John Morton talks Can-Am

What is a Frisbee?

The Frisbee was a race car that ran a naturally aspirated small-block Chevrolet V8 producing only 525 horsepower with a race weight of around 1600 pounds. Re-read that and let it sink in for a second. These things were ridiculously fast and were built on an open-wheel Formula 5000 chassis.

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1 minute 10.5 seconds

That’s the lap time this car set at Willow Springs International Raceway during a testing session with John at the wheel. For the younger readers out there I’m not talking about Streets of Willow…I’m talking about “the big track.” This lap time is the 8th fastest lap time ever set according to the track’s website at an average speed of 128mph.

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Piloting a time machine

“It’s not as hard as it sounds,” Morton tells me. “I guess you could say it takes some commitment because you’re in a survival situation if something happens [laughs] usually it doesn’t though.” You’re basically in really deep you know what if anything goes wrong at speed.

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Top Speed

Top speed is surprisingly low. “On the straightaway at Willow we only saw about 160mph, but you can go so fast around the corners you run in the 10s,” he recalls. He then casually says, “You get used to it.”

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How it works

It’s all about air flow! “The 5-liter cars started in 1977 and were in the early stages of ground effects. There was a lot of experimentation and not a lot of knowledge about aerodynamics.” He pauses for a moment reflecting on how far the design has evolved before saying, “Big teams almost know everything now. Back then the cars were really fast because they were light with good power and some downforce.”

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917 or Frisbee?

“I don’t know why, but if you looked at the lap records on tracks they both ran on they were really close. The 917/30 would run lap times almost exactly the same as the Frisbee at Riverside. Within a half a second,” Morton states matter of factly. 

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Mavericks

The guys who drove in Can-Am are clearly wired in a different way than most drivers. “It’s not that hard” and “if you crash you’re in a survival situation” are said in such a way to make you wonder if these guys knew the risk or they simply didn’t care.

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