All language subtitles for McLaren (2017) (McLaren 2016) (ENGLISH)

Gordon, would you talk?

And Bruce, if you
could just nod.

This is the story of a young man from New
Zealand who was so successful at driving

cars that he came to Europe to
branch out as a professional driver.

As a designer and as a
businessman, last year, McLaren

exported racing cars worth
one and a quarter million dollars.

He was the first man
in the world to drive a

car worth one and a
quarter million dollars.

Bruce McLaren, driving in his
100th Grand Prix at the age of only 32.

Bruce storms back to make
a sensational McLaren 1-2.

McLaren seems to choose any line in a
daring drive rarely seen in motor racing.

McLaren crew chief, Tyler Alexander,
looks happy, wouldn't you say?

Bruce, you're competing on the world's
motor racing circuits and beating people

who've got far, far more
money to spend than you have.

Would you be very much better if you had
four or five times as much money to spend?

No, we'd probably
get in a terrible mess.

You can't get too big.

You're a racing team and you
can get involved and hidebound.

You've got to be able to move
quickly if you're going to be competitive.

But the actual care
with which pieces are put

together is very
important on a racing car.

Something done incorrectly or
assembled in a hurry can be very dangerous.

When I was a boy, Mum remembers
hearing me telling a fan tale.

When I grow up, I'm going
to be a racing car driver.

We're going to talk about Bruce,
the human interest side of it really,

which I think is a good idea.

You know what it's like when you meet
somebody and there's an instant rapport.

He was a very hands-on
person, learning about

the mechanics of
cars at his top service.

He had a lot of experience in the
service station in the Ramio era.

We learnt how to repair cars, put
cars together, build things, make things.

We were always together.

His friendship was
simply unconditional.

His sense of humour
was never far behind him.

It was like a shadow.

Motor racing was
what we lived for.

The world of motor racing.

The world of motor racing.

The world of motor racing.

Bruce's father had a
pretty extensive career

in motorsport himself,
from the 1930s.

Wives and friends
signal drivers how far

they've gone and their
position in the race.

Some keen spectators follow the race in
the same way, whilst others just watch the

cars go by and wonder why on earth
people want to do this sort of thing.

Pop McLaren obviously
wanted Bruce to follow in

his footsteps, and
Bruce absolutely loved it.

That was always in his mind
from the time he was a boy.

And yet he must have
been in severe discomfort

most of the time,
strapped to that frame.

Bruce had an illness from
childhood which had left him crippled.

We called him the crippled kid.

We thought he had polio.

All types of cripples from
all over New Zealand.

Comprised of 73 patients at the Wilson
Home for Crippled Children at Takapuna,

Auckland.

At nine and a half I
contracted Perthes disease.

The ball joined to my left
hip was breaking down.

To immobilise the hip they strapped me to
a frame and dangled weights from my legs.

The specialist said I'd be
laid up for several months.

He lay on that
frame for two years.

Never came off it.

Was educated on it and washed
and fed on it and the whole lot.

One leg was always
shorter than the other.

And he limped badly and couldn't
play rugby or cricket like other kids.

Can you hit anything?

Sometimes.

Your piece.

Shoot.

Can I move?

Move?

What the hell ya mean move?

I'm better when I move.

During these formative years, Pop could
see Bruce's extraordinary natural ability.

And he'd give us little lessons about
lines through corners, things to observe.

Les had always said that when Bruce
speaks his times, he becomes the driver.

New Zealand didn't have that
many sporting events in those days.

And people would drive anywhere
to watch guys hurtling around.

We did a lot of races together, all over
the North Island and the South Island.

And then when the Grand Prix, the
New Zealand International Grand Prix,

started, that became
an extraordinary event.

I mean, there were 70,000
people there on the first day.

The New Zealand Grand
Prix was an opportunity for

Bruce to race against the
best drivers in the world.

People like Jim Clark, Jack
Brabham and Stirling Moss.

These guys were the Spitfire
pilots of the 50s and 60s.

The pinup boys.

In New Zealand, racing drivers are
regarded with a special sort of awe.

And if they happen to be overseas drivers,
the awe develops into hero worship.

That's how I regarded
Jack Brabham.

Jack Brabham kept his race
car at Pop Service Station.

So he became a friend of
the family and Bruce's mentor.

Bruce was an extremely good driver
and he had talent that was born in him.

Motor racing is not something you
just suddenly learn out of the blue.

You've got to have it inside
and you've got to have a feel for it.

And Bruce
certainly had all that.

The New Zealand International
Grand Prix introduced a scholarship

to get a New Zealand driver
to compete internationally.

Well tonight's winner, he
started racing as a 15 year old.

This year alone, he's
won six out of six sports car

races driving the ex-Jack
Brabham bobtail Cooper.

The winner is Bruce McLaren.

Now Bruce, this award allows
you to go to England where

you will train and race with
the Cooper Car Company.

Bruce was 20 years old.

Mr and Mrs McLaren said, would you
go with Bruce as a mechanic helper?

I said, but I'm not a mechanic.

You know, I worked in an automotive
parts warehouse for my dad.

Bruce said, you'll learn.

What I was able to do was have it teed
up for him to come to the Cooper team.

This is where we build our
racing cars and there are literally

hundreds of component parts
that go to building a racing car.

John Cooper said, oh there's
your car over there and he

looked over it and there
was a pile of pipes and a rack.

That's your car there boy,
now you'd better start building it.

And he had to set about with Colin Beanland
to build the car before he could race it.

And Bruce started
his Formula 2 career.

Dear Dad, I wish you could be over
here doing this motor racing with me.

