Breathing
According to Stone Temple Pilots, Breathing is the hardest thing to do.
Doesn't look to be too much of a problem for a 500 plus cubic-inch Oldsmobile mountain motor in a Can-Am sled. Can you say yow?
This is the Can-Am car campaigned and financed by Sam Posey, and designed by Ray Caldwell, the Caldwell D-7 . It had many forward thinking ideas for the time, but was never really competitive.
It's on display at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. Last year they pulled this baby out into the parking area on Murfreesboro Road and fired this mother up. Lordie that must have been a glorious sound, I'm sorry I missed it!
If you'll look closely in the background there you can see Sam about to scurry up under the back of the Formula Vee car to the right. Sheesh.......
posted by Pee Wee @ 7:27 PM
3 Comments:
There is nothing like the sound of Quad Weber downdrafts sucking air, except maybe the sound of 20 Can-am cars flying into turn one at the Glen..................There were always several Caldwell cars in the field, different teams with different engines, all putting out in excess of 700 hp. One interesting thing about the Caldwell’s, ...back in 1996, I saw an ad for a Caldwell Can-Am car for sale in Hemming’s. The ad read “Caldwell Can-Am car, street legal conversion, 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, yet dossal enough to run to the grocery store”.
Ahhhh, if only wishes came true, although I don’t know where I could have put the groceries...
I was also fortunate to have seen a King Cobra run at both Lime Rock and the Glen. The King Cobra, is basically a Cooper Monaco (which is in itself was like a go cart with a body) with the 4 cylinder Coventry Climax engine replaced with a big block 427 Cobra (also with Quad Weber’s). The whole thing weighed less than 1500. Lbs, and produced 700 hp + depending on tune, weather etc...
But the best of the best, (and one I am grateful to have seen race 5 or 6 times in person) was undoubtedly the Porsche 917. It was then, and always will be the ultimate race car, built to compete in what was essentially an unlimited class.
In case you can’t tell, to me the greatest race cars to ever put a tire on tarmac were the Can-Am cars. Can-Am was the essence of speed, ingenuity, and in some ways the ultimate peak of road racing engineering. Unfortunately, these cars also killed a lot of drivers and were regulated out of existence.
Pete
Check this link about early Can Am racing , king cobra and more...
http://www.historicmustang.com/sportscarmagazine.html
In the early days of Fireball Roberts and NASCAR, the top Racing in the south was Can Am at the Augusta Ga. Circuit.....and not NASCAR crap
Thats a cool intake, is that cast or welded? I remember seeing a 1960 Chrysler moonshine hauler in "Mopar Action" magazine with heavy duty shocks and a nascar engine, that will always be the ultimate race car to me.
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