Can-Am Darkside

As you’ll read in this month’s Racecar Profile, I was given a rare opportunity to drive one of the ultimate iterations of the Can-Am car, the championship-winning Shadow DN4. As you’ll also read, the thought of driving this car scared the crap out of me!

Over the past 20 years of producing this magazine, I’ve had the chance to drive nearly every genre of racecar—open-wheel, closed-wheel, production, and purpose-built. I’ve driven Le Mans winners and Grand Prix winners, as well as a few early Can-Am cars. But the cars from the final years of the Can-Am were decidedly different. These were cars that not only featured at or more than 1000-hp, but in many cases almost as much torque! The thing that made the Can-Am so special was the fact that it had virtually no rules. This is also the primary factor that made these cars so very dangerous. If a driver of the caliber of Bruce McLaren can lose his life in one of these machines, quite frankly who are we to think that we are capable and safely driving one?