I reckon I've inherited
something from you.

It's the ability to have a
go when the time is right.

Bruce started getting some good placements
in races which helped the budget.

He liked the money that he won.

Bruce was an incredibly
prolific letter writer

and the boys would record
tapes to send back home.

Thanks Pop.

Thank you by the way for
that extra cash you sent over.

Fortunately I don't
think I'll need it.

The way I'm looking at
this season is to get in

as many races this year
as possible and do well.

I'm looking forward to
Nurburgring very much.

It's a very tough course and if I
can finish there I'll be very happy.

It was a combined
Formula 1 and 2 race.

Bruce in Formula 2.

The Nurburgring was the most
dangerous circuit on the calendar.

They call it the green hell.

Torturous.

Very, very dangerous.

There are several sections
where if you're brave enough

you go over the top of a
hump and you are flying.

So many different corners.

So many different
types of corners.

You know, up a hill, down a hill, off
a camber, with a camber, jump twice,

four wheels on the air.

It was a challenge
to any driver.

It doesn't matter how
much you knew Nurburgring.

Every lap there
was a new challenge.

Bruce was sort of
unknown at that time.

A new kid.

And he was actually
leading the Formula 2 section.

As the race progressed he got into some
of the Formula 1 cars and passed them too.

He finished fifth overall.

Won the Formula 2 section of it.

As he drove up back to the
pit, he had a grin on his face.

It was, I want to
say, like a mile wide.

He was just absolutely elated.

I helped him out of the car and, you know,
I think there were tears in both our eyes.

That was really the thing that turned
the tide and got international recognition.

He became on
the contenders list.

Bruce turned 21
during that year.

He was still in England, but there was
a great 21st birthday party at his parents'

house.

Well, hello son.

I hope you've had
a wonderful day.

And as Phil said,
well, we just hope, just

don't think we're all
under a piece of liquor.

We both got homesick, but, you know,
the driving force behind the whole thing

was the enthusiasm we
had for what we were doing.

Over to Dad.

Hello, Bruce.

Once again, very many
happy returns to the day.

I mean, people would love
to have done what we did.

The Auckland Car Club used
to hold regular club nights.

Pop would take
the tape recordings.

At Goodwood, the biggest
sort-out between the professional

drivers and the chaps just
starting is the fast corners.

On these fast corners, you go round
them the first few times, you think,

oh dear, that
was near the limit.

But in actual fact, it's not.

It's only time and confidence that enables
you to get round the fast corners quick.

Rain was starting to fall, and the whole
banking was absolutely treacherous.

We were taking this banking
at about 140 miles an hour.

Under the extreme G loading,
you had to hang onto the

wheel fairly tight to stop
your hands being pulled.

You had to pull down
onto the floor of the car.

I think it frightened everybody.

1959 was Bruce's first
full season in Formula One.

Towards the end of
the year, Coopers were

major contenders for
the World Championship.

It certainly looks as
though the last Grand Prix of

the season at Seabrook
could be the deciding race.

Jack had a very narrow
lead over Sterling.

He was the only one who
could win the Grand Prix.

My best friend is now
on his first Grand Prix.

Bruce was now the
youngest driver ever at

just over 22 years of
age to win a Grand Prix.

And Jack had won the
World Championship.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Now, what are they going to say
in Australia when they hear this?

Oh, New Zealand, right?

I don't know what they're
going to say in Australia, but

I think they'll be very pleased
in New Zealand, Ronnie.

It was a new world for Bruce.

Because now he's recognised.

I remember Bruce saying, I
think we're becoming famous.

It was an understatement when you consider
what went on for the rest of the year.

Bruce won the opening round of the
1960 World Championship in Argentina.

And on the plane ride back to
England, Jack, Bruce and John

Cooper came up with a car
that went on to sweep all before it.

Cooper cars have
swept the board.

And won the Constructors' Prize.

And Bruce, in his
second year with Cooper,

finished second to Jack
in the World Championship.

Bruce McLaren was the first New Zealander
to really get into Formula One and

establish the fact that a
Kiwi could go and do it and

actually make that
breakthrough on the world stage.

He was an important
figure to all Kiwis.

Bruce came back home
every year for the race season.

One of Bruce's heartfelt ambitions was
to win the Grand Prix in his hometown.

For many years, motor racing has been
a popular sport in New Zealand, attracting

drivers with a taste for thrills and
mechanics with a taste for tinkering.

There are car clubs all over the country,
and though prize money is not large,

there's nothing small about
the amount spent on vehicles.

For the big money and the big names
in motor racing, we fly north to Auckland,

our largest city.

Here in January each year is run the
New Zealand International Grand Prix.

In the summertime, there
was a lot of things to attract

Northern Hemisphere
drivers down to New Zealand.

There was not much happening
in the northern winter in those days.

New Zealand was a perfect place to come
and take up some sunshine, water skiing,

girls.

Enjoying the summer weather with friends
are Grand Prix drivers, some of whom have

come halfway round
the world for the big race.

An expert water skier,
Arnold Glass, is trying

to explain the sport
to the English drivers.

At least one of the Englishmen
has other interests in mind,

and Arnold's only pupil is
New Zealander Bruce McLaren.

After his wobbly efforts, Bruce
decides to stick to car racing.

He says it's safer.

In New Zealand, Bruce
met a girl from Timaru.

I certainly remember
when Bruce first met Patty.

She'd become Miss Caroline Bay.

We met at a dance from memory.

And then I tootled home with my girlfriend
and Bruce said he wanted to meet me again.

