1
00:00:00,650 --> 00:00:01,400
Gordon, would you talk?

2
00:00:01,520 --> 00:00:03,800
And Bruce, if you
could just nod.

3
00:00:09,435 --> 00:00:13,570
This is the story of a young man from New
Zealand who was so successful at driving

4
00:00:13,571 --> 00:00:17,550
cars that he came to Europe to
branch out as a professional driver.

5
00:00:18,610 --> 00:00:22,417
As a designer and as a
businessman, last year, McLaren

6
00:00:22,418 --> 00:00:26,150
exported racing cars worth
one and a quarter million dollars.

7
00:00:43,070 --> 00:00:43,690
He was the first man
in the world to drive a

8
00:00:43,691 --> 00:00:43,690
car worth one and a
quarter million dollars.

9
00:00:43,691 --> 00:00:46,930
Bruce McLaren, driving in his
100th Grand Prix at the age of only 32.

10
00:00:59,990 --> 00:01:03,530
Bruce storms back to make
a sensational McLaren 1-2.

11
00:01:06,130 --> 00:01:09,590
McLaren seems to choose any line in a
daring drive rarely seen in motor racing.

12
00:01:11,270 --> 00:01:14,270
McLaren crew chief, Tyler Alexander,
looks happy, wouldn't you say?

13
00:01:20,570 --> 00:01:23,830
Bruce, you're competing on the world's
motor racing circuits and beating people

14
00:01:23,831 --> 00:01:26,790
who've got far, far more
money to spend than you have.

15
00:01:26,930 --> 00:01:30,210
Would you be very much better if you had
four or five times as much money to spend?

16
00:01:30,310 --> 00:01:31,950
No, we'd probably
get in a terrible mess.

17
00:01:34,410 --> 00:01:35,790
You can't get too big.

18
00:01:36,050 --> 00:01:38,730
You're a racing team and you
can get involved and hidebound.

19
00:01:39,150 --> 00:01:41,990
You've got to be able to move
quickly if you're going to be competitive.

20
00:01:44,900 --> 00:01:47,304
But the actual care
with which pieces are put

21
00:01:47,305 --> 00:01:49,600
together is very
important on a racing car.

22
00:01:49,780 --> 00:01:53,720
Something done incorrectly or
assembled in a hurry can be very dangerous.

23
00:02:44,910 --> 00:02:49,410
When I was a boy, Mum remembers
hearing me telling a fan tale.

24
00:02:50,110 --> 00:02:53,230
When I grow up, I'm going
to be a racing car driver.

25
00:03:09,060 --> 00:03:13,860
We're going to talk about Bruce,
the human interest side of it really,

26
00:03:13,980 --> 00:03:15,260
which I think is a good idea.

27
00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,930
You know what it's like when you meet
somebody and there's an instant rapport.

28
00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,351
He was a very hands-on
person, learning about

29
00:03:29,352 --> 00:03:31,670
the mechanics of
cars at his top service.

30
00:03:31,690 --> 00:03:33,956
He had a lot of experience in the
service station in the Ramio era.

31
00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:37,570
We learnt how to repair cars, put
cars together, build things, make things.

32
00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:42,350
We were always together.

33
00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:44,830
His friendship was
simply unconditional.

34
00:03:46,730 --> 00:03:49,930
His sense of humour
was never far behind him.

35
00:03:50,010 --> 00:03:51,010
It was like a shadow.

36
00:03:52,470 --> 00:03:54,550
Motor racing was
what we lived for.

37
00:03:55,610 --> 00:03:56,490
The world of motor racing.

38
00:03:56,550 --> 00:03:57,110
The world of motor racing.

39
00:03:57,530 --> 00:03:58,570
The world of motor racing.

40
00:03:59,670 --> 00:04:02,519
Bruce's father had a
pretty extensive career

41
00:04:02,531 --> 00:04:05,011
in motorsport himself,
from the 1930s.

42
00:04:05,670 --> 00:04:07,431
Wives and friends
signal drivers how far

43
00:04:07,443 --> 00:04:09,390
they've gone and their
position in the race.

