The M8F customer car was sold in 1972 for Can Am and Interseries racing. As usual McLaren sold older designs to their customers allowing them to stay at least one step ahead of their competition.
Technical The M8F Team and production cars had several updates over the earlier M8's. The full length fences down the side of the body and increasing horsepower are the most obvious, however several other thing were done to enhance performance
M8F 1-72
1-72 was originally purchased by Roger McCaig for the 1972 Can Am. McCaig ran the first five races and ChuckParsons ran the last one at Riverside. Ownership:
McCaig
Nelson
Butz
Thomsjo
Arnold
Irwin
Howell While owned by Howell the car was wrecked and restored.
Cole
Jagger (1997)
Dino Crescentini (2003)
Wade Carter (01/2004)
Rob Kauffman
M8F 2-72
2-72 was originally purchased by Helmut Felder. It was driven by Helmut Kelleners and Michel Weber in Interseries 1972 and 1973. Purchased and raced for many years by Peter Hoffman. Car was sold 2015.
Helmut Felder
Peter Hoffman
?
M8F 3-72
This car was originally purchased by George Loos and run in the Interseries.
Georg Loos
Sam Brown, USA (1980)
Tom Shelton
Joel Finn (1997)
Bob Rubin (2001)
Dean E. Butler
Ross Maxwell (8/2005)
? Italy (~2014)
M8F 4-72
AMG purchased 4-72 and installed a very heavy Mercedes turbo engine. It didn't work very well and it was sold to Hans Heyer. Heyer put a Mercedes body on the car. It was recently sold to Peter Hoffman.
AMG
Hans Heyer installed Mercedes body
Peter Hoffman returned it to standard configuration
M8F 5-72
5-72 was originally purchased by Warren Agor. It was parted out by Bill Jongbloed in the late 70's. Conte bought the remains and reassembled it. It was later restored by Gordy Meford.
Warren Agor
Larry Hunt
Bill Jongbloed
Phil Conte
Dick Leppla
Dick Silver
Gordon Meffert (1997)
Harry Matthews
Don Edwards
?
Shehady
M8F 6-72
VDS purchased the car and they had the S/N tag from their M8E (80-08) put on the car to avoid customs. The car was raced in the Interseries.
Racing Team VDS
Charles Agg
Victor Myette
Peter Schleilfer (2004)
Michiel Campagne (2005~2009
AUS (2015)
Chris Springer (2023)
M8F 7-72
Has Wiedmer was the first owner of 7-72. He ran several Can Am races and sold the car to Lothar Motschenbacher. The car was driven in the Can Am by Cannon, Bell, Durst, and Motschenbacher. 7-72 is now thought to be in a private collection in Germany.
Hans Wiedmer
Motschenbacher (1973-74)
Mike Bohannan
Chuck McConnell
Tom Snellbach (1996)
Car is thought to be in Germany
M8F 8-72
The first owner sold the car to Bill and Frank Kahlick. Frank ran the car in the 1973 Riverside Can Am. The car was sold to Bill Cuddy who ran several Can Am races in 1974. Sam Posey tested the car for Cuddy and Carroll Smith helped with development. Cuddy sold the car to Bud Romak. Romak held the track record at Riverside for a few minutes before Randy Townsend brought out the 917-30. The car was severely burnt at Sears Point in 1976 while owned by Romak. The burnt car was sold to Hal Whipple who started restoring it.
first owner
Bill and Frank Kahlick
Bill Cuddy
Bud Romak
Hal Whipple
Craig Pence
M8F 9-72
9-72 was purchased in 1973 by Bill Cuddy. He ran a few club races and sold the car to Commander Motor Homes. Commander ran the car in seven Can Am races in 1973. The car was wrecked at Edmonton by Danny Hopkins. Because repairs could not be finished in time for the next race at Laguna Seca, they built another car. The unfinished 9-72 was sold to Fred Knoop when he purchased Commanders M20.
Bill Cuddy
Commander Motor Homes
Fred Knoop
Hal Whipple
Craig Pence
Because repairs could not be finished in time for Laguna Seca, Commander built a car incorporating many of their ideas. Using a spare tub, a shovel nose front body, 19" rear wheels,and M20 front suspension they built a new car. Commander qualified the car at Laguna Seca and Riverside but raced the M20 instead. While this car never raced in the Can-Am, it was the fastest of the normally aspirated cars in qualifying at Laguna Seca and Riverside. This car was claimed to be the Revson car for many years.