And he was only there for a couple of days
and then off he tootled and kept in touch.

I was 18.

So I always said we
had a courtship by letter.

Before we got engaged, we'd
seen each other about six times.

I always liked people with
brown eyes and dark hair.

He could have been
a few inches taller.

Often we would be invited to
Bruce's for dinner sometime

in the company of people that
weren't motor racing people.

And the whole conversation would
finish up with pencils and pieces of paper.

Bruce at heart was an engineer.

He would make models out of
balsa wood and stick and string.

And do torsion tests
on the kitchen table.

And he would come
in the next morning and

show us what he'd
drawn and what he'd built.

Bruce Anjak talked
about life after Cooper.

Here we had effectively
a perfect storm.

The two drivers in the team, not just
fantastic drivers, but both capable of

engineering and designing
a winning racing car.

Jack Brabham left the
Cooper team at the end of

1961 and started
construction of his own cars.

The engineer in Bruce
must have thought that's

something which I
really need to do one day.

How did it go, Bruce?

That was pretty
good that time, John.

I think perhaps a bit
too much braking on the

back, but apart from
that it's nearly perfect.

The Monte Carlo
was just magical.

They used to have the
film festival the week

before, so all the
stars would stay over.

Oh, it was tremendous and we used
to travel in a convoy with various other

drivers and we'd stop
off at some little motel.

But we had great fun, you
know, travelling around together.

In those days, all the
drivers were friends with each

other, but they were very
determined competitors.

Bruce was now the number
one driver at Cooper's.

There was an
awful lot of pressure.

All the leading
drivers were there.

Jimmy Clark and Graham Hill
on the front-rider grid with Bruce.

One, two, three, four,
three, two, one, hey!

Graham Hill!

Oh, look at that!

They were spinning
that S with a Ferrari!

This was Monaco.

Any driver that can finish at
Monaco, in my book, is a hero.

It was a real endurance event.

Two and three quarter-hours,
2,700 gear changes,

hard on the brakes
and hard on the steering.

Bruce was in the lead, followed
by Phil Hill and the Ferrari.

Phil Hill was closing on
Bruce, chasing him down.

Everybody in the Cooper
pit got terribly nervous.

Everybody was
absolutely ecstatic.

John Cooper more
probably than anyone else.

As Bruce said to me later, he said,
Phil Hill may have caught up with me,

but there was no way he
was going to get past me.

No way.

Coopers had been really
brightened up by the Monaco result.

And I don't have to tell you folks,
Paddy had a ball meeting Royalty.

Grace and Rainier
had a cocktail party.

I was fixated by the emeralds.

The necklace, the earrings,
the bracelet, the ring.

And it was just fabulous.

Bruce McLean by then
was a jet-set person.

World renowned.

The youngest Grand Prix
winner of all time at that time.

Bruce was a superstar.

We had great fun, you know,
travelling around together.

Time.

Our life is time, and
heartbeats are seconds.

Whatever we do, our
preoccupation with time is constant.

Speed doesn't exist
for a top racing driver.

Your mind completely synchronizes with
the elements that you're competing against.

And one of those
elements is speed.

There's an element of danger,
but Bruce was such a careful person.

But sadly, motor racing
has its share of tragedies.

Over the years, Bruce saw
a number of his friends killed.

You're dealing
with human beings.

Cars that are put together by
human beings so they can brake.

Human beings driving them
so they can make mistakes.

Drivers know that sort of thing's on
any time they get into a car, really.

It may sound callous,
but if you're going to

keep racing, to think
on an accident is bad.

It's best to try and forget
as soon as possible.

Everything's in slow motion.

You've got plenty
of time to brake.

You've got plenty of
time to change direction.

Speed only happens when
you're having an accident.

To Nürburgring, he had an
accident, a high-speed accident.

Bruce, he only remembers
waking up in hospital.

I'd once promised myself I'd give
up motor racing if I had a major crash.

But I found myself
thinking, not yet.

I'd like to start something big.

Run my own outfit.

Bruce was preparing
for the future.

Bruce was the great student in
that university which was Cooper's.

He had a voracious
appetite for information.

That burning curiosity
and intelligence.

He had the ability to think big.

When Jack Brabham left, it became very
obvious that Cooper's didn't want drivers

being involved in design
or in the drawing of us.

And that's where
Bruce's passion lay.

Bruce, as an engineer, could see that
Cooper's best days were behind them.

This was the start of his plan
to get his own full team together.

Jack said it's difficult, but
if you want to do it, go for it.

I think the first thing I
did for Bruce, apart from...

I mean, I painted
him several times.

Of course, winning races.

But he asked me to design a badge for
the then embryo McLaren racing team.

This tatty old ledger
came to light recently.

I've got an entry here.

Designing badge for Bruce
McLaren Motor Racing Limited.

For use on racing cars,
transports, redheads, lapel badges.

39 pounds.

He said, you know, can you design a badge
that is relevant to a New Zealand team?

It's a badge of his
heritage in New Zealand.

OK, Kiwi racing car,
name of the team, a badge.

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Team.

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was
first formed to race in New Zealand.

In the Cooper workshop in England,
Bruce and I had built a car specially to

win the New Zealand Grand
Prix from the ground up.

The car was, for all intents
and purposes, a McLaren car.

But because he was still
contracted to and driving

for Cooper, then it made
sense to call it a Cooper.

But it was really Bruce's deal.

Cooper copied our car and built
a second car for Timmy Mayer.

Timmy Mayer was a young American driver,
Bruce's teammate and, to some extent,

protege.

Timmy was a very
approachable young fella.