44
00:04:09,670 --> 00:04:13,550
Some keen spectators follow the race in
the same way, whilst others just watch the

45
00:04:13,551 --> 00:04:16,610
cars go by and wonder why on earth
people want to do this sort of thing.

46
00:04:19,070 --> 00:04:22,285
Pop McLaren obviously
wanted Bruce to follow in

47
00:04:22,286 --> 00:04:25,030
his footsteps, and
Bruce absolutely loved it.

48
00:04:26,060 --> 00:04:30,690
That was always in his mind
from the time he was a boy.

49
00:04:32,250 --> 00:04:36,156
And yet he must have
been in severe discomfort

50
00:04:36,157 --> 00:04:39,651
most of the time,
strapped to that frame.

51
00:04:42,350 --> 00:04:46,470
Bruce had an illness from
childhood which had left him crippled.

52
00:04:46,740 --> 00:04:47,980
We called him the crippled kid.

53
00:04:51,450 --> 00:04:53,090
We thought he had polio.

54
00:04:53,210 --> 00:04:55,010
All types of cripples from
all over New Zealand.

55
00:04:55,011 --> 00:04:59,270
Comprised of 73 patients at the Wilson
Home for Crippled Children at Takapuna,

56
00:04:59,450 --> 00:05:00,450
Auckland.

57
00:05:01,810 --> 00:05:04,430
At nine and a half I
contracted Perthes disease.

58
00:05:05,810 --> 00:05:08,290
The ball joined to my left
hip was breaking down.

59
00:05:09,950 --> 00:05:13,410
To immobilise the hip they strapped me to
a frame and dangled weights from my legs.

60
00:05:15,630 --> 00:05:17,750
The specialist said I'd be
laid up for several months.

61
00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,830
He lay on that
frame for two years.

62
00:05:24,390 --> 00:05:25,610
Never came off it.

63
00:05:26,300 --> 00:05:31,290
Was educated on it and washed
and fed on it and the whole lot.

64
00:05:32,855 --> 00:05:35,970
One leg was always
shorter than the other.

65
00:05:37,990 --> 00:05:41,930
And he limped badly and couldn't
play rugby or cricket like other kids.

66
00:05:43,940 --> 00:05:44,940
Can you hit anything?

67
00:05:45,390 --> 00:05:46,390
Sometimes.

68
00:05:47,130 --> 00:05:48,230
Your piece.

69
00:05:51,210 --> 00:05:52,210
Shoot.

70
00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:01,160
Can I move?

71
00:06:02,180 --> 00:06:02,860
Move?

72
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:04,620
What the hell ya mean move?

73
00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:11,040
I'm better when I move.

74
00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:22,940
During these formative years, Pop could
see Bruce's extraordinary natural ability.

75
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:29,320
And he'd give us little lessons about
lines through corners, things to observe.

76
00:06:32,940 --> 00:06:37,600
Les had always said that when Bruce
speaks his times, he becomes the driver.

77
00:06:39,980 --> 00:06:43,340
New Zealand didn't have that
many sporting events in those days.

78
00:06:43,460 --> 00:06:47,140
And people would drive anywhere
to watch guys hurtling around.

79
00:06:53,070 --> 00:06:57,811
We did a lot of races together, all over
the North Island and the South Island.

80
00:07:01,940 --> 00:07:05,320
And then when the Grand Prix, the
New Zealand International Grand Prix,

81
00:07:05,420 --> 00:07:09,620
started, that became
an extraordinary event.

82
00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,380
I mean, there were 70,000
people there on the first day.

83
00:07:19,670 --> 00:07:22,631
The New Zealand Grand
Prix was an opportunity for

84
00:07:22,632 --> 00:07:25,370
Bruce to race against the
best drivers in the world.

85
00:07:28,100 --> 00:07:31,170
People like Jim Clark, Jack
Brabham and Stirling Moss.

86
00:07:33,140 --> 00:07:36,490
These guys were the Spitfire
pilots of the 50s and 60s.

