Can Am pictures.....

[CPT V8 Club]

Now why didnt they offer them in red....


Or how about this one....the real Mckoy maybe...car in Aus apparently..


Or this interesting one.....look carefully

[CPT V8 Club]

Look carefully at this decal.....

[Firenza V8]

The red one unlikely as I see something.  Besides no aerofoil, those find their ways to copies anyway.

The next pic of the white one of the in the car park that is at Welgemoed golf club parking lot.  That photo with a normal camera I took for my friend in Perth.  That is the "Saddles' Car.  That's the CY one.  Present ownerhas begun stripping it again for a complete rebuild to authentic.  That section below the front bumber for example which has been pushed out to contain the bottom of the radiator he since moved back to where it's supposed to be.  It has things like BMW remote booster brake set-up which he has tossed out and many other things, so best was to pull it apart and start again.  Colour is also wrong that is a VW Golf shade of white so also respray due to proper white it came out in.

The CTT one most likely was an original due to some things but there is some modification there.  Probably has another motor as I see another intake, eads etc.  This one though is a good base to make authentic as some critical detail is still intact.

[CPT V8 Club]

The red one unlikely as I see something.  Besides no aerofoil, those find their ways to copies anyway.

The next pic of the white one of the in the car park that is at Welgemoed golf club parking lot.  That photo with a normal camera I took for my friend in Perth.  That is the "Saddles' Car.  That's the CY one.  Present ownerhas begun stripping it again for a complete rebuild to authentic.  That section below the front bumber for example which has been pushed out to contain the bottom of the radiator he since moved back to where it's supposed to be.  It has things like BMW remote booster brake set-up which he has tossed out and many other things, so best was to pull it apart and start again.  Colour is also wrong that is a VW Golf shade of white so also respray due to proper white it came out in.

The CTT one most likely was an original due to some things but there is some modification there.  Probably has another motor as I see another intake, eads etc.  This one though is a good base to make authentic as some critical detail is still intact.

  The CTT car is in fact not an orginal.....I spent about 5 hours looking at it and it had me for about the first 2 hours....until someone told me it in fact wasnt orginal but a well built up replica....note the vents in the bonnet are not quite the same as the CY car. Also note the front isnt quite right but overall it really had me going....the red one is clearly a replica.

Wha really sets the white CTT one as a replica are the side decals which arent right......if one looks carefully and the bonnet is white instead of black and doesnt have the center strip in white....

[Perana302]

Some pics of one of the Can Ams at CITP today.. very nice car





Says 350 on boot badge?


There were several others (4 in total I think)
Great day, but a bit cold...

[Firenza V8]

Thanks for the pics P-302.  J the thing is that visually one cannot just say yes it is or not.  But fake one you need to know your oats.  From the pics I can't tell because all thise items are accessible like a fibreglass bonnet and various other things.  The thing also is that just about all the Can Am's left have been "watered down" through the years as they change hands, as they go through panel shops, as they go through mechanics and those that do work on them.  This was my point about how much qualifies for the real thing these days.  Well in our case as a result of this that most Can Am's left are rather customised more than restored in one way or another that to check one you have to crawl around and under it etc just to be at ease that it indeed began it;s life as one of the 100.  First thing is the Vin tag, they had their own unique series so if it has'nt got that then the owner may say it's been reshelled and all that.  If it has a tag it still does not for sure confirm original as you know with the faked Perana's.

This unfortunately or fortunately whichever way it suits is just as it is in ZA.  Not only with the Firenza's but with many other classics.  Just today when I told my friend about their probably being in the region of 700 Capri Perana's built he was shocked.  Where are they all today ?  Of the 100 Can Am same,  Can there be 30 in various forms from with their own drivelines to those which supposedly was and is basically a shell with some bits left and the rest customised ?  How many with their own drivelines left or lets say 70 percent original content left on them ?  It's staggering, the Granada Perana's, Cortina Perana's, Escort Perana's.  How is it possible that so many exclussive ZA specials could have seen their end here ? 

The rediculous prices that dictate the market of the remaining cars is ditrectly as a result of the hackers.  That car that went to Perth in the pics CTV8 posted "CY....", that car was saved by abolute luch as they deal was almost hi-jacked after the seller agreed.  The car was destined to be stripped to be raced as the other two presently racing.  As I also mentioned the one owner Can Am from East London that is now in Sweden, there were a que of people that did not want to pay 30 000 for it as it was destined for the track too.  This is where the cars went, Granada motors into other conversions, stock cars you name it.  This is where they are still going it seems.  Surely today one would rather use a Frienza coupe shell and go play.  Hardly anything on an original Can Am on the car can be used to go as fast as some of these highly modified classics today.  If you should take an original standard Can Am as it is or was you are guaranteed to be beaten around a circuit in the lowest class Production class car say a 1600 fwd or such.  I know as my friend that raced Class A Group N whom I helpded as pitmac, he tried with another friends Can Am and after about three laps the car could not stop for one and the times were just where I said by the smallest class Group N car at the time.  That is how slow a stock original Can Am is for racing.  It gets through 400 m quick but for racing in my opinion there is no reason why I would not even think of using an original especially as 99% of the classics are all replica's anyway.  Anyhow that's my opinion, with all respect to others opinion.  And yes I do go there to support those that have taken the originals and are racing them. 

