The Canadian-American challenge was a spectacular formula. Running from 1966 until the oil crisis of ’74 scuppered the fun, there were no limits on engine size, aerodynamics or aspiration.
Along with Group B rally, which came along a decade after its demise, Can-Am was in other words as close as motor sports ever came to Extreme Fighting.
Think of it and images are conjured of brightly coloured spiders, huge power-to weight ratios and the brutal grapplings of man and machine. Can Am also saw the first wave of wind tunnel tested tech that started to turn beautiful racing cars into mutant brutes.
But amongst the no-nonsense, torsional engineering of Can Am came the gorgeous Ferrari 350 – which was basically a 330 P4 upgraded at Maranello to compete in the series.
Though the low front end of the smoothly-flowing spider body recalls the Lolas and Mclarens that dominated the series, it retained the spectacularly pretty bone structure of the original p4.
Chris Amon, according to sources, scored the car’s best result of 1967 at the Laguna Seca debut when he finished fifth. But despite the lack of podium glory, would not have felt honoured to pilot one of these?
The eye candy above came via those fine folks at RM Auctions May it carry you through the weekend.
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