"It's not just bad in the corners, either. Once last year at Edmonton, you know that long straight past the pits, I got up close behind Motschenbacher, I think it was. Really up close, right on his tail. Suddenly I realized my front wheels were off the ground."

Quickly, so as not to appear to be overly impressed by a wheel standing Can-Am McLaren, I turn to Revvie. What are his impressions of the M8F?

"It's definitely a car for a high-speed track. On slow turns there isn't any down force and the back wants to come out – on mine, anyway. Maybe it's just my driving, maybe I'm just not used to it yet.

"One Group 7 car can be as different from another as it is from a Trans-Am car, you know. It's just a matter of how it's set up. Denny thinks this sudden oversteer thing is because of the engine coming on so strong, but I kind of think it's chassis problems.

"It's a car that is very sensitive to changes in things like ride heights. We've been playing with my ride heights and spring rates all over the map. My front end was wallowing and pitching around so we went to stiffer springs to hold it up. But now it has a tendency to 'speedboat' on the straight.
"Compared with my Lola T220 of last year, the steering is much lighter. I'd say that's the major difference. And this car seems to do a better job of keeping level. It's got more front downforce and the aerodynamics are better balanced."

Suppose that right now Hulme were to start laying down a successor to the M8 series. What areas would he try to improve?

"Well… I suppose possibly we'd be thinking about a suspension system more like the F I car. And we might do some looking into aerodynamics. You see the nose on the Lola that Jackie's driving; well, we've been keeping that in mind for some time, it's just that they've done it before we have. One doesn't know just what is ideal for us. You could start in with an exhaustive aerodynamics program to find out – or you could whoosh-bonk it! Probably get the same results."

"Whoosh-bonk" just about describes the race. Stewart's new Lola, the L&M-supported T260, was taken to Mosport for a private day of testing on Thursday. It proved a valuable advantage for the first day of official qualifying, Friday, for he was fastest at 114.5mph, or I min 17.3sec. This was 0.9 seconds slower than Gurney's 1970 record but enough to hold off Hulme and Revson at I: 18.0 and I: 18.1. The Gulf-Goodyear-Reynolds McLarens were in their first day on the track and the drivers were confident of doing better the next day. But a combination of factors slowed the track by at least two seconds on Saturday and Stewart retained his pole.

Saturday night the Lola's engine was replaced, and there was something wrong with the throttle linkage Sunday morning. Stewart found it still sticking on the pace lap, so prudently he let Hulme beat him into the first turn. He had to watch the McLaren pull out a lead of six seconds in the first nine laps. But a back marker, in one fell swoop across his nose, cost Hulme all his advantage and Stewart sneaked by. As soon as he was behind, Denny noticed oil leaking from the Lola's new Mk II transmission, so he relaxed and sat comfortably in second place waiting for the inevitable. It happened just before one-quarter distance and Jackie pulled off course into a stone quarry. As he walked back to the pits he watched Hulme and Revson run easily to another nose-to-tail Orange Elephant win, just the kind of sight everyone had hoped Stewart could prevent.

Reprinted from Road & Track November 1971

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