87
00:07:38,820 --> 00:07:39,820
The pinup boys.

88
00:07:42,645 --> 00:07:46,010
In New Zealand, racing drivers are
regarded with a special sort of awe.

89
00:07:47,790 --> 00:07:51,270
And if they happen to be overseas drivers,
the awe develops into hero worship.

90
00:07:53,370 --> 00:07:54,810
That's how I regarded
Jack Brabham.

91
00:07:56,650 --> 00:07:59,650
Jack Brabham kept his race
car at Pop Service Station.

92
00:07:59,890 --> 00:08:03,590
So he became a friend of
the family and Bruce's mentor.

93
00:08:05,850 --> 00:08:09,670
Bruce was an extremely good driver
and he had talent that was born in him.

94
00:08:10,170 --> 00:08:12,970
Motor racing is not something you
just suddenly learn out of the blue.

95
00:08:14,090 --> 00:08:16,910
You've got to have it inside
and you've got to have a feel for it.

96
00:08:16,990 --> 00:08:18,310
And Bruce
certainly had all that.

97
00:08:20,970 --> 00:08:25,578
The New Zealand International
Grand Prix introduced a scholarship

98
00:08:25,579 --> 00:08:28,590
to get a New Zealand driver
to compete internationally.

99
00:08:30,090 --> 00:08:33,510
Well tonight's winner, he
started racing as a 15 year old.

100
00:08:34,950 --> 00:08:38,597
This year alone, he's
won six out of six sports car

101
00:08:38,598 --> 00:08:41,750
races driving the ex-Jack
Brabham bobtail Cooper.

102
00:08:41,970 --> 00:08:44,290
The winner is Bruce McLaren.

103
00:08:47,270 --> 00:08:50,291
Now Bruce, this award allows
you to go to England where

104
00:08:50,292 --> 00:08:53,130
you will train and race with
the Cooper Car Company.

105
00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:00,860
Bruce was 20 years old.

106
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,760
Mr and Mrs McLaren said, would you
go with Bruce as a mechanic helper?

107
00:09:08,110 --> 00:09:09,460
I said, but I'm not a mechanic.

108
00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:12,900
You know, I worked in an automotive
parts warehouse for my dad.

109
00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:15,280
Bruce said, you'll learn.

110
00:09:34,210 --> 00:09:37,750
What I was able to do was have it teed
up for him to come to the Cooper team.

111
00:09:38,390 --> 00:09:41,559
This is where we build our
racing cars and there are literally

112
00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:44,590
hundreds of component parts
that go to building a racing car.

113
00:09:44,890 --> 00:09:47,050
John Cooper said, oh there's
your car over there and he

114
00:09:47,051 --> 00:09:49,490
looked over it and there
was a pile of pipes and a rack.

115
00:09:49,750 --> 00:09:52,390
That's your car there boy,
now you'd better start building it.

116
00:09:52,750 --> 00:09:56,670
And he had to set about with Colin Beanland
to build the car before he could race it.

117
00:09:57,210 --> 00:09:59,370
And Bruce started
his Formula 2 career.

118
00:10:00,430 --> 00:10:04,890
Dear Dad, I wish you could be over
here doing this motor racing with me.

119
00:10:05,390 --> 00:10:07,490
I reckon I've inherited
something from you.

120
00:10:07,850 --> 00:10:10,410
It's the ability to have a
go when the time is right.

121
00:10:11,250 --> 00:10:15,230
Bruce started getting some good placements
in races which helped the budget.

122
00:10:15,750 --> 00:10:17,310
He liked the money that he won.

123
00:10:20,790 --> 00:10:24,804
Bruce was an incredibly
prolific letter writer

124
00:10:24,805 --> 00:10:28,591
and the boys would record
tapes to send back home.

125
00:10:30,010 --> 00:10:31,010
Thanks Pop.

126
00:10:31,090 --> 00:10:33,186
Thank you by the way for
that extra cash you sent over.

