Bruce McLaren was one of the most gifted, talented, driven, and respected men in the world of racing during his time on this Earth. His company, driven by the creative genius of its leader was a dominant force in multiple forms of racing from open wheel to enclosed wheel cars like those in the Can-Am series. McLaren’t death in the early 1970s was a tragedy but it illustrated the strength of the operation he had created. How? McLaren today is one of the most successful Formula One racing operations, a producer of hypercars, and a design/engineering firm that has their hands in a little bit of everything.
The Can-Am series was a place where McLaren and his cars excelled. This brutally fast brand of road racing drew the greatest drivers in the world and for their time they were the most hairy road race cars in the known universe. Ultra lightweight and powered by either big V8 engines or turbocharged smaller engines, horsepower was a huge factor in being successful. We’re talking about cars that could lay track coming out of 100+ mph corners.
This video shows a mechanically injected Can-Am big block Chevy being dyno tested. If you use a keen eye you will see that the moll makes about 750hp! Place that in a car that barely weighs 2,000lbs and you have yourself one hell of a party. This is an all-aluminum big block that was as rare as rare could be back in the day and is complete unobtanium now.
The story of McLaren’s horsepower is interesting because it involves drag racing or more specifically a drag racer. George Bolthoff was one of, possibly the best Top Gas dragster racer in the world. He was also recognized as one of the finest engine builders in the sport and in a marriage that seems unlikely, Bolthoff was offered the job of running the McLaren engine program after spending some time at TRACO Engineering. He moved his entire family to England and spent many years in Jolly Ol’ building horsepower that won world championships.
If this engine is legitimately one from the era, Bolthoff may have laid hands on it way back in the day. George died in 2015 but his legacy lives on with awesome power makers like this one.
