McLaren's 1966/7 F1 cars

[Terry S]

This is a fantastic article on theses cars. Lots of great photos. Should greatly appeal to Kiwis.

Highly recommended

https://primotipo.com/2016/10/07/mclarens-19667-f1-cars/

[ERC]

Have passed this link on to the current owner of the M4B. Thanks.

I'll be posting a pic of the McLaren Ford shortly on my picture site.

[Oldfart]

Good article Terry, thanks. Now for the picky bit. The tacho is not reading any revs at all, the redline/telltale is though!

[SPman]

The Primotipo site is truly excellent. Lots of well researched and interesting articles and photos - Australian bias, but that's to be expected, and lots of off-beat and interesting tidbits.. Fully recommended!

[ERC]

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From my Mix of Pics thread

[khyndart in CA]

Before any fluids were put in the car, this was one way to work on the underside.
The first McLaren M4 A being prepared at Colnbrook in 1967.
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Photo from McLaren book by Doug Nye.

Perhaps that was common practice back then as this is Paddy Hopkirk's Mini Cooper being worked on during the 1967 Acropolis Rally.
(Only difference is the Mini was still full of fluids !)
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I can remember looking out from the stand at Pukekohe before the start of the 1971 NZGP and watching the Rorstan crew work on the Porsche powered car which was on its side as they tried without success to fix the gearshift for the unfortunate Bryan Faloon to drive.

(Ken Hyndman )

[BMCBOY]

This photo has always amused me - I wonder if the gentleman look at his watch is the owner? Photographer unknown

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[khyndart in CA]

In 1965 a new designer named Robin Herd joined the McLaren team and he used his knowledge from the aircraft industry to develop a chassis for the F 1 car made of "Mallite". This was a composite laminate of 26 gauge aluminium sheets bonded over 1/8" sandwich filling of balsa wood. It was the same tensile strength as 20 gauge aluminium alloy but considerably stiffer. The team went ahead with this program and it is well described in George Begg's interesting book;" Bruce McLaren, Racing Car Constructor."
Here are some photos from that book during 1965 -1966.
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May 1966. Off to Monaco for the first Formula One race for a McLaren car. (Fifty Years ago. Wow.)
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(Ken Hyndman )

[Oldfart]

I just love the "transporter" of the day! Of course the "designer" photo is absolutely priceless.

[khyndart in CA]

Bruce McLaren liked having New Zealanders on his team and this is shown in this photo of the 1966 F1 Mallite chassis car.
From left; Eoin Young, Howden Ganley, Bruce McLaren, Bruce Harre, Colin Beanland, Chris Amon and John Muller. (All Kiwis. )
(I met up with John Muller years later on a kiwifruit farm near Tauranga and we had an interesting chat.)
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Photo from:Bruce McLaren;The Man and His Racing Team by Eoin Young.

(This was the team that I dreamed of joining one day.)

That first GP car still looks good today. 50 years later. 1966-2016.

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(Ken Hyndman )

[khyndart in CA]

Another slight change over 50 years has been how the McLaren F1 cars were transported to the tracks.
From a Fairlane 500 Station Wagon in 1966.
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To this transporter from Colnbrook about 1970.
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To the present day set up. (May Bruce's legacy live on forever.)
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(Ken Hyndman )