127
00:10:33,210 --> 00:10:34,770
Fortunately I don't
think I'll need it.

128
00:10:35,090 --> 00:10:37,247
The way I'm looking at
this season is to get in

129
00:10:37,248 --> 00:10:40,111
as many races this year
as possible and do well.

130
00:10:40,570 --> 00:10:42,890
I'm looking forward to
Nurburgring very much.

131
00:10:43,070 --> 00:10:47,010
It's a very tough course and if I
can finish there I'll be very happy.

132
00:10:49,990 --> 00:10:52,170
It was a combined
Formula 1 and 2 race.

133
00:10:52,590 --> 00:10:54,370
Bruce in Formula 2.

134
00:10:57,190 --> 00:11:00,690
The Nurburgring was the most
dangerous circuit on the calendar.

135
00:11:01,310 --> 00:11:02,950
They call it the green hell.

136
00:11:04,230 --> 00:11:04,670
Torturous.

137
00:11:04,671 --> 00:11:05,790
Very, very dangerous.

138
00:11:09,650 --> 00:11:12,140
There are several sections
where if you're brave enough

139
00:11:12,141 --> 00:11:15,270
you go over the top of a
hump and you are flying.

140
00:11:19,290 --> 00:11:20,990
So many different corners.

141
00:11:21,130 --> 00:11:23,790
So many different
types of corners.

142
00:11:24,090 --> 00:11:27,070
You know, up a hill, down a hill, off
a camber, with a camber, jump twice,

143
00:11:27,370 --> 00:11:28,670
four wheels on the air.

144
00:11:31,090 --> 00:11:33,010
It was a challenge
to any driver.

145
00:11:33,070 --> 00:11:35,050
It doesn't matter how
much you knew Nurburgring.

146
00:11:35,370 --> 00:11:37,470
Every lap there
was a new challenge.

147
00:11:40,390 --> 00:11:42,390
Bruce was sort of
unknown at that time.

148
00:11:42,710 --> 00:11:43,730
A new kid.

149
00:11:44,350 --> 00:11:46,970
And he was actually
leading the Formula 2 section.

150
00:11:49,150 --> 00:11:53,850
As the race progressed he got into some
of the Formula 1 cars and passed them too.

151
00:11:56,530 --> 00:11:58,430
He finished fifth overall.

152
00:11:59,890 --> 00:12:01,950
Won the Formula 2 section of it.

153
00:12:03,010 --> 00:12:06,190
As he drove up back to the
pit, he had a grin on his face.

154
00:12:06,330 --> 00:12:09,230
It was, I want to
say, like a mile wide.

155
00:12:09,430 --> 00:12:11,790
He was just absolutely elated.

156
00:12:12,950 --> 00:12:18,651
I helped him out of the car and, you know,
I think there were tears in both our eyes.

157
00:12:21,350 --> 00:12:25,510
That was really the thing that turned
the tide and got international recognition.

158
00:12:25,511 --> 00:12:29,590
He became on
the contenders list.

159
00:12:37,380 --> 00:12:39,650
Bruce turned 21
during that year.

160
00:12:40,430 --> 00:12:44,790
He was still in England, but there was
a great 21st birthday party at his parents'

161
00:12:44,910 --> 00:12:45,910
house.

162
00:12:47,850 --> 00:12:49,150
Well, hello son.

163
00:12:49,370 --> 00:12:51,110
I hope you've had
a wonderful day.

164
00:12:51,170 --> 00:12:52,974
And as Phil said,
well, we just hope, just

165
00:12:52,975 --> 00:12:54,910
don't think we're all
under a piece of liquor.

166
00:12:54,911 --> 00:12:59,570
We both got homesick, but, you know,
the driving force behind the whole thing

167
00:12:59,571 --> 00:13:02,350
was the enthusiasm we
had for what we were doing.

168
00:13:02,555 --> 00:13:03,170
Over to Dad.

169
00:13:03,550 --> 00:13:04,210
Hello, Bruce.