He'd done very well in
England, a former junior.

With his brother, Teddy,
as his team manager.

It was the New
Zealand Grand Prix.

This was what we were here for.

Away goes the field of crack drivers
on their high-speed journey of 150 miles.

The

win in a car that Bruce and I had designed
and built ourselves was just tremendous.

Lots of hugs all round.

It was a huge effort.

But, as you learn in motor racing,
the highs and lows were enormous.

In practice at Longford, the
last race of the series, Timmy

talked to Bruce about a hump
in the road just prior to a corner.

Because Timmy felt
that he was braking

before it and could
possibly brake after it.

And Bruce said, yes, you can
brake after it, but be very careful.

Timmy went out
and never came back.

The vehicle landed a
little sideways into a tree.

The car was virtually
broken in two behind the

cockpit and, you know,
it just killed him instantly.

That was really
our first tragedy.

This was the first time that
it struck so close to home.

When you speak to somebody,
and they're minutes before and

they're no longer with you,
it affects you quite deeply.

But there was a
race the next day.

And the team turned up.

And we raced the next day.

They seriously talked
about Bruce not racing,

but decided, you
know, we must carry on.

This is our business.

This is what we do.

At Timmy's funeral, the
eulogy Bruce wrote really

was the mantra that the
team followed from then on.

The news that he had died instantly
was a terrible shock to all of us.

But who's to say that he had not seen
more, done more, and learned more in his

26 years than many
people do in a lifetime?

To do something well
is so worthwhile that to

die trying to do it better
cannot be foolhardy.

There would be a waste of life
to do nothing with one's ability.

I feel that life is measured in
achievement, not in years alone.

At the end of that Tasman
series, we went back to

England, not quite sure what
the future was going to hold.

Ian Young actually called me up and
said, Bruce is here, wants to talk to you.

Bruce came on the line and
said, I'm expanding my team.

Would you like to
come and work for me?

He wanted to hire more Kiwis.

Oh yes please, thank
you very much, I'll do that.

New Zealand mechanics
were very innovative.

They had learned how
to build cars in our little

country, where it was
very difficult to get past.

And so they could make
completely new components.

You know the old saying,
if you give a Kiwi a length

of number eight fencing
wire, he'll make anything.

So he liked that attitude.

Because that's how he was.

Bruce McLaren now had a
team, but didn't have a workshop.

Our tow car had
a rusty old trailer.

And Ian Young was sent out
urgently to try and find us a workshop.

In retrospect, it was terrible.

It was very small, but in fact it
suited us perfectly at the time.

What he came up with was
the corner of a large industrial

garage that was used for
servicing earth moving machinery.

With what was
virtually a dirt floor.

It probably had been
concrete once, but with all

the bulldozers moving
around, it was broken up.

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in
England started in a very grotty shed.

Well, that ought to do it.

Money.

It takes an awful lot
of money to run a team.

Mechanics, drivers,
transportation.

Bruce was up against Lotus, Maserati,
and of course, Coupes and Ferrari.

There was a payroll
to meet every week.

Bruce was asked to drive big American
sports cars, particularly as a test driver.

Ford used Bruce a lot because
they appreciated his technical ability.

With his engineering background,
Bruce could drive the car and he could

tell the engineers exactly
what was happening.

Bruce needed the
money from Ford.

There was no money
in Formula One.

The McLaren team really was
being financed doing testing,

and we'd do anything up to
three, four hundred miles a day.

There wasn't a lot
of money at the time.

They did a lot of tyre testing for
Firestone, which paid good money.

Just wonderful experience.

So I knew Bruce quite well by
the time I started working for him.

These were guys.

None of them had hit 30.

And they were full of enthusiasm,
full of innovations, and they were smart.

We all spoke his language.

We all shared his humour.

And we were all
totally dedicated to him.

He worked along with us.

He didn't stand there
and issue instructions.

He would be there with
his sleeves rolled up.

I think now the cars like the
big GT cars, which we drive at

Le Mans, Nürburgring and so
on, they'll do 200 miles an hour.

And they also
accelerate like mad.

They spin the wheels.

You can't keep full
throttle all the time.

And this is a lot more fun.

Bruce decided sports
car racing might be the

way to go for the
fledgling McLaren team.

He'd heard of a car that was for sale
in America called the Xeric Special.

Teddy Mayer was back
in America with his life in

tatters because of the
death of his brother, Timmy.

And Bruce said, well,
how would you like to try

and buy this car for me
and come to England?

We chopped the chassis up.

Put an Oldsmobile
engine into it.

Big stack exhaust pipes so it
looked like something from Mars.

Shrewd on a plane took it to
Canada and won at Northport.

Bruce McLaren from Oslo, New
Zealand gets the checkered flag.

We in Europe were
racing for peanuts.

And for us to go to
America and see the sort

of money that was
available was mind-blowing.

With his new team, Bruce
needed management.

What about our mechanical
needs of taking the nuts off?

Like Tyrell's air wrenches.

Bad idea.

Teddy Mayer was a lawyer.

He became the business
brains of the operation.

He took one look around the workshop
and said, God damn, he can't work here.

And so Ian Young
was sent out again.

Ian Young got us what was a
really upmarket workshop in Feltham.

It was 10,000 feet, the
ideal place to start up.

It had lots of windows.

And a good concrete floor.

And nice work benches.

And even an office.

And Bruce decided to start
with a clean sheet of paper.

And we would build
the first ever McLaren.

This year we decided that the car that
would probably win would be a lightweight

car powered by a relatively
big American engine.

The McLaren M1.

