In 1968 Bruce McLaren and his team developed the McLaren M8A for that years Can-Am season. It was an evolution of the M6A (which had won the championship in 1967) and had an all-aluminium 7 litre Chevrolet big block V8 engine. The engines were built by Gary Knutson and developed around 620hp. For the 1969 season the M8B was developed, it had a slightly upgraded engine which now developed 630 hp.
A partnership was created between Bruce McLaren Racing and the Racing Division of Trojan Limited to build the M8C, which was a customer version of the M8A,. Going forward, Trojan would build all customer cars and Bruce McLaren Racing would build the works cars.
The 1970 season saw the introduction of the M8D. The engine was enlarged to 6.7 litres and now produced 670 hp. For the 1971 season McLaren introduced another customer car, the M8E. It was based on the M8B and again built exclusively by Trojan Limited.
The final works car was the M8F which was also introduced in 1971. It now had an 8 litre engine which produced 740 hp. The final customer car was the M8FP which was based on the M8F.
Total McLaren M8 production comprised of 2x M8A’s and 1x spare tub, 2x M8B’s and 1x spare tub, 10x M8C’s, 4x M8D’s, 11x M8E’s (plus 2x unnumbered tubs’) and 2x M8F’s.
Racing team VDS and driver Teddy Pilette raced this car for the first time at the July 1971 Hockenheim Interserie. In the expectancy of a M8F, count Van der Straeten bought a M8E. As was common in this era of competition, the car was sold without an engine, allowing the team or owner to choose exactly as they wished, seeing as there was no regulation on engine size or manufacturer etc. The car was a customer McLaren M8E, fitted with a Louis Morand built 7.5 litre alloy big block Chevy, They finished tenth and went on to finish seventeenth at the August 1971 Keimola race. After an engine failure at the October 1971 Hockenheim Interserie race, they began development of a Morand twin, turbocharged Chevrolet engine.
The car was raced again in 1972. The clutch failed at the May Imola Interserie race but was upgraded in time for the Silverstone Interserie race. After driving in the rain, Teddy Pilette was quoted as saying the car was terrific (a combination of horrific and terrifying). He went on to finish eighth but this car was traded in on a McLaren M8F afterwards. The twin turbo engine stayed with racing team VDS while this car was upgraded to M8D’batmobile’ bodywork and sold to Kaye Griffiths.
Kaye Griffiths' first race in this car was the May 1973 Silverstone Interserie race where he finished eighth. He went on to finish eighth overall (sixth in class) at the June 1973 Norisring Interserie race but the clutch failed at the July 1973 Hockenheim Interserie race and the transmission failed at the September 1973 Hockenheim Interserie race.
Kaye Griffiths' big break came when John Bonham, the drummer for Led Zeppelin sponsored this car. He also determined the paint of the car. The deal was announced on the Evening News Motor Racing Showboat in January 1974 and so began a string of top finishes. Kaye won the March 1974 Silverstone Sports GT and Formula Libre races and was runner up at the April 1974 Silverstone Formula Libre race. After a spin during the may 1974 Silverstone Interserie race he went on to finish second in the May 1974 Silverstone Formula Libre race and move into the lead of the Haybrand Racewear Formula Libre championship points. After this, the car was sold to John Harper who entered it in the August 1974 Silverstone Formula Libre race.
The subsequent history is not known. in the hands of its current owners, the Moritz family in the USA. The car was seen in historic races. The car’s dark blue with white stars and grey ‘airship’ paint scheme looked stunning – seemingly straight from the airbrushes of the Hipgnosis design agency. (It was, in fact, designed by Richard Evans Design & Art Direction, Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire – not far from the drummer’s home.)
The McLaren M8E Can-Am cars were McLaren 'customer cars', constructed by Trojan Ltd. for McLaren. This particular McLaren, chassis number 80-01, was originally purchased by Alain de Cadenet's Ecurie Evergreen Team. It was driven by Chris Craft in the European-based Interserie events from 1970 through 1973. Craft captured first place at Norisring and second place at Imola. In 1971 and 1972, this chassis did also some CanAm races with Bob Brown Racing and some with Jerry Rosbach at the wheel.
Photos from the Norisring interserie 1971
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The McLaren #80-01 next stayed the United States where it wound up in the capable hands of Page Racing and Buddy Lazier.
In 1975, the car was badly damaged. Warren Tope crashed (and died) during a race held in a street circuit in Pontiac, Michigan. He was driving the McLaren M8E at that time owned by Gordy Oftedahl of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The car was subsequently sold and repaired.
In 1984 the #80-01 passed to a new owner (Bruce McCaw?) and received a complete, ground-up restoration. Beginning in 1988 the M8E ran at various vintage racing events across the country, painted in orange. It changed owners in 2002 (Wade Carter) and in 2004 (Nereo Dizane). In 2005 it came into the possession of Tom Malloy, California. He already had a collection of racecars and memorabilia. The car retained his orange colour. It did some laps in the Infinion event in 2023.
Only for the interserie 1971 (Georg Loos) and 1972 (Franz Pesch).It was sold to Rolf Götz, who raced the car again in 1973 and 1974. The car was again at the interserie in 1975 entered by Swiss owner Hans-Rudolf Urech. His last race was at the Nurburgring race in September 1978.
Not much info after that.
