McLaren Page #5

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and become gypsies.

You know, you'd find space in somebody's

garage, in some dealership,

whatever, to work out of.

Spare parts that had to come from England.

WALLY:
It was a lightweight car,

very much like a formula car in Europe.

It created a huge amount of attention.

The Americans at the time were running

heavy cars, incredibly heavy.

Bruce was nimble,

and he could duck and dive and weave

amongst all these

great big heavy monsters.

The phone started to ring,

and people started to ask,

"How can we get one of these cars?"

(TYRES SCREECH)

- Boy, that car is something else.

- Yeah.

Would you like to drive her?

- Mister, you got yourself a deal.

- I'm glad you like the car.

BRUCE:
Dad, we're pretty pleased

the way things are going.

We could have sold 30 sports cars

this year if they'd been available.

A lot easier than winning races,

let me tell you.

We've got a way to go before we understand

aerodynamics on these sports cars

but I guarantee

we know more than anyone else.

The big excitement has been in Formula 1,

but we're keeping that very quiet.

REPORTER:
There at the end

of the runway is Concorde 001,

and in Toulouse let's join Raymond Baxter.

RAYMOND BAXTER:
Just seconds to go.

The magic moment with us, the crescendo

of sound from the 593 Olympus.

Nose has come up to 20 degrees,

she's airborne.

She flies.

Bruce said to me, "You know,

we really need a full-time designer,"

because he was flat out all the time.

So I said, "I've got this friend called

Robin Herd who works on the Concorde,

but he'd love to design racing cars."

I'd been three years out of university

and I was working at Farnborough,

which is the headquarter

of the British Aircraft Industry.

When Bruce says to a 25-year-old, "Come

and design my first Formula 1 car,"

you either say, "Yep, I'll do that,"

and risk the biggest cock-up of all time,

or no, you throw away

the opportunity of a lifetime.

WALLY:
Robin was aware of all these

materials we didn't know anything about.

And one of the products

was called mallite.

I did a sort of latest aircraft

technology version of a Formula 1 car,

using honeycomb, double skin and bonding.

Bruce took it with great enthusiasm.

JAN McLAREN:
The letters to Dad

were full of technical stuff.

The first mallite car.

There's pictures of the tub, and little

drawings of what he was doing.

Course, Dad just lapped up every word.

It was a very tedious vehicle to build.

We would be working on the car

come midnight.

We would probably be working on the car

all night.

HOWDEN:
When you've just been working

12 or 14 hours a day, week after week,

there's a bit of tension.

WALLY:
When somebody was welding

and couldn't see,

we would fill a 20-cigarette packet

with oxygen acetylene

mixed at exactly the right ratio.

And you just slid it

until it got to the flame.

HOWDEN:
And at some point it blows up.

(EXPLOSION)

WALLY:
I mean,

it scared the pants off of people.

HOWDEN:
You know, Bruce took all those

things in his stride.

WALLY:
Bruce was always one of us.

Very much one of the boys.

ALASTAIR CALDWELL: When he built

a new car, he would get into it,

and pretend to drive it,

and make engine noises, and steer it.

"Oh, boy, this is going to be quick,"

and then we'd go, "Yeah, yeah, yes."

Really good fun. (LAUGHS)

They built a jig

to build a mallite chassis with.

HOWDEN:
There was a piece of cold-drawn

steel tube, about a four-inch diameter.

And it was realized this would make

a wonderful gun barrel.

We decided we'd make an acetylene,

oxyacetylene cannon.

HOWDEN:
A cap was welded at the end

and then a little bolt

and a spark plug fitted.

Fortunately I did

a pretty good job at welding it.

Not realizing what we were doing.

Robin Herd was, yeah, an object of fun.

I don't know what we were thinking of.

There was a sense of humor

to everything. They seemed to accept me.

He used to come to work at nine o'clock

or something.

We would have already been at work

for quite some time.

The drawing office door

was at the top of the stairs.

We waited until Robin got in the office.

So this gun was set up.

- WALLY:
Paint cans was a perfect fit.

- GARY:
Point it towards the door.

(BANG)

And it was far more successful

than we expected.

It went right through the door.

He suddenly had his door flying inside.

We were all organized

to stow the gun instantaneously.

So it was wang, under the bench.

Everything was out of sight.

"What? Bang? Did you hear a bang?"

(LAUGHS)

It was typical of the New Zealand

and by then McLaren sense of humor.

BRUCE:
6 a.m., daughter, eight pounds,

brown hair.

Amanda Leigh. Both fine. Father poorly.

We've certainly been very lucky.

Little Amanda Leigh is as perfect

as we could have wished for.

I'm bringing them home

and picking up the nurse on Tuesday.

I don't go to Nassau

until Wednesday afternoon.

PATTY:
He coped with it wonderfully.

I think I had to do more coping.

Well, you have to, if you're

going to have a successful marriage.

And whatever comes along

you take in your stride.

Because he was away a lot of the time.

(LAUGHS)

(ENGINE REVS)

MICHAEL CLARK:
1966 was Bruce McLaren's

first year as a Formula 1 constructor.

Bruce, above all,

wanted to win in Formula 1.

To the extent that

he got hold of numbers one and two,

the numbers that go on the car,

for Chris and himself.

MICHAEL CLARK:
Chris Amon was going to

be running the backup car.

It never happened.

I never got to do any races at all

because the engine was a disaster.

MICHAEL CLARK:
Bruce put

an Indianapolis Ford engine

into the back of his Formula 1 car.

It made a fantastic noise,

but just had no speed at all.

Dear folks,

it's been so long since I've written

I guess you must wonder what's going on.

The last few months

have been a little difficult.

For the first time ever,

we've had a major setback.

The F1 season is over,

and we've certainly had a failure.

It's hard to keep up the spirits

of the team.

ROBIN:
The team stuck at it, as they do.

But, you know,

with that engine there was no hope...

which was a real blow.

BRUCE:
I've been feeling

a bit of pain lately.

Just one question, Bruce.

The doc asked do I get headaches,

and I said, "Yes."

Quite possibly

due to the curve in your spine.

Due to the pelvis not being square

when I stand.

Your left leg

being shorter than your right.

For a more permanent solution, there's a

rather radical procedure that we can do,

in which we replace

the head of your femur with a steel one.

He sent me to have an X-ray,

and when I looked at them,

I was a little shaken.

The right was a beaut ball and socket

and the left was a tatty old thing.

Quite normal Perthes Disease recovery,

he said. But it shook me a bit.

WALLY:
His short leg,

and the pain it caused him,

to him personally, was a great problem.

It was never talked about,

it was never, ever considered to be

of anybody else's concern but his,

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