3 replies to this topic

[bitzman]

Back around 1965 Bruce McLaren was loaned the tub of an aluminum chassied
GT40 with a big block Ford and hewland gearbox.
He supervised the building of it into a roadster Can Am car
I think it was pretty unsuccessful. so my first question is: why, when , with an alloy tub, it
must have weighed a lot less than a regular GT40.
But the story gets more interesting. The car got back to SA and they put a Mk. II nose and tail on it, (plus revised the suspension) painted it red and
entered it at Sebring where it won.
So is this car occupying pride of place in a museum?
No, it was reportedly cut in half and tossed into a landfill in Torrance,CA.
My question is: has anyone found it?
                            does anyone know what year?
                           will a metal detector detect aluminum?
                            

I am ready to play Indiana Jones if I can get pointed in the right direction....

[DubbsFaris]

I just got an answer on this, and it is a wild a$$ guess on their part, and Im not from the area or ever been there, but-

I would look at Kagel Canyon Landfill, but Im gonna warn you, the landfill is highly hazardous, and IF it ended up IN the landfill, I would guess it has tons of debris on top of it by now.  Kagel was relatively young back in those days, but was where most of the big items ended up.

My guess is when something like that came across the dump, someone probably kept it or sold it off.  I would go to the administration offices and ask for someone who was there back then, and I bet a retired worker would remember seeing a car like that.  Good luck though.  A metal detector wont help you, because its all filled with metal pieces there.

[richstang]

interesting post. Is this the car your looking for? (Chassis 110 X1)
 66 Sebring GT40_X1.jpg   116.98K   23 downloads

How in the world do you plan on searching for that car if it is in the landfill buried under tons and tons of trash and dirt?

If I recall correctly is this a 1 of 3 built car. Would it be the same as one of these advanced ford cars.
 65 Ford GT -111 No194 Spyder a.jpg   37.11K   16 downloads    65 Ford GT a.jpg   64.04K   9 downloads      65lm15b.jpg   72.44K   8 downloads

Edited by richstang, 04 April 2011 - 05:04 PM.

[sportscars]

It would be great to find it, but I agree that if ended up in the land fill, it is now flat as a pancake and buried under thousands of tons of garbage. Besides it would cost you a million dollars IF you could get a permit from some government agency to dig all that trash up. Bound to be a severe health hazzard!

I wouldn't doubt that it ended up in the trash - after all they tried to sell the daytona coupes for $5000 each after they were retired. Those are now worth millions.