Phillip Island Classic Preview
Vic Elford behind the wheel of ‘Matey’
This weekend Phillip Island will play host to one of the world’s largest historic motor racing events. I’m excited to be a part of it, and even more so to be behind the wheel of ‘Matey’ (a McLaren M8E Can-Am car!!). The Can-Am series produced some of the fastest race cars in the world between the late 60’s and early 80’s. There were only two rules that needed to be followed when building a car:
The cars had to have the wheels covered
There had to be a passenger seat
Needless to say, there were a lot of interesting concepts developed over the years including Ground Effects, effective Turbos and the introduction of Aerospace materials like Titanium! ‘Matey’ is no exception, putting out around 750hp and only weighing 750kg, the power to weight ratio is 1:1. Combining this sort of power with 1970’s down force, brakes and safety it will certainly be an exciting car to drive…
This weekend will be the first time the car has been driven since Laguna Seca in 2016. We will give the car a shakedown and test on Thursday prior to the event starting on Friday. I’ll be racing in the ‘Historic Q & R’ category alongside a Porsche 956 and Porsche 962 as well as 10 other Sports 2000! Over the weekend, we will have a qualifying session and 5 Races. If you’re around, make sure you come say hi and check out the car!
