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Written by:
Gregg Leary
11/13/2008 - 09:23 AM
Charlotte, North Carolina
"CAN-AM: The Speed Odyssey"
DVD
Narration by Sam Posey and Jim Hall
Review by Gregg Leary
Previously, I gave Robert Nevison's "50 Years of Formula 1 On-Board" my highest rating, five out of five lug nuts. He's done it again with "CAN-AM: The Speed Odyssey." It's another tour de force. What's even better? You get more "bang for your buck." "CAN AM" gives you a half hour more content than "50 Years of Formula 1," which makes it an extraordinary value. The DVD jacket teases with the following text:
"The Speed Odyssey takes you on the wildest ride in road racing. 1966-1973 CAN AM Challenge Cup: the quintessential epic adventure in an era of change and discovery, where heroic drivers from Formula One and around the world battle in their brutally fast road racing machines on the daunting race tracks across North America."
"A Road Racing Counter-Culture. The CAN AM rule book intentionally had few restrictions, a championship which created the fastest most powerful road racers. These radical race cars and their world renown innovations pushed the limits and sometimes beyond."
What makes "CAN AM" so unique is that it is meticulously and seamlessly edited from original CAN AM motion picture archival footage.and melded to spectacular sound. Nostalgia never looked and sounded so good.
Someone must have found the key to the vault. "Now all generations can experience this timeless road racing adventure, an odyssey of pure speed, fierce race competition, radical innovations and ground shaking sounds."
Sam Posey narrates the bulk of the DVD and does so in his inimitable poetic style. Listening to Sam is like eavesdropping on your favorite uncle telling tales at Thanksgiving or Christmas. It is a delight.
"The open twisting road in a two-seater sports car with the top down.
It's the essence of driving. And the essence of sports car racing is the wide open track.competition and a quest for speed." So
Bruce McLaren gives an overview of Mosport in 1966 using a track map with in-car and aerial footage interspersed brilliantly. Bruce states, "We get wheelspin in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear.up to 140 miles per hour." Are you kidding me?
Posey gives us the background on the CAN-AM Series.
"The sports racing cars are now called GROUP 7. It is a class of racing with virtually no restrictions on engines, chassis, or aerodynamics.a road racing counterculture with the freedom to innovate. A new series is created, Canadian American Challenge Cup or CAN-AM."
Sam's description of the famous "Corkscrew" at Laguna Seca defines what separates the men from the boys and the racers from the non-racers.
"At the top of the hill is an exhilarating sequence of turns called the Corkscrew. You enter with a hard left. Suddenly the road disappears below you, the car becomes unsteerable and in that moment you go hard on the gas flicking the car from left to right. Just as you're sure to spin, the road comes back up under you, compressing the car into the pavement.giving you traction to blast on down the hill." The combination of Posey's poetry and the vintage footage is awesome.
How fast were the Can-Am machines? In 1967 Mosport hosted both Formula One and Can-Am races. Jim Clark set the Formula One pole. In similar conditions on the same track, five Can-Am drivers qualified faster than Clark's F1 pole: Hulme, McLaren, Gurney, Spence and Surtees.
Footage of the 1968 Road America race run in the rain is frightening. Sam Posey says, "The spray blinds everybody except the leaders. You keep your foot down even though you can't see ahead. The Can-Am cars have so much power that in the rain you can spin the rear wheels even above 150 MPH." I guess that's why I just write about racing.
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