If I were given a chance to drive any kind of open wheel car in history, I wouldn’t hesitate before demanding a fire suit, helmet, and a seat in a Formula 5000 car. This class was an awesome one back in the day, combining the greatness of screaming small block V8 engines and the exceptional beauty of the era’s formula style race cars. The sights and sounds simply don’t get much better and as you will see in this video, they were a handful to drive! They also hauled large quantities of tail which is (again) verified by this video, which places us basically on the shoulder of the driver. Starting on the final pace lap behind the “safety car” at Australia’s Phillip Island race track, all hell breaks out in a good way when the green flag comes down.

The car that driver Steve Ross wheels in this video is a rare one. Built by the great Formula 5000 racer Graham McRae in an English shop, this is one of 14 examples of the McRae GM1. Graham was a New Zealander by birth but raced all over the world. He ran one race in Formula One during the 1973 season and he took at crack at the Indy 500 in 1973. He finished 16th and got rookie of the year honors. His real success came in F5000 though, as he won the Tasman championship in 1971/72/73. Those races were all contested in Australia and New Zealand. In 1972 he also won the United States F5000 championship. Like we said, the man was hell on wheels at the helm of an open wheel, V8 car. The McRae GM1 was a dominant chassis for use in British hill climb racing as well as on dedicated road courses. We love the fact that Ross is out there using his car like it was intended to be used.

When you press play below be ready for tight racing, screaming small block engines, high RPM gear changes, and some pure gasoline powered entertainment. We can’t get enough of the throttle blips for down shifts. Sounds sooooo good!

PRESS PLAY BELOW AND PREPARE FOR MAXIMUM GEARHEAD GRIN ACTION – GEAR BANGING, WAILING SMALL BLOCK, HISTORIC ROAD COURSE ACTION!