Laguna Seca Vintage Race in McLaren M6B CanAm - Video

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GarySheehan
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Laguna Seca Vintage Race in McLaren M6B CanAm - Video

Post by GarySheehan »

Image

Bob Lee once again gave me the fantastic opportunity to drive his beautiful 1968 McLaren M6B Can-Am car. This time at Laguna Seca during an HMSA event mid-week. We entered the "enduro" race on Wednesday morning, which was a unique event. There were two races; the fast cars were in Group 1 and the slower cars were in Group 2. Each of the group 1 cars was teamed with a Group 2 team to help balance the performance disparity. Each race group was 45 minutes long, with a mandatory pitstop between 20 and 30 minutes into the race.

I would start the race, go a few laps after I saw the 20 minute board, then hand off to Bob. It made sense for me to start since I'm shorter than Bob and required a "seat insert" and some belt padding so I could fit in the car properly. Me "seat insert" consisted of a folded moving blanket with two more folded towels all bound together with duct tape. It weighed about 10 lbs. and looked ugly and ridiculous, but put me close enough to the pedals and wheel to drive. Unfortunately, it did very little to hold me in place laterally and I was sliding back and forth in the cockpit all race!

The link below is for the video from my stint. It's a big file (141MB), but it shows synchronized cameras off the front and rear of car side-by-side. We opted to start last to be in the action and get a bunch of the other cars on video.

You will notice in the beginning of the race (which starts single file) that I was a bit tentative through traffic. I'd only had 4 laps of practice the previous day at Laguna and it was the first time I'd been on slicks in this car. Also, all of these cars are rare, expensive and have much more than mere financial value to their owners.

You will also notice that I blow two upshifts fairly early in the video. This gearbox is very clunky and is not easy to shift. I found clutchless upshifts and skipping all gears but the final one on downshifts to be the most reliable. Also, a little too much rear brake bias led to some very late downshifts as I was focusing on keeping the car going in the right direction.

Finally, on my last lap, I blow yet another upshift. By this time I'm exhausted! The steering in this car is so damned heavy when the car is loaded up in the corners that it really gets me breathing hard. It's very hard to finesse the wheel when you're fresh, and very hard just to steer when you're tired.

Oh, I almost forgot. You may notice a little oversteer from time to time...

http://www.teamsmr.com/movies/McLarenLagunaRace.wmv

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
http://www.garysheehan.com
Johnf514
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Post by Johnf514 »

Gary - I hadn't commented yet on this thread because I'm at work and cannot see the video. However, I'm excited to download it and watch when I get home! That car is beautiful - you're a fortunate and appropriately-skilled individual to get to have that kind of opportunity. :D

What a beast! I can only imagine how much work you have to put in to driving that car - and driving it at the edge of the envelope makes it even more amazing!

Again, I'm looking forward to watching the video, and I'm gonna do a little plug of my own: I got the Mazda3!
2007 Mazda3
Mods: 15% tint, Eibach ProKit
2006 Ninja 636
Mods: NOS & sidecar
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Draklen
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Post by Draklen »

Yeah. Gonna have to download this when I get home.

BTW Gary, how's the race-gas burn from last time you drive this beast?
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eaglecatcher
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Post by eaglecatcher »

man, thatcar just keeps looking better and better each time I see it.
Z1 Intake
Z1 2.5" Test pipes
HKS 65mm Hi-Power Exhaust
AMS Short Shifter
SZ Subframe Spacers
HKS Vein Pressure Converter
DDM Tuning 6000k HIDs
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