think alloy heads were available in 1966 onwards and should have produced around 600 bhp in 1967-68.
 
MacLaren's secert weapon was Bruce hinself. The one US combo that could have competed earlier was Penske. But they wre pre-occupied with Trans-Am

http://www.streetmusclemag.com/news/the-w43-oldsmobiles-dohc-455-v8-that-never-was/

Or have Can Am pre-occupy Gurney's attention, but Penske would probably work better. I knew of the DOHC Oldsmobile big-block (that would have been an ideal Can-Am powerplant) and was always a little surprised they did nothing with it. Have Oldsmobile make it a little earlier on and drop in the back of a Can Am car (maybe one of Jim Hall's Chaparrals, maybe....?) and watch everybody scramble to get one.
 
I think the 455 quad cam would have been too late to make an impact, the road 455 didn't come out until 1968 and the quad cam was undergoing testing at the end of 1969. If Olds had gone for it the engine wouldn't have been available until late 70 or more likely 71 at which point the turbo Porsches are coming into their own and will destroy virtually any non turbo engine.

Apparently the FE 427, at 600lbs, was too heavy to be competitive with the Chevs which basically leaves the 351-377 Weslake Head SB Fords in 1966-67 and the all alloy Boss 429er in 1969. 12 of these engines were made, 10 in aluminium and 2 in magnesium and in 494 and 477 sizes. Apparently Mario Andretti considered the 477 made the car more manageable, he got a 3rd at Riveside and Jack Brabham also got a 3rd with one of these engines in a different car but they were not used in the 1970 season. I think they might be the best bet for a Ford win after 1966/7.

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