170
00:13:04,450 --> 00:13:06,610
Once again, very many
happy returns to the day.

171
00:13:07,230 --> 00:13:10,070
I mean, people would love
to have done what we did.

172
00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:18,280
The Auckland Car Club used
to hold regular club nights.

173
00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:21,020
Pop would take
the tape recordings.

174
00:13:22,420 --> 00:13:26,455
At Goodwood, the biggest
sort-out between the professional

175
00:13:26,456 --> 00:13:29,620
drivers and the chaps just
starting is the fast corners.

176
00:13:30,980 --> 00:13:34,860
On these fast corners, you go round
them the first few times, you think,

177
00:13:34,980 --> 00:13:36,460
oh dear, that
was near the limit.

178
00:13:36,580 --> 00:13:37,980
But in actual fact, it's not.

179
00:13:38,260 --> 00:13:42,780
It's only time and confidence that enables
you to get round the fast corners quick.

180
00:13:44,810 --> 00:13:48,880
Rain was starting to fall, and the whole
banking was absolutely treacherous.

181
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,060
We were taking this banking
at about 140 miles an hour.

182
00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:55,524
Under the extreme G loading,
you had to hang onto the

183
00:13:55,525 --> 00:13:57,800
wheel fairly tight to stop
your hands being pulled.

184
00:13:57,801 --> 00:13:59,641
You had to pull down
onto the floor of the car.

185
00:13:59,700 --> 00:14:01,380
I think it frightened everybody.

186
00:14:07,410 --> 00:14:11,130
1959 was Bruce's first
full season in Formula One.

187
00:14:13,830 --> 00:14:16,190
Towards the end of
the year, Coopers were

188
00:14:16,191 --> 00:14:19,051
major contenders for
the World Championship.

189
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,866
It certainly looks as
though the last Grand Prix of

190
00:14:25,867 --> 00:14:28,440
the season at Seabrook
could be the deciding race.

191
00:14:32,610 --> 00:14:35,530
Jack had a very narrow
lead over Sterling.

192
00:14:59,380 --> 00:15:01,300
He was the only one who
could win the Grand Prix.

193
00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:08,820
My best friend is now
on his first Grand Prix.

194
00:15:12,990 --> 00:15:15,258
Bruce was now the
youngest driver ever at

195
00:15:15,259 --> 00:15:19,051
just over 22 years of
age to win a Grand Prix.

196
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:23,880
And Jack had won the
World Championship.

197
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:24,620
Oh, that's wonderful.

198
00:15:24,860 --> 00:15:26,540
Now, what are they going to say
in Australia when they hear this?

199
00:15:26,541 --> 00:15:27,180
Oh, New Zealand, right?

200
00:15:27,181 --> 00:15:28,398
I don't know what they're
going to say in Australia, but

201
00:15:28,399 --> 00:15:30,301
I think they'll be very pleased
in New Zealand, Ronnie.

202
00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:38,880
It was a new world for Bruce.

203
00:15:38,881 --> 00:15:40,720
Because now he's recognised.

204
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:45,580
I remember Bruce saying, I
think we're becoming famous.

205
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:51,640
It was an understatement when you consider
what went on for the rest of the year.

206
00:15:58,370 --> 00:16:02,190
Bruce won the opening round of the
1960 World Championship in Argentina.

207
00:16:02,550 --> 00:16:07,000
And on the plane ride back to
England, Jack, Bruce and John

208
00:16:07,001 --> 00:16:10,210
Cooper came up with a car
that went on to sweep all before it.

209
00:16:11,350 --> 00:16:13,490
Cooper cars have
swept the board.

210
00:16:13,610 --> 00:16:15,350
And won the Constructors' Prize.

211
00:16:16,770 --> 00:16:19,384
And Bruce, in his
second year with Cooper,

212
00:16:19,385 --> 00:16:22,731
finished second to Jack
in the World Championship.

213
00:16:27,650 --> 00:16:31,760
Bruce McLaren was the first New Zealander
to really get into Formula One and

214
00:16:31,761 --> 00:16:35,175
establish the fact that a
Kiwi could go and do it and

215
00:16:35,176 --> 00:16:38,040
actually make that
breakthrough on the world stage.