Bruce basically
sketched with a piece of

chalk on the floor what
we were going to do.

It was instantaneous stuff.

There was no time to draw it.

The chap would come in at night
and say, what have you made today?

I said, oh, well, I've just made
a couple of wishbones here.

Just draw those.

I had an office with a sign on
the door that said, don't knock.

We don't have that sort of time.

Bruce was famous for
just waving his arms and

saying, well, you know,
just make it like this.

Whoosh, you take some tubes
and bonk, you've got a chassis.

That was one of Bruce's
favorite terms, just whoosh, bonk.

And of course that stuck.

Then everything was
whoosh, bonk after that.

But it was anything
but whoosh, bonk.

The day we wheeled it out
of the workshop, painted black

with a silver stripe and
a little Kiwi badge on it.

It was a very, very proud moment
for all of us New Zealanders.

Bruce went off to
America to run that car.

And you'd kind of pack
up and become gypsies.

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

some dealership,
whatever to work out of.

Spare parts that have
to come from England.

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.

Phones started to ring and people started
to ask, how can we get one of these cars?

Oh, that car is something else.

Yeah.

Would you like to drive it?

Hmm.

At least you got
yourself a deal.

I'm glad you like the car.

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 One.

But we're keeping
that very quiet.

There at the end of the runway is Concorde
001, and in for loose is John Dragonback.

Just seconds to go.

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 Hurd, 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 One 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.

Robin was aware of all these materials
that we didn't know anything about.

And one of the products
was called Malite.

I did a sort of latest aircraft
technology version of a

Formula One car, using
honeycomb, double-skin and bonding.

Bruce took it with
great enthusiasm.

The letters to Dad were
full of technical stuff.

The first Malite car,
there's pictures of the

tub and little drawings
of what he was doing.

Of 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.

When you've just been
working 12 or 14 hours a

day, week after week,
there's a bit of tension.

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 we just slid it
until it got to the flame.

It was a real loser.

I mean, it scared the
pants off of people.

You know, Bruce took all
those things in his stride.

Bruce was always one of us.

Very much one of the boys.

When he built a new car, as soon as it was
on a jig, he would get into it and pretend

to drive it and make
engine noises and steer

it, and go, oh, boy,
this is going to be quick.

And everybody would go, yeah,
yeah, yeah, it's really good fun.

They built a jig to build
a mallet chassis with.

There was a piece of coal-drawn
steel tube, about a four-inch diameter,

and I always realised this would
make a wonderful gun barrel.

We decided we'd make an
acetylene, oxygen acetylene cannon.

The cap was welded in the end, and
then a little box and a spark plug fitted.

Fortunately, I did
a pretty good job of

welding it, not realising
what we were doing.

Robin Hood was, you
know, an object of fun.

I don't know what
we were thinking.

There was a sense of
humour 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.

Drawing of his doors
at the top of the stairs.

The way that Robin got in the
office, so this gun was set up.

Pipe cans was a perfect fit.

Pointed towards the door.

And it was far more
successful than we expected.

It went right through the door.

He suddenly had
this door fly inside.

We were all organised to
stow the gun instantaneously.

It was wang under the bench.

Everything was out of sight.

What?

Bang?

Did you hear a bang?

It was typical of New Zealand, and
by then, McLaren's sense of humour.

6am.

Daughter, eight
pounds, brown hair.

Amanda Lee.

Both fine.

Father, poorly.

We've certainly been very lucky.

Little Amanda Lee 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.

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.

1966 was Bruce McLaren's first
year as a Formula One constructor.

Bruce, above all, wanted to win in Formula
One, to the extent that he got hold of

numbers one and two, the numbers
that go on the car, Chris and himself.

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.

Bruce put an Indianapolis Ford engine
into the back of his Formula One 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 lost a few people.

We've only had a failure.

It's hard to keep up
the spirits of the team.

The team stuck at it as they do,
but, you know, with that engine,

there was no hope,
which was a real blow.

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 butte ball and
socket, and the left was a tatty old thing.

Quite normal Perthes
disease recovery, he said.

But it shook me a bit.

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.

But it was his reality.

Bruce, you need a lift.

This is Le Mans.

Home of the most famous
road race in the world.

Through his contacts with Ford, Bruce
was contracted to drive at Le Mans.

It was a race that
was never done before.

McLaren had been commissioned by Ford
to build a special version of the GT40.

I first met Bruce about 1966.

We were testing and
developing with Ford.

We used to kid around
because he had a bit of a limp,

and he had to have the
clutch pedal closer to him.

And I said, you know what?

I said, I keep hanging
my shins on that.

You know, stupid things.

But that's what friends do.

I was in good hands with Bruce.

I wanted to learn as much as I
could because Bruce was an artist.

I loved the way he
would rotate the car.

And there was a finesse to that.

To be able to extract every ounce
of what this machine is capable of.

A machine that can hurt you.

You took that GT40 from a
vehicle that was dangerous at 190

to a car that was going 214
or so miles an hour hands-off.

Bruce had contributed a
lot of his expertise to the

program, and Fords were
pretty dominant at that time.

The mind was really
the big objective.

Henry Ford had decided he wanted to
win it and it didn't matter what it took.

There wasn't a budget constraint
like we all had in Formula One.

Bruce and I teamed
up as Ford drivers.

I guess it became natural
to put the two Kiwis together.

Having a chance to
win them all was huge.

The race always started
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon

and finished at 4 o'clock
the following afternoon.

Bruce started the race.

He sprinted across the track,
one leg shorter than the other.

In those days, those cars, you
couldn't drive them flat out for 24 hours.

