Tuesday 14th October 2014

Chris Goodwin's McLaren M1B: Time For Tea?

What can you race when you drive P1s for a living? A McLaren Can-Am car, of course

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Without coming across as overly sentimental, there's a really heartwarming story to this McLaren video as well as some excellent race footage. Chris Goodwin owns the McLaren M1B with his dad Tony. The latter raced similar stuff during the 60s and 70s, Chris loves the era and loves McLaren, there was an M1B for sale in San Francisco... The rest is history.

Now it's raced, and raced hard, at the Goodwood Revival. This M1B was the first car made in McLaren's very successful Can-Am years and is therefore a pretty significant model. A very, very fast one too as the Whitsun Trophy race coverage proves. The Goodwood motor circuit always looks really fast but everything appears in fast forward from the seat of Can-Am car. Keep a look out for the hypnotic vapours from the top of the engine too.

As would expect, Chris certainly does the old Can-Am car justice, reminding us all of the superb racing the Revival is known for. Counting down to 2015 already...

Watch the vid here.
 

[Lead pic: LAT]

[scarecrow]

I would love to have a drive of that. On my bucket list.

[Amizade]

epic.

Very glad I got to see the race in person, but the in-car footage is superb & a great story.

[MikeGoodwin]

great!

[anonymous-user]

jesus christ. A P1 must be a walk in the park compared to that

[sideways man]

Development driver for McClaren,and he races a can am car for a hobby.

Now that monkey has left ph towers,I reckon Mr Goodwin has just been handed the keys to the best job in the world cupboard.

I wonder if they pay him also,or he does it for free?

[Victor Hugo]

I would say you can take nostalgia too far...lest we forget, Bruce McLaren died testing one if his (later) CanAm cars at Goodwood. I was thinking this watching the Matra in Cevert colours that sometimes these events can gloss over the horrific tragedies that blighted the sport in the 1960's and 70's

[gixxer]

Victor Hugo said:

I would say you can take nostalgia too far...lest we forget, Bruce McLaren died testing one if his (later) CanAm cars at Goodwood. I was thinking this watching the Matra in Cevert colours that sometimes these events can gloss over the horrific tragedies that blighted the sport in the 1960's and 70's

Can-Am itself was reasonably safe.
Nobody was ever killed during a race.
A few during testing as I recall. McLaren was one, Burnett was another.
For a time, these things were the fastest road race cars on the planet so their safety record on the whole was pretty amazing.
Watched them at Laguna Seca in the late 60s early 70s.
Quite a show.

[405dogvan]

McLaren are really playing to the YouTube gallery atm - they seem to have the video bug in a big way!

I guess in many ways, Youtube is the 'bedroom poster' of the current supercar generation - the LaFerrari is (to me at least) the most interesting of the current hypercars (an already overpowered V12 with MORE power and LESS weight!!) but the P1 clearly has a stronger public image and thus plays to a wider audience.

Ferrari might need to take note

[tbtstt]

Absolute car pornography. Pretty much all the cars of Can-Am give me a hard on, but the early McLaren's are my pick of the bunch. Stunning looks and a V8 soundtrack: racing car perfection!

[soad]

Just look at those Trumpets!

Pre-Ron Dennis-era cars: McLaren-Elva M1A, McLaren M1B, McLaren M6A, McLaren M6B, McLaren M6B GT, McLaren M8 E/D, McLaren M8F, McLaren M16C, McLaren M23 (Marlboro). McLaren M20 too. There's probably a few more...

[garypotter]

My 1st time at the revival this year and I remember seeing the mclarens lined up in the garages, fantastic races and will be going next year.

I do hope Chris can keep us updated with the racing in the M1B.

[Dave Hedgehog]

superb video

[peshwengi]

What a great video. Great racing too - just a little touching.... just to make sure the other guy knows he's coming past :-)

[Edmundo2]

Great video.