Can-Am Cartel

Every driver's dream is to build and race his own car. New Zealand's Bruce McLaren, 31, has carried that dream several fancies farther: practically everyone else is driving his cars too. In this year's six-race Canadian-American Challenge Series for Sports-Racing cars, 16 drivers in a field of 40--including McLaren and his countryman Denis Hulme, 32--are piloting sleek, slope-nosed McLaren-built machines. Last month, in the fourth race of the series at Monterey, Calif., McLaren cars swept the first six places, with Hulme finishing second and McLaren fifth. This week, at Riverside, Calif., his cars took four of the first five places. This time, Hulme finished fifth and McLaren himself sped to victory. Barring accident, the finale at Las Vegas on Nov. 10 should wrap up the championship and send the New Zealanders home with close to $200,000 in prizes.

Light and Subtle. McLaren may sell cars to his rivals, but the ones he and Hulme reserve for themselves are some thing else again. Last year McLaren and Hulme completed a one-two sweep in the Can-Am marathon, winning five of six races and $165,000 of the total $472,720 award money. Only then did McLaren have 34 of his victorious Mark 6A racers reproduced and sold to competitors--including Dan Gurney, who has quite a reputation as a car builder himself. With that, McLaren set out to build a 1968 model that would show its tail pipes to the 1967s.

Called the Mark 8A, McLaren's new car looks like its predecessor. "I think a lot of people were disappointed that we did not come up with something revolutionary," says McLaren, "but we never do anything completely different." Both cars, for example, have an airplane-type monocoque, or frameless chassis, to get maximum strength from minimum weight. Still, there are subtle yet important differences. While the Mark 6A weighed 1,520 Ibs., the new car weighs only 1,450 Ibs.--less than a Volkswagen. The weight-saving was mainly accomplished by completely eliminating the chassis behind the driver's seat; the car's Chevrolet engine (souped up to 650 h.p.) and gearbox carry the rear suspension system and are covered by a simple metal sheath.

Though the cars cost $40,000 to develop and build, they are paying rich dividends. In this year's first and third Can-Am races, at Elkhart Lake, Wis., and Edmonton, Canada, Hulme and McLaren drove to first-and second-place victories. In the Canadian race, both averaged over 100 m.p.h.

Hand and Foot. The son of an Auckland garage owner, McLaren started tinkering with cars at 15, after a horseback-riding injury ruled out the usual boyhood sports. That same year, he entered his father's Austin in a hill-climbing race and finished second in his class. By the time he was 21 he had established himself as his country's foremost driver; so off he went to Europe to try his hand and foot at big-time racing. For the next five years, he learned his craft as a member of the Cooper factory team, working his way up to Grand Prix competition. But he always wanted to build as well as drive.

In 1964, he formed McLaren Racing, Ltd. and started designing light, nimble machines for the Grand Prix and Sports-Racing circuits. The breakthrough came last year with his Mark 6A in the Can-Am competition. Another important boost came when he persuaded fellow countryman Hulme to join him. The new team soon turned into the most successful on the circuit. McLaren is a patient, nuts-and-bolts plodder who has to know all the whys and wherefores. Hulme cares only if something works. "Denny and I are different types of people," McLaren says, "but we speak the same language." Which may be another way of saying that hardly anyone at the tracks can fathom their thick New Zealand accents.

Buttressed by Goodyear Tire money, McLaren and his company are now worth nearly $1,000,000. At the 10,000-sq.-ft. shop near London, McLaren and his 25 workers have built 26 cars in the various classifications this year--including three formula cars. In eleven Grand Prix races so far, Hulme has won twice, stands third in points to England's Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart of Scotland. A victory in the season's finale at Mexico City this week could give Hulme--and his team--yet another championship.

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