[Video] Onboard with Carlos Sainz Jr in the McLaren M8D
Witness the sheer brutality of the McLaren M8D with a multi-camera onboard ride with Carlos Sainz Jr. He swaps his 2019 MCL34 for the 1970 M8D, with its wild looks and even wilder performance.
The M8D was nickednamed the Batmobile in period thanks to the wedge-like wing mounts that circumvented the ban on strut-mounted wings that had proliferated in the previous season. It was while developing the new aerodynamic package that Bruce McLaren lost his life at the wheel of an M8D during testing. The team pulled together after the tragedy to give McLaren one of its most successful seasons in Can-Am racing, the M8D winning nine out of ten rounds of the 1970 season.
Because the M8D was less aerodynamically efficient than its predecessor, the team sought even greater power to compensate. A silicone-aluminium block for the Chevrolet engine was the answer, and in 8.0-litre form it could produce 700bhp. McLaren actually went with a 670bhp 7.6-litre version of the engine for greater reliability.
In this video, you can watch as Carlos Sainz Jr wrestles all that power up the Goodwood Hill.