The Roaring Season

I am not sure where this car is now but this is how it was advertised 5 years ago in 2011.
Perhaps some good Kiwi ingenuity could sort this beast out and we would see it in action again. It is a good looking vehicle.



(As seen in Sports Car Market magazine. Oct. 2011 )



(Ken Hyndman )

When I see the racing at Goodwood last weekend and then look back to the days when we would take cars to test at the circuit, you realize how much everyone, thanks to the Earl of March have renovated the track back to it's glorious past.
I used to look along the hills in the distance (The South Downs ) and wonder where it was that my uncle clipped power lines / hilltop and plunged into the edge of a small village close to Goodwood with deadly results in a Mosquito fighter bomber in 1944.
As you can see it was a popular track for testing in the late sixties and seventies.

1969. Frank Gardner testing the Ford Can Am car.

Gardner heading out. Compare the background to what is there today !




(Ken Hyndman photo )
Nov. 1973. March F1 team testing at Goodwood. Note in each photo except one the red and yellow Landrover which is what I rode around in when the track custodian showed me the areas where Stirling Moss and Bruce had had their accidents and other track memories. Back then it looked like the track was about to be closed down. That is why last weekend was great to watch.

(Ken Hyndman )

I wonder how much they had in common with the Mildren Mono and the Mildren Chev, also Len Bailey cars from the same era?

I may be a bit late but this a nice site for Alan Mann racing.

http://www.alanmann.co.uk/our-story/

I remember reading about the Ford 3 L and how Bruce McLaren had driven it at Brands Hatch in the BOAC 500 in April 1968 without much success and as he was driving home he heard on the radio the devastating news that Jimmy Clark had died at Hockenheim that day.

(Ken Hyndman )

ctduirf wrote:One other quick comment . When the OSF was disposed of by H&M it basically went out the door with a bunch of other old "stuff" including the M6 "429'er" in a sort of fire sale . When discovered years later the injected , magnesium 494 was gone . It had been replaced with what was surely a .040 overbore , iron-blocked , carburated , 429 but with the magneto out of the 494 . Keeping in mind that Holman & Moody had raced Nascar cars with the Boss 429 in them it's pretty likely the engine in the car was a left-over Winston Cup enginre they had lying around . The tall intake manifold and Dominator carb are kind of a give-away .

Those are a great couple of first posts! Thanks for your input. And yes, I agree in every way, the very strong family resemblance is obvious to see among the AMR built machines, and in particular, the P68/P69 and Honker II. I wrote a small piece on the F3L a few years back, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities: http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?588-The-Ford-F3L

Out of interest, do you know if the Open Sports Ford shared the same wheelbase as the earlier cars? One of the criticisms of the P68/69 was the very short wheelbase, which made handling at or near the limit quite challenging.

One other quick comment . When the OSF was disposed of by H&M it basically went out the door with a bunch of other old "stuff" including the M6 "429'er" in a sort of fire sale . When discovered years later the injected , magnesium 494 was gone . It had been replaced with what was surely a .040 overbore , iron-blocked , carburated , 429 but with the magneto out of the 494 . Keeping in mind that Holman & Moody had raced Nascar cars with the Boss 429 in them it's pretty likely the engine in the car was a left-over Winston Cup enginre they had lying around . The tall intake manifold and Dominator carb are kind of a give-away .

