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The Danny Sullivan Can-Am car in the 'Circuit' documentary

Started by buzard , Jun 13 2001 02:54

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19 replies to this topic

#1 buzard

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Posted 13 June 2001 - 02:54

I was just watching "Circuit" again. I several scenes Sullivan
is driving the Wolf CanAm car. I recall it making several very
unimpressive appearences. But I do not recall D.Sullivan
driving it in any races. He was in the Garvin Brown Frisbee.
Was it owned by Brown? Who drove it and how many races
did it compete in?

Since this was the F5000/CanAm it has been pretty much
ignored by people writing books on the subject. Not much
info available.

buzard

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#2 Keir

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Posted 13 June 2001 - 12:39

buzard,
That's not the Wolf-Dalara of 1977. That car barely made it through the season in the hands of Chris Amon and Gilles Villeneuve.
I don't know what Walter did with the car, but I'm sure it never raced again.
As for Garvin Brown, he was the team and car owner that year and for a number of seasons thereafter.
Good little flick, "Circuit."

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#3 Dave Ware

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Posted 13 June 2001 - 17:01

Never heard of "Circuit". What is it and where might one obtain it?

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#4 FLB

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Posted 13 June 2001 - 18:20

The car was given to the Engineering faculty of a Canadian University (in Toronto IIRC). The drivers hated it with a passion.

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#5 Allen Brown

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Posted 13 June 2001 - 20:42

A copy of the Wolf was built by Mike Brayton using a body obtained from Canada and an old Talon chassis. Maybe that is the car in the video.

Allen

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#6 buzard

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Posted 18 June 2001 - 23:14

After consulting several books it appears the car could have been
a later model Lola. The last version of the bodywork had a
rounded nose that looked a lot like the Dalarra/Wolf. I found
at least 2 different teams with Lolas that look that way in
CanAm Cars by David McKinney. But it only has race results to 1974.

buzard

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#7 Allen Brown

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Posted 19 June 2001 - 12:51

buzard

The Wolf used a Talon F5000 chassis, which is why Brayton could build a copy using another second hand Talon.

I now have race results for the Single-Seat Can-Am on OldRacingCars.com. See here for the original car and here for the Brayton copy.

Allen

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#8 paulb

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Posted 19 June 2001 - 17:51

Dave,

"Circuit" is a flick documenting a year (1981?) in the Can Am series. It boasts many stellar drivers (Holbert, Unser Jr, Fabi, Rahal?) and great in-car sequences. Driver interviews accompany most races. One of my favorite sequences is the incar lap of Riverside. It also contains the race at Ceasar's Palace.

I'm not sure where you can find it now, however. The last time I saw it was 10+ years ago and, unfortunately the tape was taken.

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#9 Marc Sproule

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 03:04

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#10 fausto

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 11:44

IIRC Danny Sullivan raced a car called GB01, GB standing for Garvin Brown, not a success at all...

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#11 fausto

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 11:53

IIRC Danny Sullivan raced a car called GB01, GB standing for Garvin Brown, not a success at all...

here it is... http://www.hepworthi...x...=59&page=59

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#12 RA Historian

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 18:22

The Wolf WD-1 Can Am (or "Can Am II" as I like to call the 1977-86 series) car was, as Allen says, Talon based. It was run during the 1977 season. Chris Amon started the year, but stepped out of the cockpit early on and served as the team manager the balance of the year. The driver was Gilles Villeneuve. The best outing was at Road America in July, 1977. Villeneuve qualified on the pole and finished third in the race.

Garvin Brown, who recently passed away, was the entrant for Sullivan for a few years. In 1980 they ran the Can Am II with the Intrepid GB-1, an undertaking that was well chronicled by Leon Mandel in his short book, "Fast Lane Summer", if I remember the title correctly. They ran a Lola T-530 in 1981 until switching to a Frissbee for the Las Vegas round, which Sullivan won. Brown then sponsored Sullivan into the CART team of Gerald Forsythe for 1982, while Danny drove Can Am II for Paul Newman.
Tom

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#13 LittleChris

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 23:09

The Wolf WD-1 Can Am (or "Can Am II" as I like to call the 1977-86 series) car was, as Allen says, Talon based. It was run during the 1977 season. Chris Amon started the year, but stepped out of the cockpit early on and served as the team manager the balance of the year. The driver was Gilles Villeneuve. The best outing was at Road America in July, 1977. Villeneuve qualified on the pole and finished third in the race.

Is this the same car in which Dino Crescentini lost his life at Mosport during 2008 ?

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#14 Thundersports

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 00:41

Is this the same car in which Dino Crescentini lost his life at Mosport during 2008 ?

I would have to say yes having checked out a couple of referances.

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#15 arttidesco

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 02:36

[quote name='Marc Sproule' date='Jan 16 2011, 03:04' post='4789958']
Whilst looking for something else, I stumbled onto this long dormant thread.

Here are the pics of Sullivan I currently have in my Can Am set on flickr....

Great pics of some of the ugliest contrivances ever to be called vehicles :smoking:

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#16 Marc Sproule

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 07:58

Great pics of some of the ugliest contrivances ever to be called vehicles

Thanks Art.

One year, sometime in the late '70s we had a small, private vote...mechanics, drivers, journalists, photogs, etc...for the ugliest "new era" Can Am car. I'll have to check with GKirby to refresh my memory of which car it was. When I come across the snap I have of it I'll post it.

It was not a pretty sight.

:eek:

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#17 David M. Kane

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Posted 06 May 2012 - 01:43

The car was given to the Engineering faculty of a Canadian University (in Toronto IIRC). The drivers hated it with a passion.

I didn't realize the car was also driven by Chris Amon. He was very good development driver. Was it that Walter didn't want to spend cash to develop it. Apparently Walter gave the car to Gilles as possible compensation. Gilles then, it my understand, gave to the University Engineering School with the understanding was never to raced again. What parts of my story are right and what parts are wrong?

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#18 Marc Sproule

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 07:05

flickr tells me that some hits on my images have been coming from this thread so i thought i might update my input a bit.

have quite a few images in my can am set now...unfortunately they're all "new era" though.

https://www.flickr.c...57623311345506/

lots of new additions to my other sets too....

https://www.flickr.c...81980@N03/sets/

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#19 jeffbee

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 11:32

"Is this the same car in which Dino Crescentini lost his life at Mosport during 2008 ?"

This should answer the question, albeit late: http://www.crapwagon...was-undriveable

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#20 D28

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 15:46

I didn't realize the car was also driven by Chris Amon. He was very good development driver. Was it that Walter didn't want to spend cash to develop it. Apparently Walter gave the car to Gilles as possible compensation. Gilles then, it my understand, gave to the University Engineering School with the understanding was never to raced again. What parts of my story are right and what parts are wrong?

Nigel Roebuck discussed the Wolf-Dallara in the Aug 2012 issue of MotorSport. He said that Chris Amon loathed the car and was already thinking about hanging up the helmet when Brian Redman had his massive shunt at St. Jovite (1977). Amon drove the St Jovite round and quietly called it a day. He handed over to a very quick Gilles Villeneuve. Roebuck quotes Amon as telling him "I think he's quicker than anyone I've ever seen".

I can find nothing about the car being donated to a university. This picture is a photo of the car as Villeneuve drove it in 1977.

$_57.JPG