Road America Can Am Reunion

[David Pozzi]

Last weekend I crewed on a McLaren M6 Coupe, it is one of three original McLaren coupes, other open cockpit cars have been since converted to coupes.

Well, this trip turned out to be much more work than I ever imagined!

The McLaren M6 coupe I helped crew on was finished so late, we didn't have time to do a test day, so there were lots of new car problems like the transaxle didn't want to engage reverse, the clutch was very hard to press and very touchy on release, the engine was idling too slow and tended to load up after a while.

The ignition crapped out, probably due to the heat. We tried a different coil that helped, but it still sputtered after a fiew laps but at least completed the race, it had a Mallory dual-point, and perhaps the external condensor was overheated.

I was working on the car all the time except during practice and race for the CanAm group, then I could go to the pit wall and take photos. We were allowed to stand right next to the race track wall which I thought was very dangerous! It's amazing to stand 10 ft or less to where a BB Can Am car is going by at over 180mph!



I hardly got enough sleep, got to bed around 12pm each night and got up at 6am in order to get to the track at opening time - 7am. I stayed in Fond du Lac and it's 30 miles from the track.

One good thing that happened was, I met Amanda McLaren and we got pics of her in the M6 coupe! She was only 2 years old when her father Bruce McLaren died.
Denis Gage did a feature on the car for his classic car TV show, it will be on TV next year, 2007. I met George Follmer and Peter Bryant, he designed the Titanium cars, (said they weigh 1400 lbs) and also several of the team Shadow cars. Bryant is the funniest guy I have met in a long time, he does a very good impression of George C Scott as "Patton" with a gravely voice.

Bryant does CAD drafting these days, and reciently has converted the Titanium Can Am car plans into CAD. Another friend of mine, Craig Pense, is re-creating the first Titanium car. Pense is a graphic artist, and has done a poster listing all the Can Am winning cars in profile view.
David