But Bruce said, you know,
we've got nothing to lose.

Let's give it everything.

And that's exactly what we did.

We just drove it flat out.

Headlight beams pick out the
advertising signs in high relief.

The long, lonely night
of endurance lies ahead.

As daylight dawned on a Sunday,
the Fords were in a very strong position.

Ford made the decision, well, we're first,
second and third, we'll have a dead heat.

When the decision came to slow us down, I
can remember Bruce being really annoyed.

Bruce did the last stint.

I'll never know whether Bruce
put his foot down or Ken Miles

backed off, but Bruce
crossed the line clearly in front.

Suddenly, you know, we're
standing up on the podium with Henry

Ford, and we've won one of
the most famous races that exists.

We've just won Le Mans.

People on the street, they own a
Ford, and Bruce was driving a Ford.

They'd say, McLaren, that's
the guy that won Le Mans.

It impressed so many people.

It was a huge PR boost.

Bruce's entire racing operation at that
time was really aimed at the Can-Am series.

Can-Am is the Canadian-American
Challenge Cup, and that series consisted of

unlimited engine, unlimited
almost everything, so

that people could be very
innovative with their cars.

Well, this is Mossport,
and I'm Bruce McLaren.

What do you think
was your biggest break?

The creation of the Can-Am series was
very good for us in that just at the stage

where we were starting to
concentrate on sports car racing,

sports car racing became
a very big thing in the US.

I started as a racer.

I was the race queen, if you
will, with flags and the jumping.

I hear those engines,
and I'm, whoa.

I would go around with
this camera all the time.

They'd do the driver's parade.

They'd all wave at me
when they go by, like a family.

Got to meet Bruce
and became friends.

I love the way he always
said, she be right, mate.

Bruce had a good team, and he was trying
to raise enough money so he could spend

enough money to stay on the
cutting edge of racing car development.

McLaren's design mastery
was very much in evidence.

13 of his streamlined
models were in the race.

The McLaren was
the class of the field.

I was so envious,
wishing so much as if I

could just drive one
of those things myself.

McLaren brand
cars appealed to me.

It was smooth and it looked
good, so that inspired me.

Charging up the back straight, McLaren
makes 165 miles an hour look easy.

I met Lothar, and Lothar raced a Cobra
for a while, but when he saw the McLaren...

I sold my Cobra.

I sold my house.

I bought the McLaren.

Bruce McLaren was very
important to me, and what

he started with the McLaren
team was tremendous.

It was a great couple
of years of my life.

But I was approached
to meet Mr Ferrari.

Bruce was very disappointed,
because I think he was thinking

about stopping racing himself
and just running the team.

Well, Bruce, you're so busy on the
construction side and the management side,

are you planning to retire
from racing yourself and

devote seven days a week to
construction and management?

Not just yet.

I imagine that in a couple
of years or so I will do this.

But at this stage, it's still
necessary for me to do the driving.

In 67, we spent three months just building
these Can-Am cars to go to the States.

That's all we did.

It was just mad activity.

We needed to win to
earn the prize money to

be able to afford to do
our Formula One car.

I don't know how they scream, but
they break through all those years.

I guess Teddy basically put a lot
of money in it on the early days.

The Formula One failure
hit Teddy's wallet very bad.

It was one thing for the sponsors
to say, yes, we'll stick with you.

But they had to have a
reason for sticking with us.

The McLaren team has built a
completely new Can-Am car for 1967.

It's the M6A.

Bruce's new teammate is fellow
New Zealander Dennis Holm.

Where are you finding
that extra speed?

I would say largely with our car on
acceleration coming out of the corners.

So you don't expect
any trouble in the race?

Well, I always expect trouble.

I just hope we don't have any.

At Mossport, the
race was going to start.

Bruce said, look,
we've got a problem.

New Zealander Bruce McLaren,
who qualified second, is not on the grid.

Minutes before the cars were lined up,
the McLaren mechanics discovered a leaky

fuel bag and are feverishly working
to replace it, but time is running out.

Teammate Dennis Holm
will carry the McLaren banner.

Dan Gurney in the second
row will be his major threat.

The field is off for one tour around the
two and a half mile course without McLaren.

And then the American store
person has to do something special.

McLaren is off, flat out.

To play catch up is a
tough way to go racing.

McLaren almost a lap behind
as the pack gets the green flag.

Bruce McLaren is
55 seconds behind.

Dennis Holm in the number five McLaren
leads Gurney to the deceptive downhill

season and blasts for the
start-finish straight in green.

Holm and Gurney are
setting a blistering pace.

Five

places in just five laps.

Spring

drive rarely seen
in motor racing.

Gurney and the sensational
Bruce McLaren battle for second.

McLaren now in second.

He's

done serious damage
to the bodywork.

Incredibly, Denny
holds on to win.

Bruce storms back to make it
a sensational McLaren one-two.

Every racing driver
likes the other.

Even though Bruce was really wanting
to try and wind down, he loved racing,

he loved driving, and
he was still good at it.

Bruce needed another
driver in Formula One.

Quite clearly, Bruce and
Denny got on very well.

They were Kiwis
taking on the world.

Please don't mind them.

Denny had a foot in
both camps, as it were.

He was driving with Jack
Brabham in Formula One.

The Formula One season ended up
with Denny becoming world champion.

Bruce won the
Can-Am Championship.

Denny was second.

The longer we went, we got stronger
together, and Bruce decided that there'd

be a place for me in his Formula
One team, his new Formula One team.

Oh, it's beautiful.

I don't like thick ones.

I do.

I'm with you.

