1969 McLaren M8B

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing, founded by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence in motorsports, beginning with sports car racing with its highly successful series of prototypes for the emerging Can-Am series in North America. They have been a stalwart of the Formula 1 World Championship for over five decades, and of the current teams, only Ferrari has been in the sport longer.

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 while Bruce was still driving for Cooper in Formula 1. Its first single-seater was the M2A test car built in 1965, followed by the M2B used to contest the 1966 Formula 1 World Championship. The marque's first Grand Prix victory was in 1968 at Spa-Francorchamps with Bruce driving the Cosworth-powered M7A. Since that time, McLaren has won over 180 Formula 1 races and taken 12 Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' titles.

Before McLaren's success in Formula 1, they had dominant performance 1967 to 1971 Can-Am seasons. Bruce's entrance to the league was with the 'Zerex Special' he had acquired, which had been converted into a sports-racer towards the end of 1962. Bruce modified the spaceframe chassis and removed the four-cylinder Coventry-Climax FPF engine, and replaced it with an Oldsmobile V8. In this guise, it was known as the 'Cooper-Oldsmobile,' and Bruce drove it to victory at Aintree, Silverstone, Brands Hatch, and Mosport in 1964.

Bruce's next car and the team's first self-designed car was the M1A Group 7 sports prototype. It too had a spaceframe chassis and Oldsmobile V8 engine, with various mechanical components sourced from Cooper, including the steering arms, suspension uprights, and wheels. Production versions of the M1A were built by Trojan, the parent company of Frank Nichols' Elva Cars, and 24 examples were eventually completed.

The M1A's design evolved into the M1B of 1965, with a blunter nose and sharper cut-off tail. Large-diameter round and square tubing, with aluminum-alloy paneling forming the bulkheads and under-tray, were used to improve stiffness by 20% over the preceding M1A. At the front was an independent suspension setup with wide-based unequal-length wishbones, while the rear used radius arms, a single top link, and a lower wishbone. Coil spring shock absorbers and anti-roll bars were fitted all-round. The cast magnesium wheels were McLaren-Elva's own, measuring 15x 8.5 at the front and 15x11.5 at the rear. The dual-circuit disc brakes by Girling provided the stopping power. Some examples were powered by Chevrolet or Ford engines, but the standard unit was the 4.5-liter Traco-modified Oldsmobile V8. The bodywork was formed from glassfiber, helping the M1B achieve a svelt dry weight of approximately 1,300 lbs. A total of 28 examples were manufactured by Trojan, which was sold in North America as the McLaren-Elva Mark 2.

Can Am Series
1966
1966 was the inaugural Can-Am season, and McLaren quickly realized that its Oldsmobile engines were not competitive with the 6.0-litre Chevrolet used by Lola and Jim Hall's Chaparral. Thus, the aluminum Oldsmobile engines were replaced with the cast-iron Chevrolet, and although they added an additional 200 lbs, they were considerably more powerful. At the end of the season, Bruce finished 2nd in the series to Lola's John Surtees.

1967
McLaren introduced an all-new design for the 1967 season, known as the M6A. It was so successful that it earned Bruce the first of his two Can-Am championships, starting a five-year period of dominance. Bruce's team-mate and fellow New Zealander, Denny Hulme won in 1968 and 1970, and Bruce won in 1969. Peter Revson secured McLaren's final Can-Am title in 1971.

1968
The Bruce McLaren Motor Racing team used the newly M8A as their entry in the 1968 Can-Am season. It was an evolution of the previous M6A design, with the all-aluminum, seven-liter, Gary Knutson-built Chevrolet big-block V8 acting as a semi-stressed chassis member. A total of two M8A race cars were built plus one spare tub.

1969
The McLaren M8B was used for the 1969 Can-Am season and continued to be an evolutionary design of its predecessor. It used a Chaparral 2E-inspired rear wing mounted high on pylons, with the pylons passing through the bodywork and attached directly to the suspension uprights. In this configuration, softer springs were used rather than hard springs had the large rear wing been attached to the bodywork. The Chevrolet engine had a larger bore and shorter stroke than the previous engine and produced about ten additional horsepower, rated at 630 bhp. The 7,046c unit was built by George Bolthoff. The wheels were an inch wider than the previous M8A which required the bodywork to be widened. The front wheels measured 15x11, and the rears were 15 x 16. A total of two complete M8B race cars were built along with one spare tub.

The high-winged M8B swept the series, winning all 11 races for the 1969 Can-Am season, with eight 1-2 finishes between Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme.

The M8C was a version of the M8A and sold to privateers. Built by Trojan, a total of fifteen examples were created. Various engines were used including those from Chevy and Ford, since it had a more conventional chassis and its engine did not act as a stressed member.

1970
The McLaren M8B, another evolution of its predecessor, was devoid of the high strut-mounted rear wing since they had been banned by Can-Am. Instead, the rear wing was mounted low on fins. The 7,620cc Chevrolet V8 was built by Bolthoff and produced 670 horsepower at 6,800 RPM and 600 lb-ft of torque.

Sadly, on June 2, 1970, Bruce McLaren was fatally injured in an accident whilst testing the M8D at the Goodwood Circuit.

The McLaren M8E was based on the M8B, built by Trojan, and sold to privateers.

1971
The McLaren M8F was built to contest the 1971 Can-Am season and was powered by an 8.1 liter (488 cubic-inch) big-block Chevrolet V-8 engine. The engine later grew to 8.3 liters.

The McLaren M8FP was sold to privateers and built by Trojan.

by Daniel Vaughan | Sep 2023