1970 Shadow MK1 'Mosport' in action: 700+HP/815Kg V8-powered Go-Kart from the MENTAL Can-Am Era!

When it was announced that there would have been a celebration of the Shadow team at this year's Festival of Speed I literally jumped for joy and hoped to see the mental machine you see up here. Prepared by Era Motorsport, the car's owner made it stretch its legs in the excellent hands of 2024 BTCC Champion, Jake Hill ‪@jakehillracing‬.

The 'Mosport' was designed by Trevor Harris as an upgraded and adapted version of his original Mk1 Prototype, built in a totally controversial way compared to the then current Can-Am machines. In the late 1960s the championship was based on the Group 7 regulations, which were very permissive. One can almost say that they had no rules. Open wheels weren’t allowed and the cars had to be nominal two seaters, but that really was about it. And in fact this freedom led to the creation of truly cutting-edge cars in those years.

Talking about edges, Harris idea was to build effectively a go-kart with an enormous engine, a minimal front area and a very low and aerodynamic body. All these features however meant that the car also had smaller wheels than normal and consequently brakes of inadequate size for the speeds that the car would have been able to reach. The Prototype (the black one you see at 1:41 ) was unveiled in late 1969 but it remained as such since the Sports Car Club of America banned moveable aerodynamic devices after its unveil. As the car wasn't equipped with any rear wing, Harris designed an airbrake system consisting of two small vertical elements at the front and a large horizontal wing at the rear which were activated by pressing the brake pedal. You can fin more about it at this link: https://shadowmk1.weebly.com/history....

Don Nichols, founder of the AVS Shadow team, needed a car for the 1970 season and so Harris was forced to adapt and redesign the car. Using the Prototype as a basis, the Mk1 was fitted with a fixed rear wing so as to begin its first track tests which revealed all the flaws of this very ambitious project. As mentioned before the car was designed for little wheels: just 10'' in diameter at the front and 12'' at the rear. Tyres were purposely build by Firestone and they were 315 mm wide at the front and 430 mm at the rear. Picture here: https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/...
This resulted in smaller than desirable brakes which needed better cooling. For this reason, 'turbo fan' rims were installed on the front wheels but the solution solved little or nothing. Another big problem of the car was engine overheating, whose attempt to solve the issue was to install the radiators directly inside the huge rear wing.

AVS Shadow made its Can-Am series debut at Mosport Park, the only track where the Mk1 you see up here ran in this configuration. Despite the car finishing in a good 6th position, driven by George Follmer and only 1.9 seconds behind Dan Gurney’s pole time in a works McLaren M8D, Shadow’s had to retire the Mk1 after just 24 laps for overheating problems. In any case, after the race the SCCA declared Shadow's rear mounted radiators illegal and were revised for the following round at Mont Tremblant, which was again disastrous as overheating led to an early retirement.
There was a final Can-Am start at the Mid-Ohio circuit in August 1970 with Vic Elford driving a further evolved Mk1 (looking like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/gksfVQSKz6o... ) but wheel problems would sideline the Shadow Mk1 before it could overheat again.

Now restored, the 'Mosport' Mk1 is powered by a 700+ hp and 950 Nm of torque Chevrolet 427ci big block V8 engine. A couple of cool things I was unable to film:
The car has now four rear tyres. Firestone no longer makes the rear tyres, so in their place there's a dual setup, running modern Formula car rubber. The fronts are the same as those used on the Tyrell 6-wheeler, given they’re very similar in size. https://www.speedhunters.com/2024/06/...
Being so low and sleek little consideration was given to leg room in the original prototype, with the driver needing to splay his feet out to control the throttle with the right foot and braking with the left, as the car was originally designed with a hand clutch. Now on the left there's the clutch pedal and on the right, one above the other, throttle and brake pedal. This was possible with the addition of a bump on the nose of the car.    • Strangest Pedal Box Ever?  

0:00 Preview
0:32 Close ups
1:44 Heading to the start line
3:14 In action on the hillclimb
5:22 Back to the paddock

#ShadowMk1 #ShadowCanAm #CanAm

I have to thank my friend and youtuber ‪@NM2255‬ for the great collaboration done!

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