Yeah, but you've got to
play up in the fans, don't you?

A Formula One car was designed.

The M7.

Rob and her
designed the chassis.

The car was a success
right from the start.

We were starting
to look very good.

And then in 1968, Bruce
made history at Spa.

Spa is a very, very long race.

Very high speed.

Fuel consumption
is absolutely critical.

Spa was a bit like Monaco.

Sometimes only three
or four cars would finish.

Danny was very competitive.

He was second
right from the start.

Bruce was running sixth or
seventh, making his way up the field.

And Danny got into the lead.

And then the next thing,
there he is in the pits.

Pits stopped.

What's wrong?

Drive shafts melted off
the side of the gearbox.

But Bruce's car was
running particularly well.

Towards the end of the
race, he'd worked himself

up into second place
behind Jackie Stewart.

Tyler was out there with a pit
board to Bruce, waving furiously.

Telling him to go faster
and faster because

there was every chance
he could catch Jackie.

On the last lap, unbeknown to Bruce,
Jackie Stewart's car stopped out of fuel.

But he didn't see Jackie run
out and he crossed the line.

As far as Bruce was
concerned, he'd finished second.

And we were trying to say to him,
you've won, you've won, you've won.

You've won the race.

Oh, I just thought
it was fantastic.

Absolutely fantastic.

And he deserved it.

Bruce had now won Formula
One and Grand Prix in a car

of his own design and
manufacture, bearing his name.

And it was just a major step
forward for the race team.

It is so appropriate that the
first ever win for a McLaren

and a Formula One car, was
with Bruce McLaren at the wheel.

And it was the second
time in history that a driver

won a Grand Prix with his
name on the nose of the car.

And it's never happened since.

Well, I'd said to Bruce, you know,
when we first started over here eight or

nine years ago, and we dreamed
about doing something on our own.

We didn't know how long it would take,
when we could do it, but we've done it.

Here in the cul-de-sac, right under
the flight path of London Airport,

is the home of one of the most
successful areas of British motor racing.

David Ode was a very basic
kind of English industrial estate.

To us at the time, it seemed
like this was very grand, but...

Every 80 seconds, we had
a jet land over the top of us.

And of course, if you're on the
telephone, you just had to stop talking.

Just say, excuse me a minute.

We're just going to
wait for 60 seconds.

And it's right there.

It's the building
of our great city.

Having the factory so close
to the airport suited Bruce fine.

He was constantly in the air.

He was able to jump off the plane at
the airport, get to David Road, have a few

meetings, and be back
on the plane within minutes.

Bruce and Denny
spent a lot of time in

airplanes back and
forth across the Atlantic.

The drivers, Bruce and Denny's
involvement was split between

a Can-Am weekend and then a
Formula One weekend in Europe.

They'd fly in on the
Thursday, because the jet

lag was quite bad between
England and the US.

And we'd run Friday.

And then Saturday, practice and
qualifying, and then race on Sunday.

Team McLaren earned more than
$162,000 in prizes for the series.

Bruce must have been
something of a workaholic.

There was this great
need for him to be busy.

I'm not sure when he
ever found time to sleep.

Bruce also did have big plans to
manufacture street cars, road cars.

I remember the prototype
coupe that he built.

We were in England setting up to
get delivery of our next McLaren.

When we were in the office, he showed us
this model that was there, the GT that he

wanted to build, because
that was his dream.

We would like to do a
road car in the future,

and we're talking about
it and thinking about it.

Some way down the
line, I hope it happens.

That road car really
was Bruce's baby.

All the neighbours
came out when he very

quietly tried to drive
it out of the garage.

I only drove it briefly and wanted to
show off when he had a cocktail party.

Tenths of a second on lap time.

This really keeps you working.

Cars were becoming increasingly more
powerful, and designers were trying to

find ways of creating
downforce to keep the cars

on the track, on fast
corners in particular.

And cars started
sprouting wings.

Aerofoil section, put it on struts,
took 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.

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 onto the uprights.

That proved to be unbeatable.

Group 7, the fastest
racing cars in the world.

Champions McLaren and Holm drive
these cars to win on Golf Premium No-Knock.

If McLaren and Holm...

The success of Bruce McLaren and
Danny Holm in Can-Am was extraordinary.

In 1969, there were 11 rounds
of the Can-Am Championship.

McLaren's won all 11 of them.

Every race.

Holm won five, McLaren won six.

It's just unbelievable.

He was bringing
home buckets of cash.

Lots of other race team owners made
themselves rich and beggared their teams.

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 high life.

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.

When you talk to anybody that's
there to hide, 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 and
be the same tyre 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 had moved around the world.

New Zealander Bruce McLaren driving in his
hundredth 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 in previous years
because there's just that much more

administration, there's
that much more to go wrong.

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.

There was always a rush to get the
Formula One cars built for the January,

February start and then
Can-Am didn't start until June.

Resources were fairly stretched.

Not a huge team
of people at all.

Maybe 50 guys working on Can-Am,
Formula One 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 snow race in the world.

I suppose it was logical
for a workaholic to

look at Indianapolis as
the next thing to tackle.

Yeah, he was building an empire.

Dear folks, two Indy cars went off last
night and Denny, Chris Amon, Teddy and I

should be running at
Indianapolis on Monday morning.

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.

Denny's overalls were
on fire but because it

was methanol you couldn't
see any flame burning.

And Denny ended up getting his hands
badly burnt which put a stop to his drive.

In fact, he ended
up in hospital.

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 One, Indianapolis and Can-Am
was almost too much for one man and I think

he'd come to the realisation
that he was going to lose.