216
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,560
He was an important
figure to all Kiwis.

217
00:16:57,870 --> 00:17:00,830
Bruce came back home
every year for the race season.

218
00:17:04,630 --> 00:17:08,630
One of Bruce's heartfelt ambitions was
to win the Grand Prix in his hometown.

219
00:17:09,530 --> 00:17:12,970
For many years, motor racing has been
a popular sport in New Zealand, attracting

220
00:17:12,971 --> 00:17:16,330
drivers with a taste for thrills and
mechanics with a taste for tinkering.

221
00:17:16,790 --> 00:17:20,090
There are car clubs all over the country,
and though prize money is not large,

222
00:17:20,230 --> 00:17:22,470
there's nothing small about
the amount spent on vehicles.

223
00:17:24,170 --> 00:17:27,690
For the big money and the big names
in motor racing, we fly north to Auckland,

224
00:17:27,890 --> 00:17:28,890
our largest city.

225
00:17:29,250 --> 00:17:32,670
Here in January each year is run the
New Zealand International Grand Prix.

226
00:17:33,260 --> 00:17:35,765
In the summertime, there
was a lot of things to attract

227
00:17:35,766 --> 00:17:38,010
Northern Hemisphere
drivers down to New Zealand.

228
00:17:38,930 --> 00:17:41,530
There was not much happening
in the northern winter in those days.

229
00:17:41,730 --> 00:17:45,370
New Zealand was a perfect place to come
and take up some sunshine, water skiing,

230
00:17:45,630 --> 00:17:46,630
girls.

231
00:17:47,270 --> 00:17:50,770
Enjoying the summer weather with friends
are Grand Prix drivers, some of whom have

232
00:17:50,771 --> 00:17:52,571
come halfway round
the world for the big race.

233
00:17:54,210 --> 00:17:56,550
An expert water skier,
Arnold Glass, is trying

234
00:17:56,551 --> 00:17:58,350
to explain the sport
to the English drivers.

235
00:17:58,670 --> 00:18:01,394
At least one of the Englishmen
has other interests in mind,

236
00:18:01,395 --> 00:18:03,970
and Arnold's only pupil is
New Zealander Bruce McLaren.

237
00:18:07,810 --> 00:18:10,810
After his wobbly efforts, Bruce
decides to stick to car racing.

238
00:18:10,990 --> 00:18:11,990
He says it's safer.

239
00:18:14,330 --> 00:18:17,270
In New Zealand, Bruce
met a girl from Timaru.

240
00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:22,330
I certainly remember
when Bruce first met Patty.

241
00:18:22,331 --> 00:18:24,190
She'd become Miss Caroline Bay.

242
00:18:26,290 --> 00:18:28,190
We met at a dance from memory.

243
00:18:28,490 --> 00:18:32,410
And then I tootled home with my girlfriend
and Bruce said he wanted to meet me again.

244
00:18:32,665 --> 00:18:36,530
And he was only there for a couple of days
and then off he tootled and kept in touch.

245
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:38,680
I was 18.

246
00:18:43,510 --> 00:18:46,030
So I always said we
had a courtship by letter.

247
00:18:49,860 --> 00:18:53,780
Before we got engaged, we'd
seen each other about six times.

248
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,420
I always liked people with
brown eyes and dark hair.

249
00:19:00,590 --> 00:19:02,500
He could have been
a few inches taller.

250
00:19:08,850 --> 00:19:12,849
Often we would be invited to
Bruce's for dinner sometime

251
00:19:12,850 --> 00:19:15,631
in the company of people that
weren't motor racing people.

252
00:19:15,850 --> 00:19:20,310
And the whole conversation would
finish up with pencils and pieces of paper.

253
00:19:24,590 --> 00:19:26,430
Bruce at heart was an engineer.

254
00:19:28,670 --> 00:19:32,150
He would make models out of
balsa wood and stick and string.

