I'm really glad to see this group created and I apologize in advance for
the length of this post.
I don't know if there are any hard and fast guidelines for what's
discussed here, but I'm hoping it's just a place for people who are
enthusiastic about vintage race cars, whether it's driving them
(grassroots to big$$), watching them, or reading about them!
I'm interested in the CAN-AM cars. I'd like to say I have one, but I
can't (what would a vintage McLaren or Lola go for, if you could find
one for sale ($$$,$$$))? They are definately a favorite attraction of
mine, and thankfully, it's not hard to see them run these days.
I've been following Pete Lyons fascinating series on the CAN-AM in
Vintage Motorsport magazine, and recently, there where a couple of ads
in said magazine for CAN-AM "Automobilia". One was for an original
poster from the 1970 Road America Race and the other was for a two
video tape set of the 1971 races at Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio. So,
what the heck, I bought them both.
When I called about the poster, the guy who answered was very friendly
and asked who I was. I told him and he said "hmm, that name sounds
familar. Don't I know you from...". It turns out it was Oscar
Koveleski of Polish Racing Drivers of America fame. I guess he had
stashed away these posters and decided to take advantage of the renewed
interest in CAN-AM. Why not. He said he'd been getting a lot of
calls, some from people he knew in the old days. That's why he thought
my name was familiar (it wasn't). I talked to him for a bit. Very
nice guy, and very willing to chat about the CAN-AM series. I think he
summed the whole thing up very nicely by saying "we were learning a lot
back then".
The poster is signed by Oscar. It shows a big profile of Denny Hulme
on the right, and just below that is Oscar's McLaren M8B "leading"
Denny in an M8D. Also included was an intersting letter that gives a
little background to the 1970 season (Bruce McLaren was killed that
year while testing his new car) and to Oscar's racing career in
particular.
The video tapes just got here last week and are of excellent quality,
relatively speaking. They really give you a feel for just how fast
some of the front runners (Stewart, Revson, and Hulme) were. There
are a couple of vintage commercials on the tapes (one for the
Spitfire that shows a racing Spitfire) and interviews with drivers
(Stewart, Andretti, etc). They really is a "must see".
Again, sorry for the length of this post. If anyone has more
info on CAN-AM events and organizations, or better yet, owns and
drives one of these machines, I'd like to here about it.
Kendall
PS-How do people feel about "recent vintage" (again, big$$) stuff,
such as the IMSA GTP cars. Do they count, or is this stretching
the definition a bit?!
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