He was going to need to
step away from some driving.

And I suppose perhaps Paddy had an
influence on that as well, understandably.

Well, 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 lagged.

But Denny couldn't drive.

The design side of the
car hadn't changed a lot.

How are you going to 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 One with the high wings

that the Americans followed suit and
banned them at the end of the year.

Kerry Taylor and myself
were at Goodwood and

they were exploring
rear wing configurations.

They had a wing section
hung between fins on the tail

for the first time and this
generated huge problems.

Huge amounts of downforce.

We were testing there with
a Formula One car and a

Can-Am car and he was
climbing from one car to the other.

He was in a great frame of
mind and I always remember he'd

been to see the Sundance
kit film and it took his fancy.

He was pretty impressed by that.

Ready?

You're a real chump.

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.

You can hear those
cars, a V8 running about

6,000 revs and those
were monstrous engines.

All of a sudden it's
just and a silence.

Jim Stone and I jumped in my car and drove
around 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 held on to him.

I sat there and held him
until the ambulance came

and then the ambulance
people took him off me.

It wasn't too long
before I had a phone call.

And it was a tragic accident
and we had lost Bruce.

So being what we were we
took the broken car and put it

in the truck and I drove
the truck back to the factory.

I had to tell Patty
what had happened.

A couple of the people from
McLaren's just came to the house.

I think one's 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 realised I would have to call
Bruce's parents in New Zealand.

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 Mack.

And Mrs Mack 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 Lee said, what's the matter?

That whole day's
come back Roger.

It's a...

You build a pretty close
relationship with a driver.

He's got to trust you.

And...

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very sad day.

I wanted the boys to carry on
and I wrote a letter to the team.

The boys as I
always called them.

My boys.

What happened should never have.

At say 180 mile an hour
with the rear wing set at a

fairly high angle the rear
section of the car lifted.

Unfortunately there was a marshals post
due for demolition hadn't been demolished

right in the path of the car.

Teddy and I decided we
would get everybody in the

factory together and we said
to them, take tomorrow off.

The next day everyone turned up.

You know, we
decided to carry on.

I mean, that's what he
would have wanted us to do.

Ian Young, Paddy McLaren and myself would
fly out to New Zealand for his funeral.

The funeral procession We had one
session left to drive to the cemetery.

At every intersection there was a
traffic officer making sure the lights were

overridden so that the cortege
was never going to be slowed down.

All of the traffic officers stood to
attention and saluted as we went through.

We

got a huge photograph of
Bruce and we put it up on

the far wall of the factory
in the prototype shop.

Denny was there virtually
every day other than

the days that he had to
go and see the specialist.

And he took over the
mantle of team leader.

At the back of everyone's
mind of course was here we are

due to be on Mossport first
Can-Am race June the 14th.

Within two weeks.

And so another car had
to be built very quickly

if we were a functioning
motor racing team.

They quickly designed
a whole new system of

struts to hold the
bodywork in the rear wing.

Denny said I'm going to drive
at Mossport because he said

we've got to be there with two
cars and we said no you're not.

You can't Denny the doctors have all said
to you that you know your hands are so bad.

Denny certainly made it very obvious
that come what may he was driving.

The immediate thoughts was who
can we approach to drive the second car.

The McLaren team is here dedicated
to winning in the memory of their boss.

Dan Gurney a close friend of Bruce's has
volunteered to drive the second McLaren.

I drove a Can-Am car
for a McLaren under the

worst sort of circumstances
when Bruce left us.

I felt as though my old
friend would probably

be honored if I could
do well and so I said yes.

He joins Denny Holm whose hands have been
badly burned in testing for the Indy 500.

Against doctor's orders and
with his hands heavily bandaged.

Denny will race.

So on the grid at Mossport there's Denny
with extremely painful burnt hands and

then that left hand went
onto the wheel and we had to

sort of mold it around the
wheel so he could hold on.

Unbelievably the doctors at
Mossport allowed him to start.

Denny led for most of the way
until he had gearbox problems.

Dan won the race.

Denny finished third.

It was a great opportunity to do
something for Bruce to keep things going.

McLaren went from
success to success.

Denny won the Can-Am
Championship in 1970.

We won the Indy 500.

And the new M16
with Mark Donoghue.

In 1974 we achieved
our ultimate goal.

We won the Formula One World
Championship with Emerson Fittipaldi.

We won the Indy 500 with the
Works car with Johnny Rutherford.

Repeated that in 1976 with
James Hunt in Formula One.

Johnny Rutherford
again at the Indy 500.

And McLaren became the only team
in history to have completed the World

Championship Indy
500 double for two years.

The legacy of Bruce
McLaren lives on.

And it's not set in stone.

The legacy of McLaren lives on.

The legacy of McLaren lives on.

I've always said that if Bruce had come
into the factory one morning and said okay

men, because he always addressed
us collectively as men, okay men,

we're not going to work
on racing cars today.

We're going to march
across the Sahara desert.

We'd have all said
okay Bruce, no problem.

I remember when I was young, My
first actual race, it was on a beach.

I had a plastic

certificate which says,
the steroid declares that P.

McLaren won a up to 1500cc
all-comers handicap race.

But I was certainly
excited by it.

They tell me that there
have been quite a few

modifications carried
out on this car of yours.

What would some of
those modifications be?

I believe for a start that you're
using a bamboo space frame.

That's correct.

It's a bamboo space frame.

And we're also using the most sensational
development as of course the square wheels.

That gives us more tread area
when the car is going sideways.

That's tread area on the ground
as you must of course understand.