Keep in mind there's a reason the Honker looks sort of familiar ... The two cars are "sisters" !
There are 5 "children" in the family . You could say there are three sisters and two brothers if we count the two cars with hard domes "males" . Starting in 1967 you get the first two . The Honker II is constructed by Alan Mann Racing and is shipped to Holman and Moody who Ford has chosen to race it . With that car we see the first family characteristics exhibited . Pay particular attention to the nose from the center of the front wheels forward , and to the rear half of the car from just aft of the roll bar . You'll see them again later . In the same time period at JWR John Wyer's crew is constructing the Ford GT40 variant known as the Mirage M1 . The outstanding feature of that design is the roughly triangular shape of the dome of the roof .
Now we move to 1968 and Alan Mann Debuts the P68 or F3L Ford prototype . It bears two of the prominent family features . If you look at it from the nose to the back of the cockpit it's basically the Honker with the Mirage roof on it ! Sure the lower lip of the radiator inlet is a little more pronounced and the whole car is a little slimmer and lower but you can't miss the look .
On to 1969 where the mostly unsuccessful P68 becomes the high-winged P69 roadster (which basically looks like an upside-down pontoon boat and other than being a bunch of curvy shapes doesn't share much with the other cars looks-wise) Meanwhile Alan Mann Racing is constructing another Can Am car for Ford and Holman Moody . Originally tested with a 377 Cu. In. Gurney Weslake engine (based on a 351 Windsor block) it got shipped to Holman Moody where it was fitted with the experimental Ford owned Magnesium 494 . The OSF retains it's family resemblance as from at least the roll bar back it retains a great resemblance to the Honker .
The point of all this description of the sequence and the similarities is to show how a man's mind gets on a track and tends to follow it as he evolves it . Over time you see the evolution and in the case of the P68 , the combination of different concepts in the cars .The reason all of these cars are a "family" is because they are successive designs from one man . Ford had a talented aerodynamicist named Len Bailey . He designed all five of these cars .

Ford Honker II

superford wrote:Wow thanks for the video post Steve - although I'm now somewhat disappointed!!! It's a replica !!! Although it is quite something amazing in itself as it looks stunning - and oh doesn't that Boss sing like an angel....

Yeah I know what you mean. I thought I was watching the real thing, until about halfway through. But I sort of understand their reasons. The original car, as outlined at the start of this thread, is so incredibly original, its possibly too risky to try and race it. I believe it still even wears its original paint.

GD66 wrote:Definitely not, Ray. Here are a couple of shots of the Holman and Moody Honker from 1967.

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Sadly, despite its Total Performance programs during the 1960s, FoMoCo never really committed to the Can-Am. They did dabble briefly a couple of times, and the Holman-Moody 'Honker II' was just one example.

This car appeared at one or two races in 1967, driven by Mario Andretti. Its was painted a light metallic purple, and really didn't achieve anything. Prior to the start of the season, there were rumors that Ford would enter the Can-Am swinging heavily, with a couple of two car teams; one run by Holman-Moody, the other Shelby. The Shelby car did make one appearance, driven by Jerry Titus, but was even more underwhelming.

And that was it, until they returned in 1969, but again, despite some impressive machinery, their commitment was fleeting at best.

Is that car running the same model of engine Philip Mules originally ran in his lightweight Cobra replica??

Wow thanks for the video post Steve - although I'm now somewhat disappointed!!! It's a replica !!! Although it is quite something amazing in itself as it looks stunning - and oh doesn't that Boss sing like an angel....

Definitely not, Ray. Here are a couple of shots of the Holman and Moody Honker from 1967.

Is this the car they called the 'Honker'?

Great little video here:

[video=youtube;GBntuQG5wvE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBntuQG5wvE[/video]

Wow, EPIC photos! What a beautiful car that is. Thanks for posting these.

And as she looks today with its owner Tom Cantrell. The last 3 sensational photos I've saved from the Aerosport Photography facebook page;

Digging up an old thread for some updated photos. I recently found some 'new' old photos of the Allan Mann 'Open Sports Ford', and then some sensational new photos taken within the past few months;

I didn't know that about the magnesium block! Amazing! Yes, you're right about the attrition rate at Texas. They used part of the high speed Texas speedway, which would have added more strain to some already tired race cars. 24 cars started, 12 finished, including only one McLaren team car, which definitely helped Brabham. He was actually running second late in the race but was slowed by an oil leak and slipped to third.

Interestingly the car only raced twice, it arrived for Round 10 of the 1969 CanAm at Riverside driven by Frank Gardner, qualified 10th, got up to 5th during the race and retired with a broken half shaft. At Round 11 in Texas, Jack Brabham drove, qualified 7th and finished 3rd. Now, by Texas some of the regulars cars were probably getting tired, but it was still a great result and I guess another motor racing if only! By the way the engine apparently had a special magnesium block which probably explains why the original engine is no longer with the car.

Re the Ti22, the book 'CanAm Challenger' written by the late Pete Bryant is a must read for anybody interested in CanAm racing.