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Ford and the Can-Am - Scenes from a marriage

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Created on August 26, 2022

Text:

Karl Ludvigsen (Übersetzung: Paul Krüger)

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Ludvigsen Partners

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Ludvigsen Partners

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Towards the end of the 1969 season, the "Open Sports Ford" appeared, a development by Len Bailey, photographed here during test drives at Goodwood with a modified Windsor V8.

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The Ford G7 A was based on the GT 40 Mk IV endurance sports car, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967. Here, Mario Andretti drives the racer with the unusual, two-part rear wing through the steep bend on the Ford test track in Dearborn.

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In 1964, this Cooper with a Ford Windsor V8 - named after its Canadian production location - and Colotti gearbox competed in the predecessor series to the Can-Am, the USRRC.

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Richard Brown's McLaren M1 B was powered by a Windsor V8 with Weber carburetors in 1967. The routing of the exhaust manifolds is reminiscent of the successful Indy racing cars from Lotus with Ford engines.

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The Lola T 70 of the Mecom Racing Team was still powered by Ford engines at the beginning of the 1966 season, before Mecom switched to the Chevrolet small block. Here George Follmer at the race in Bridgehampton.

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The Lola T 70 Spyder was the car of choice for many in the first Can-Am season in 1966. Dan Gurney drove his Ford-powered AAR Lola from pole position to first place at the race in Bridgehampton on September 18.

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Dan Gurney's Lola T 70 was powered by a five-liter Ford V8, which was fed by four Weber twin carburetors and fitted with its own Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads, producing around 520 hp at 7800 rpm.

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For the 1968 season, Dan Gurney bought a McLaren M6 B, which he equipped with a 5.3-liter Ford engine, Gurney Eagle cylinder heads and Lucas fuel injection. He finished sixth in the race in Bridgehampton on September 15, 1968.

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Indycar driver Al Unser drove a Lola T 70 with a 4.7 Ford engine in Bridgehampton in 1966. Powered by a Paxton supercharger, the V8 with its complicated exhaust system produced around 470 hp, but was hardly capable of winning.

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The most exotic engine was the 1966 Lola T 70, in which Indycar mechanic George Bignotti implanted Ford's DOHC V8, which is easily recognizable by its intake ducts between the camshafts.

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For the 1968 season, Ford's Indy engine was enlarged to five liters. George Bignotti installed the four-valve engine in Mario Andretti's Lola T 70 Mk III B.

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Mario Andretti retired with engine damage in the first two races of the season at Elkhart Lake and Bridgehampton. After that, Bignotti's DOHC V8 was no longer used.

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Dan Gurney sold his Mark III Weslake heads and the corresponding light alloy V8 to Lothar Motschenbacher. He installed both in his McLaren M6 B for the 1968 season and topped it off with Weber carburetors.

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Swede Savage drove the AAR-McLaren in the last two races of the 1968 season. The separate exhaust manifolds for the left and right cylinder banks suggest a 180-degree crankshaft, which allows better exhaust tuning.

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Ronnie Bucknum gets out of his Lola T 70 in a heroic pose in Elkhart Lake in 1968. Bucknum was one of the drivers at Honda's Formula 1 debut in 1964.

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The seven-liter Ford V8 that powered Bucknum's Lola T 70 was closely related to the successful Le Mans engines. Despite fuel injection, it was only good enough for 17th place at Elkhart Lake in 1968.

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Honker II ("bulbous nose") was a fitting name for the Can-Am racer developed by Len Bailey for Holman & Moody. Paul Newman supported the project. Mario Andretti was at the wheel.

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Mario Andretti on his way to 8th place in Bridgehampton with the Honker II. The feminine lilac metallic is said to have been the favorite color of Ford race director Jacques Passino.

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The Shelby T-10 Can-Am Cobra was designed by Len Terry and Frank Nichols for Carroll Shelby. In the hands of Jerry Titus, the unorthodox design around the Ford V8 flopped spectacularly.

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The Can-Am Cobra had only one transverse coil spring per axle, on which the upper wishbone acted via bellcranks. Body movements around the longitudinal axis were only absorbed by stabilizers. The five-speed gearbox came from ZF.

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Ford tested the G7-A extensively in the wind tunnel for downforce and drag.

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The center support strut of the rear wing was an idea of Roy Lunn and was adjustable in height. It allowed the driver to adjust the angle of the wing halves and thus choose between high downforce and low drag.

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The 7G-A was powered by Ford's so-called "Calliope V8", which took its name from the eight "intake organ pipes". The engine can be recognized by its wide valve covers for the unusual "DOHV" drive. The two-speed gearbox with torque converter was shifted by the driver without using the clutch.

