Farewell, Teddy Mayer (...and Big-Block salutes)

[C_Spray]

As part of the memorial service for Teddy Mayer (one of the co-founders of McLaren Racing) this past weekend, Peter Revson's 1971 M8F Can-Am car was brought in and fired up as a final salute. Those of us using this engine (almost all of us...) owe a debt to the guys that pioneered the development of this beast. I can't imagine dealing with one in a 1400 pound car like this one. It practically jumped off the ground when the throttle was blipped.

Farewell, Teddy - and Thanks!

 

[C_Spray]

More...

 

[Dude! Sweet!]

Great tribute!

The picture of Mario made me smile a little. Reminded me of the twin turbo M20 with the "freakin' airplane engine" as he called it.

 

[Sean Stinson]

Very nice....A fitiing final farewell to a true pioneer!!!

 

[Chris]

Yep- nothing more than a grossly-overpowered go-kart. Those were the days of real racing.

 

[TCEd]

That car, the Chaparrel with the auxillary snowmobile engine ground sucker and the 917 Porsche were amazing projects.
ed

 

[C_Spray]

It's amazing how intuitive and resourceful those guys were. The big-block was a brand-new design, not even fully sorted out for street use in 1968, and they made the commitment to go road-racing with it. They built their own cars without engineering and design support from a major auto manufacturer, and Teddy once told me that their total Can-Am program budget never exceeded $200,000 for the entire season.

BTW - That's Roger Penske in the upper right picture in post #1, and Tyler Alexander examining the car in detail in the bottom picture of post #1. Tyler was a partner in McLaren and served as the crew chief for all the McLaren efforts in the 60's, 70's and 80's, and worked as Director of Driveline Development up until this year. He is now retired.

Those of you who appreciate what Teddy accomplished may wish to leave a note on www.TeddyMayer.com There is a link to the guest book there.

 

[MarylandMark]

RIP & thanks for sharing!