{"id":490223,"date":"2008-09-01T06:30:57","date_gmt":"2008-09-01T13:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=51610"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:45:52","slug":"can-went-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/can-went-big\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Can-Am Went Big"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Third-time charm! That\u2019s what we Can-Am fans were hoping for 40 Septembers ago. On the first of this month in 1968, our beloved Big Bangers would bellow to life for their third season. Maybe this time the grandly unrestricted sports cars, stunningly powerful and torque-rich machines that were faster than F1s of the day, would achieve their full promise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not that the first two seasons had been bad. We watched four different drivers\u2014John Surtees, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue, and Phil Hill\u2014win the six races of 1966. They did it in two different makes of car (Lola, Chaparral) using two brands of a small-block engine (Chevy, Ford). Some of those races had been very sharp fights, with the novel-winged Chaparral being very fast when it lasted, and McLaren\u2019s team always being a threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Third-time charm! That\u2019s what we Can-Am fans were hoping for 40 Septembers ago. On the first of this month in 1968, our beloved Big Bangers would bellow to life for their third season. Maybe this time the grandly unrestricted sports cars, stunningly powerful and torque-rich machines that were faster than F1s of the day, would achieve their full promise. Not that the first two seasons had been bad. We watched four different drivers\u2014John Surtees, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue, and Phil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":574071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13172,263,74,11272,261,18207],"tags":[17152,11408,60,20226,65,13725,1857,20124,76,20123,20291,20276,17140,548,2827,11855,11382,11572,11502,11362,11597,11470,12897,89,22929,6920,11471,17143,17204],"class_list":["post-490223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-can-am","category-car-culture","category-mclaren","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-car-culture","tag-chaparral","tag-ferrari","tag-ferrari-featured","tag-ford","tag-can-am-racing-history","tag-lola","tag-lola-featured","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-featured","tag-mclaren-canam-featured","tag-mclaren-race-cars-featured","tag-members-only","tag-motorsport","tag-bruce-mclaren","tag-chris-amon","tag-dan-gurney","tag-denis-hulme","tag-jim-hall","tag-john-surtees","tag-mark-donohue","tag-phil-hill","tag-tyler-alexander","tag-porsche","tag-race-cars-featured","tag-laguna-seca","tag-can-am","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-fast-lines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When the Can-Am Went Big<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pete Lyons travels the well-trodden path of escalation that marked the glory days of the Can-Am.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/can-went-big\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/can-went-big\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When the Can-Am Went Big\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pete Lyons travels the well-trodden path of escalation that marked the glory days of the Can-Am.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/can-went-big\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-01T13:30:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T00:45:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/FL200809-p3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete Lyons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pete Lyons\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/can-went-big\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/can-went-big\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pete Lyons\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dee0dc3e0ea3204e52a659a117d5f67f\"},\"headline\":\"When the Can-Am Went Big\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-09-01T13:30:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T00:45:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/can-went-big\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1206,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/can-went-big\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/09\\\/FL200809-p3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Car Culture\",\"Chaparral\",\"Ferrari\",\"Ferrari (Featured)\",\"Ford\",\"History (Can-Am Racing)\",\"Lola\",\"Lola (Featured)\",\"McLaren\",\"McLaren (Featured)\",\"McLaren CanAm (Featured)\",\"McLaren Race Cars (Featured)\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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