Automotive Art – Arthur Benjamins’ Orange Thunder

Monsters come alive

In 1966 things were spicing up with a totally new motor racing series – Can-Am. It started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two races in Canada (Can) and four races in the United States of America (Am). The series was initially sponsored by Johnson Wax. The regulations were minimal and permitted unlimited engine sizes, allowed turbocharging supercharging and virtually unrestricted aerodynamics. It virtually was an “anything goes” policy. As long as the car had two seats, bodywork enclosing the wheels, and met basic safety standards, it was allowed.

A plethora of designs followed – ranging from the sublime to the seemingly ridiculous – but which all existed for a short time proving what emanated from the fertile minds of a few, the stuff that worked and what didn’t.