Mac Archer's "Sting" CanAm Car!!! -- 1

On Monday, June 16, 2003 your webmaster helped Mac & master mechanic Eric Bernhard test the "Sting" at Buttonwillow Raceway Park near Bakersfield, California.
 
A "thumb's up" from Mac as he passes the pits on an early test lap.  The car looked & sounded great, but had "teething troubles" as can be expected with a newly restored racecar.
 
Mac rumbles through the pit area after a test run.  Mac & Eric were puzzled by a heavy vibration that developed at speed.  They replaced a defective rear tire but that proved not to be the real problem. 

On the next test run Eric & I observed Mac on the fastest part of the course.  Eric's eagle eyes caught the front end buffeting -- causing the vibration.  It appears the nose design generates more downforce than the underlying  support structure can handle.
 
Mac getting a good laugh about something, or else he's just enjoying the hell out of his new ride.  Mac's familiar 427 Cobra is undergoing a much-needed restoration after almost twenty years of historic racing.

The original plan was for Mac to race the "Sting" at the Portland and Road America historic events in July 2003, but the need to deal with the aerodynamic problem forced cancellation of those entries. 
 

4-6-04     From author, photographer and historian Pete Lyons:  

"The "Sting" was designed and built by John Collins for driver Gary Wilson in 1974. In my books I call it the last-ever Unlimited Can-Am car. It's sort of a McLaren-style chassis with Porsche-style bodywork. It only ran two races before the series died early that year." 

4-9-04    Eric Bernhard & Mac Archer have a request re: the "Sting" CanAm car.

"I just learned from John Collins that the Sting actually was in a third race. Two weeks after it finished the last Can-Am at Road America in 1974, and after John quit working for Gary Wilson, the car went to a race at Vacaville. All John recalled, not having been there, was that the car broke a stub axle in the transaxle. So the car must have passed tech and run at least once that weekend. If anyone has or comes across any Vacaville information from July - August 1974, we would be very interested. " 
 
Next:  Mac Archer's "Sting" -- 2

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