McLaren Page #8

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And cars started sprouting wings.

Aerofoil section. Put it on struts,

stick it on the back of the car,

put something on the front

to balance it out,

and it gives more downforce,

and therefore more grip.

GARY:
You know, aerodynamics

has come a long way since those days

of us putting a wing on a minivan

and measuring the downforce

with bathroom scales.

For the '69 season

the car was designated M8B.

This was the car that we ran

a high wing configuration,

with struts down on to the uprights,

that proved to be unbeatable.

MAN OVER TV:
Group 7,

the fastest racing cars in the world.

Champions McLaren and Hulme drive these

cars to win on Gulf Premium No-nox.

If McLaren and Hulme depend on it

for power, performance

and mileage, shouldn't you?

PHIL:
The success of Bruce McLaren and

Denny Hulme in Can-Am was extraordinary.

MICHAEL CLARK:
In 1969, there were 11

rounds of the Can-Am championship.

McLarens won all 11 of them.

CARY:
Every race.

Hulme won five, McLaren won six.

Just unbelievable.

(CROWD WHISTLES AND CHEERS)

ALASTAIR:

He was bringing home buckets of cash.

Lots of other race team owners

made themselves rich

and beggared their teams,

and Bruce had it the right way round.

Put your money and your effort

into your race team,

and then, when it's really winning,

then you can live off the highlife.

BRUCE:
So we've finished building

the house in Walton-on-Thames.

Three-quarters of an acre.

Mum, you'll love it, I'm sure.

I'm happy. It's a real family home.

We've called it Muriwai.

WALLY:
When you talk to anybody

that's at their height,

it has to be all-consuming,

it has to be your total life.

It was like working in a circus.

The circus would go to America,

or the circus would go to Mexico,

or South Africa,

and you would turn up at the racetrack,

it'd be the same tire people,

and the same fuel people,

and all the other same team members,

and you hadn't seen each other

for three weeks.

It was just like a small community

that moved around the world.

REPORTER:
New Zealander Bruce McLaren

driving in his 100th Grand Prix

at the age of only 32.

Each year it gets a little harder

to keep everything as neatly

and as nicely controlled as we did,

you know, in previous years,

because there is

just that much more administration,

there is that much more to go wrong.

PHIL:
We had grown very quickly

in the space of two or three years.

Bruce was so busy that I would, sort of,

wave to him as he passed in the factory.

JIM STONE:
It was always a rush

to get the Formula 1 cars

built for the January, February start.

And then Can-Am didn't start till June.

WALLY:
Resources were fairly stretched.

Not a huge team of people at all,

maybe 50 guys

working on Can-Am, Formula 1

and Indianapolis cars as well.

People say the three big races

in motorsport are

the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans,

and the Indianapolis 500.

The Indy 500 is arguably

the best-known race in the world.

MICHAEL CLARK:
I suppose it was logical

for a workaholic to look at Indianapolis

as the next thing to tackle.

Yeah, he was building an empire.

BRUCE:
Dear folks,

two Indy cars went off last night.

And Denny, Chris Amon, Teddy and I

should be running at Indianapolis

on Monday morning.

CHRIS:

Nobody in the team, other than Denny,

really had any experience of the place.

Very early on in the month,

Denny's car caught fire

going down the back straight.

PHIL:
Denny's overalls were on fire,

but because it was methanol,

you couldn't see any flame burning.

CHRIS:
And Denny ended up getting

his hands badly burnt,

which put a stop to his driving,

in fact he ended up in hospital.

PHIL:
We were scheduled for a test

with the Can-Am car.

The entire month of May had been

a massive intersection

of all of our projects.

Formula 1, Indianapolis and Can-Am

was almost too much for one man.

And I think he'd come to the realization

that he was gonna need to step away

from some driving.

And I suppose perhaps Patty

had an influence on that as well,

understandably.

PATTY:
He'd just arrived back

from America the day before,

from Indianapolis.

Denny should have been testing the car,

because of Bruce just being back

and jet-Iagged.

But Denny couldn't drive.

The design side of the car

hadn't changed a lot.

How are you gonna do a lot better

than 11 out of 11 wins anyway?

The main change came about

through banning high wings.

There were so many accidents

in Formula 1 with the high wings...

that the Americans followed suit

and banned them at the end of the year.

Cary Taylor and myself were at Goodwood.

And they were exploring

rear-wing configurations.

They had a wing section hung between

fins on the tail the first time,

and this generated

huge amounts of downforce.

(ENGINE ROARS)

We were testing there with

a Formula 1 car, and a Can-Am car.

And he was climbing from one car

into the other.

CARY:
He was in a great frame of mind,

and I always remember,

he'd been to see the Sundance Kid film,

and it took his fancy.

He was pretty impressed with that.

Ready?

No, we'll jump.

Oh, sh*t!

And you always stop at midday

at Goodwood for lunch.

The Aero Club insists.

But Bruce wanted to do one more run.

And he wanted to use some more rear wing.

There was a bit of a frantic

"get the car out"

to get just another lap in

to evaluate this particular adjustment.

(ENGINE ROARS)

You can hear those cars,

the V8 running about 6,000 revs,

and those were monstrous engines.

- All of a sudden, it's just...

- (ENGINE ROARS)

(SILENCE)

And a silence.

ALASTAIR:
Jim Stone and I jumped

in my car, and then drove round.

And I lifted him out of the car, and

it was obvious to me that he was dead,

because he was broken,

and he was like a rag doll.

And so I... I held on to him.

I sat there and held him

until the ambulance came,

and then the ambulance people

took him off me.

PHIL:
It wasn't too long

before I had a phone call,

and it was a tragic accident,

and we had lost Bruce.

So... so...

being what we were, we took

the broken car, put it in the truck,

and I drove the truck back to the factory.

I had to tell Patty what had happened.

PATTY:
A couple of the people from

McLarens just came to the house.

I think one is in a state of shock

for such a long time.

Amanda obviously was little,

so she wasn't totally aware of it.

I said to Denny, "Let's just go outside."

So we went outside

and walked around the lawn

and the garden in Bruce's house.

I realized I would have to call

Bruce's parents in New Zealand.

(PHONE RINGS)

And it was now after midnight there.

Pop answered the phone

and it was just so difficult...

to tell them what had happened.

I spoke to Pop. I spoke to Mrs Mac,

and Mrs Mac said, "You know, I had

a dreadful premonition this morning

that something was going to happen."

And I sat up suddenly in bed.

Just bolt upright.

And Les says, "What's the matter?"

(VOICE BREAKS)

That whole day's come back, Roger.

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