c02.04.06__8x_051_FLM_0070_1.jpg (93095 bytes)

Photo ID # c02.04.06__8x_051_FLM_0070_1
Car #: #8X & #51
Driver (s) : Mike McNamara and Wayne Young
Location: Flemington
Date: 1970's
Photographer: Ace Lane
Photo provided by: John Cornell
Comments: Check out the hood on Mike McNamara's #8X...  All around cool looking #8X being followed by the very unique little #51 Wayne Young. (Thanks Scott)
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Date: Visitor's  Name:

Comment:

02/13/06 Tom Berry I remember this car being very low and Mike had the left side of the roof hinged like the escape hatch on Michael Waltrip's cup car. Mike was ahead of his time!
02/13/06 Phil Long A Question on Wayne Young: Did he also have a unique Metropolitan Bodied Mod in the 70s??
04/12/06 Mike McNamara (Jr.) Tom Berry was very right about this car being very low. Dad was friends with the late Mark Donohue, and I think Mark's Indy car experience influenced how Dad built this car. The thing actually had 3 hood scoops, 1 huge one to cover the injectors, and 2 "baby" scoops on each side of it to clear the valve covers which were probably 2 or so inches above the upper front frame rails!The escape hatch was the only way to get in and out without being a contortionist, I don't think the side window openings were even 20 inches deep.

The frame was also very narrow as well, so narrow that there was not enough room to the left of the bellhousing to put both a brake and a clutch pedal. Dad whipped up some creative linkage that put the clutch pedal behind his left
heel and you had to push down on it. Not a bad idea that worked great in the shop but... The first night out, warmups and the heat race weren't too bad, didn't qualify, and got stuck in a long caution filled consi.. Dad said by the end of that consi. his left quad muscle was on fire and he had to use his hand to push down on his knee to engage the clutch.

So much for the 70's ergonomics...
     
     
     

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