Spectacular sports car photo's

[Mitch G.]

The short lived Group 7 Can Am sports car series of the 1960's to early 70's was interesting. You had English built race cars, but powered by huge aluminum American V8's, fuel injected monsters 427+ cubic inch. with 15 inch wheels, 15 inches wide. These beasts weighed in at 1300 lbs. Holding races across the US and Canada, the best drivers tried these brutes, A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Dan Gurney and others along with international driving stars, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, Bruce McClaren, and many others. As the cars became more hi-tech, and expensive, car counts fell and fan interest dropped off, and by the mid 70's the Can AM series was history. Here's an incredible shot from the 1968 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Jim Hall in his home built Chaparral, can't slow down in time as a suspension upright broke on Lothar Matschenbachers McClaren M6A. Hall following at 160 mph, clips him and goes flying, landing in the desert upside down, fuel pumps soaking his uniform, some bystanders pulled him free, the car caught fire, the fire spread to Hall's uniform, and he burned while the bystanders tried to smother the fire with the desert sand. Luckily firemen appeared in time to put Hall out. Hall suffered broken legs, and burns, which ended his driving career, but he went on to be very successful in the auto racing world.

[webby]

Now those were some cool sports cars. I wish they would realize that it isn't super high-tech garbage that makes racing interesting. Instead it's the daring and heroic drivers that make auto racing fun! The only thing that super high tech crap gives us is ridiculous expense and also thwarts the drivers actual skill.