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For nine seasons the CanAm series wow'ed racing fans with the most innovative and brutally fast sports cars the world had ever seen. For six of those seasons, Bruce McLaren's "orange elephants" dominated the series in a way rarely seen in a series before or after. Between the beginning of the 1967 season and the end of the 1971 season for a total of 43 races, only 4 races weren't won by McLarens and they won all of the races in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Most of these winners were versions of the M8 series of cars.
GMP's #5 M8A that Denny Hulme used to win the 1968 CanAm Championship is representative of all these beautifully designed and prepared cars. The model's rear clip removes to show the monstrous 427 c.i. all-aluminum Chevrolet big block and Hewland LG500 4-speed transaxle that served as stressed chassis members. Looking at this model, you can feel the thought and engineering that made McLaren such a successful builder. The model shows the shift linkage, radiators with photo-etched inserts, ignition wiring and many of the plumbing lines that made the car functional. The doors on both sides of the cockpit open with stainless-steel hinges and if you look down the throats of the injectors, you'll even see the butterflies and the throttle shafts beautifully presented. The paint and graphics are accurate and nicely done. If you let your mind wander a little, you can almost hear the deep-throated roar of this car coming down the back straight at Riverside at full-song.
The only negatives are some shortcuts taken in molding the body and engine accessories. This is one of those cars that you'll look at and admire for a long time and be very glad you added to your collection.
(08/24/2001)
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