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Ford GT X-1 when Amon raced it


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#1 HistoryBuff

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Posted 30 May 2013 - 22:54

I am looking up whatever is on hte net on the unloved X-1 open lightweight GT40-based Can Am car (though I am unsure if it was called Can Am at that point) built by Bruce McLaren and raced by Chris Amon with no success in '65. The car , SN110., was rebodied with a Mk. II nose and tail in '66 and won Sebring.
What I am curious about is what made it such a loser in Can-Am? Was it many hundreds of pounds heavier than the competition's cars? Were the sidedraught Webers the wrong choice for carburetion? The gearbox wrong (It could have had an automatic, don't know or Hewland). Has McLaren ever said in an interview what doomed the effort? Did Ford budget money for the car or was it just done "on the cheap" by McLaren as research for the cars he would later build? The only races I can think of off hand where it ran was St. Jovite and Riverside but I think there were at least two more in'65. Also I have a picture of a brutal looking open GT40 at Romeo test track that's similar but has full windscreen (the X-1 had a low cut wrapraround plexiglass windscreen) and the front spoiler of the '65 GT40 dark blue coupe that Ford raced at the Daytona Continental in '65. It is not a small block open GT40 as I have plenty of pictures of those, this is a brutal looking car, off white with a black bonnet. I say it is the X-1 while still being developed at Ford before it went to McLaren, or does anyone think McLaren developed the cars from the chassis up? (I say "cars" p;lural because there were two chassis made but apparently one went to McLaren, the other to H & M.

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#2 Sebastian Tombs

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Posted 30 May 2013 - 23:12

A few facts and links: X-1

ST :wave:

#3 PonysiteEd

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Posted 31 May 2013 - 07:07

The other 2 races were Nassau and Mosport/CDN 1965.
Roy Lunn had arranged the car for Bruce McLaren initially but obviously it was taken out of his hands at the end of the season for further testing.

(Style Auto- Ford GT Story 3/1969/Karl Ludvigsen)



#4 Manfred Cubenoggin

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Posted 31 May 2013 - 11:00

I saw Chris in the car at the Canadian Grand Prix(then for sportscars)at Mosport in '65. It was not particularly impressive in peformance. I might be mistaken but my memory is that the car may well have been fitted with some manner of automatic transmission. There was certainly talk of this form of power transmission as I believe I read as much in at least one of the contemporary mags of the day. Pretty sure I have a snap of it in the paddock. Will search about and post if I can find it.



#5 PonysiteEd

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 12:50

#110 also ran previously at the Le Mans trials
Posted Image

Here are pics fromRiverside
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Posted Image

Edited by PonysiteEd, 01 June 2013 - 13:57.


#6 group7

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 14:57

george begg devotes quite a few words on "big ed" the X-1, in chapter five, in his book bruce McLaren racing car constructor. there are also a couple of photos on page 69 of the car under construction. I also was at mosport for that race in 1965, and was really taken by the look of this car, even though my hero jim hall won, after a almighty battle with brucie. and two cars burned to the ground, one right in front of me at turn three. really love that long le-mans nose !

mike in canada

#7 TIPO61

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Posted 02 June 2013 - 23:18

Doesn't 'look' like an automatic gearbox in the superb picture of the car 'undressed'.

#8 RJE

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Posted 04 June 2013 - 18:25

Here you are. Amon, Mosport, 1965, Canadian Grand Prix - practice.

URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/img0150gf.jpg/]Posted Image[/URL]

Edited by RJE, 04 June 2013 - 18:32.