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The aluminum chassis and the front wheel suspension came from the GT 40 Mk IV. The gearbox for the rack-and-pinion steering was still located in front of the axle. The ample cooling air ducts to the brakes are clearly visible.

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In the hands of the Agapiou brothers Charlie and Kerry, the G7-A was fitted with a range of different Ford engines from seven to 8.1 liters. The 429 cubic inch Boss V8 with hemispherical combustion chambers is installed here.

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John Cannon next to his Ford G7-A at the Texas Motor Speedway in 1969. Mario Andretti was originally intended to be the driver, but that never happened.

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Jack Brabham in his only outing in the Ford G7-A at the 1969 race in Michigan, where he retired. The spoiler is now one-piece, but still acts directly on the rear axle.

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For the first race of the 1970 season at Watkins Glen, the G7-A appeared with a modified front end. A slightly sharper-edged nose and fins on the fenders provided more downforce, as did a new spoiler lip at the rear.

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John Cannon at Watkins Glen in 1970. Despite the great commitment of the Agapiou brothers, the G7-A was unable to reward its drivers Peter Revson, George Follmer, Jack Brabhamm Lee Roy Yarbrough and Vic Elford for their driving efforts.

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John Cannon at Watkins Glen in 1970. During the race, the G7-A tried to shed parts of its bodywork, which had to be stopped with adhesive tape. After about half the distance, Cannon had to retire with overheating problems.

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For the 1969 season, Holman & Moody took over the McLaren M6 B with Ford engine from Carroll Shelby. In the second half of the season, Mario Andretti hit top form and was a tough competitor for the McLaren-Chevrolet. He narrowly missed out on pole position in Texas.

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Contrary to its nickname "429'er", Mario Andretti's McLaren M6 B was powered by a version of Ford's Boss V8 that had been enlarged to 494 (8.1 liters) cubic inches. Without the valve cover, the unusual arrangement of the valves is revealed, which earned it the nickname "Twisted Hemi".

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Deeply modified by Trojan Limited, Mario Andretti finished third at Riverside and fourth at Laguna Seca in the McLaren M6 B from Holman & Moody. At Elkhart Lake (pictured), he retired with a broken drive shaft.

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In 1968, Carroll Shelby equipped a McLaren M6 B for Peter Revson with an aluminum version of Ford's seven-liter wedge-head V8. It received its mixture from a cross-ram intake manifold and Indianapolis fuel injection.

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At the 1968 race in Riverside, Dan Gurney drove a Lola T 160 with a wedge-head alloy V8 from Ford. The new, flat nose of the T 160 caused cooling problems, so Gurney had to retire early.

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The "Open Sports Ford" was created by Alan Mann Racing with the help of Holman & Moody. Like the Honker II, also designed by Bailey, the Ford's brake disks were located behind the steering knuckles, which was intended to provide better cooling.

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In the USA, the "Open Sports Ford" was equipped with a Ford Hemi V8 called the RX-412. The number had nothing to do with the displacement, which was a mighty 8.1 liters (494 cui) and produced 674 bhp at 7000 rpm from its depths.

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Shielding plates around the cooling water pipes on the side boxes protected the driver from excessive heat. The bucket seat was exceptionally deep for optimum lateral support and maximum safety.

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At the 1969 race in Texas, Jack Brabham finished third despite dwindling oil pressure. The "Open Sports Ford" built by Alan Mann Racing (the team boss to the left of the car) deserved more than just two races to show its potential.

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Summary

As much ambition as Ford invested in its Le Mans commitment, there was little interest in the new Can-Am series at the end of the sixties. Consequently, it was left to the private racing teams to develop a winning shell for the Ford engines. The result was four years of failure. This article tells the story of Can-Am racing cars with Ford engines, which was marked by setbacks, and shows a lot of historical footage.

This article contains the following chapters

Promising start
High failure rate
Ford v Gurney
The Paul with the bulbous nose
The Cobra disaster
From Le Mans to the Can-Am
Engine experiments
One last rally

Estimated reading time: 20min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Ford Motor Company took its motto "Total Performance" very seriously. When Ford entered motor racing with great fanfare around the globe, it planned for worldwide success. With the 1963 models, Ford in the USA openly disregarded the 1957 agreement between US car manufacturers to no longer support racing at the factory. Now hot Ford-powered cars could be seen everywhere: Indycar, Nascar, drag racing, Le Mans and other endurance races, and soon in rallies and Grand Prix races. Ford let the world know that they were back on the race track - and proud of it. In the world of sports cars, Ford's ultimate goal was to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The project, which began in 1964, had not yet been achieved in 1966 when a new sports car competition was launched in North America. In the USA, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs (CASC) joined forces to hold races for the "Canadian-American Challenge Cup" in their respective home territories.

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