[Perana302]

I know absolutly nothing about Can Ams.
exept maybe they were white and black ( and a red one?)
So my photos are just for the looks... the car I posted is VERY well done up (even if probably a replica)
and certianly worth a mention.. (did have a steel bonnet though).

On the topic of Capris...

" Just today when I told my friend about their probably being in the region of 700 Capri Perana's built he was shocked.  Where are they all today ?"

The Capri Perana website has an example of a Capri plate showing #637, so yes where are all the Capris, at yesterdays CITP there were only 8 Capris on show amongst the 1000's of other cars there.

[Firenza V8]

Think that's the positive of these forums, just as with the Capri's for me.  I do know but not enough yet to not get coaught out.  General discussion of things like the battery position and various other "irrelevent detail is what helpes.  See we don;t have a printed complete blue=print on the Capri's or Firenza's.  So just about everything is by word of mouth and such is how information can be twisted as it travell's past the various "braai's" or pubs.  But when a group get into discussion and we leave with a resolved discussion there lies good information which is more likely to be acurate.

In the end it soes'nt matter what the masses say.  Yes that works in tunring a Goverment on it's head.  But as long as a few of us that are passionate about our hobby are sure on fact well so be the rest and what they believe.  What counts is fact.  It either is or is not right ?  The only way to now identify especially Can Am's as authentic at some stage an original is be very detailed inspection.  With the Capri's too I suppose as they seem quite easy to copy.

I'd like to have started another topic but on second thought's I can see big trouble.  It is something that needs to be dismantled.  Information that has been planted out there which has no definite history or trail.

[CPT V8 Club]

I know absolutly nothing about Can Ams.
exept maybe they were white and black ( and a red one?)
So my photos are just for the looks... the car I posted is VERY well done up (even if probably a replica)
and certianly worth a mention.. (did have a steel bonnet though).

On the topic of Capris...

" Just today when I told my friend about their probably being in the region of 700 Capri Perana's built he was shocked.  Where are they all today ?"

The Capri Perana website has an example of a Capri plate showing #637, so yes where are all the Capris, at yesterdays CITP there were only 8 Capris on show amongst the 1000's of other cars there.

That 637 plate was orginally fitted to a Granada Perana.......

[Firenza V8]

Phew, the beauty of these forums !  The yellow Granada Perana that races at Killarney sometimes, that is about BG 1047 something like that dated 1974.  So seems quite a few of those were made up to about that time or late 1974.  CPTV8 where did you find all that knowledge of yours ?

[CPT V8 Club]

Phew, the beauty of these forums !  The yellow Granada Perana that races at Killarney sometimes, that is about BG 1047 something like that dated 1974.  So seems quite a few of those were made up to about that time or late 1974.  CPTV8 where did you find all that knowledge of yours ?

Well I have seen many Granada Perana's and nearly bought one as a project for R5k but the less we say about that the better.....info I have suggested that the Granada was almost a mass product,assuming 500 Capri's were made I am sure more than 500 Granadas were made between 1972 and 1977 whe the last one was made...hence the very high serial numbers...if I saw a Granda V8 with say BG0087 I would be rather concerned but I beleive that by the time the Granada was introduced BG was already well over the 200 mark in his numbering....however what I would like to see is a capri, not just the plate but the whole car that has a serial number of higher than 300....I have never seen one....but lets NOT get into Capris again.....

BY the way I know of a 100% orginal Can Am...owned since new by a gentle man that also had what is probably the most orginal Perana in SA....he lives up near Springbok.....he maintains he will never ever sell his cars.....his Can Am is orginal, even down to the fact that he supposedly has the orginal tyres...obviously not on the car though.....you actually might have heard of this character.....

[Firenza V8]

Koekenaap ??  Contact me as there's some other info I'd like to pass on to you but regarding something else.

[Firenza V8]

Late Johan Horn would have been the second owner of that car.  He had just sold his very original Perana and a few years earlier another Can Am. iHe who was a perfectionist extreme took it apart and redid it with some mdoifications.  But yes it was extremely neat and was sold for something like R 6000 at the time without motor and box at the time if this is the same car.  Johan had planned to fit the 302 which he'd balanced and had IDA's on into a Chev Rekord those years but never got around to it nor to another project for the motor.  Motor was then displayed in his Motor Spares shop for a few years.  Aperently moptor now displayed in a home bar.Box went into a Chev C10 type truck.  Johan got the car with other rims on.  The rims on that body belonfg to another Can Am that is now in Jo'burg with "CA...." number plates last I saw which was also an ex-cape Town car from new.  Aerofoil is from another Can Am as Johan had dipped this cars one in some acid and it warped.  It came with a cast iron intake and Quadroject which ended up by me which I gave away to the friend of mine some years ago.  Theory was that some Can Am's had an otpional cast iron intake and Quadro option with the aluminium and Holley set-up in boot.  However this one did not so it could have been changed at some time or was ordered like that from new.

Some years after Johan sold this restored body I refered him to this "CA....." plated Can Am that is now in Jo'burg which was at a scrapyard.  So as to fit that body's motor into another Can Am shell.  Price for that body was R 4000.  Gearbox weas R 800 lying at another scrapyard here in Cape Town.  Johan did'nt buy the body which later found a 350, rims and they built up another 302 etc to where it is again today in Jo'burg.

You'll find there is an explaination to most stuff.  Somebody saqw something, knows something or even has something !