255
00:19:32,310 --> 00:19:34,530
And do torsion tests
on the kitchen table.

256
00:19:37,630 --> 00:19:39,119
And he would come
in the next morning and

257
00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:42,051
show us what he'd
drawn and what he'd built.

258
00:19:45,330 --> 00:19:48,670
Bruce Anjak talked
about life after Cooper.

259
00:19:50,910 --> 00:19:53,310
Here we had effectively
a perfect storm.

260
00:19:54,330 --> 00:19:59,850
The two drivers in the team, not just
fantastic drivers, but both capable of

261
00:19:59,851 --> 00:20:01,870
engineering and designing
a winning racing car.

262
00:20:13,500 --> 00:20:16,599
Jack Brabham left the
Cooper team at the end of

263
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,781
1961 and started
construction of his own cars.

264
00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,532
The engineer in Bruce
must have thought that's

265
00:20:24,533 --> 00:20:27,881
something which I
really need to do one day.

266
00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:30,640
How did it go, Bruce?

267
00:20:30,940 --> 00:20:32,236
That was pretty
good that time, John.

268
00:20:32,260 --> 00:20:33,614
I think perhaps a bit
too much braking on the

269
00:20:33,615 --> 00:20:36,241
back, but apart from
that it's nearly perfect.

270
00:20:41,730 --> 00:20:43,530
The Monte Carlo
was just magical.

271
00:20:45,630 --> 00:20:48,300
They used to have the
film festival the week

272
00:20:48,301 --> 00:20:51,891
before, so all the
stars would stay over.

273
00:20:52,990 --> 00:20:56,850
Oh, it was tremendous and we used
to travel in a convoy with various other

274
00:20:56,851 --> 00:20:59,230
drivers and we'd stop
off at some little motel.

275
00:21:00,250 --> 00:21:02,850
But we had great fun, you
know, travelling around together.

276
00:21:06,050 --> 00:21:09,603
In those days, all the
drivers were friends with each

277
00:21:09,604 --> 00:21:12,030
other, but they were very
determined competitors.

278
00:21:15,630 --> 00:21:19,110
Bruce was now the number
one driver at Cooper's.

279
00:21:20,530 --> 00:21:21,930
There was an
awful lot of pressure.

280
00:21:23,690 --> 00:21:25,490
All the leading
drivers were there.

281
00:21:26,210 --> 00:21:29,970
Jimmy Clark and Graham Hill
on the front-rider grid with Bruce.

282
00:21:30,650 --> 00:21:32,390
One, two, three, four,
three, two, one, hey!

283
00:21:33,610 --> 00:21:34,310
Graham Hill!

284
00:21:34,430 --> 00:21:35,130
Oh, look at that!

285
00:21:35,430 --> 00:21:37,090
They were spinning
that S with a Ferrari!

286
00:21:37,670 --> 00:21:38,670
This was Monaco.

287
00:21:43,730 --> 00:21:46,990
Any driver that can finish at
Monaco, in my book, is a hero.

288
00:21:47,310 --> 00:21:49,270
It was a real endurance event.

289
00:21:50,390 --> 00:21:53,384
Two and three quarter-hours,
2,700 gear changes,

290
00:21:53,385 --> 00:21:56,351
hard on the brakes
and hard on the steering.

291
00:22:01,210 --> 00:22:04,590
Bruce was in the lead, followed
by Phil Hill and the Ferrari.

292
00:22:06,230 --> 00:22:08,850
Phil Hill was closing on
Bruce, chasing him down.

293
00:22:16,070 --> 00:22:18,650
Everybody in the Cooper
pit got terribly nervous.

294
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,320
Everybody was
absolutely ecstatic.

295
00:22:38,420 --> 00:22:40,660
John Cooper more
probably than anyone else.

296
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:46,620
As Bruce said to me later, he said,
Phil Hill may have caught up with me,

297
00:22:46,700 --> 00:22:48,780
but there was no way he
was going to get past me.

298
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:50,160
No way.

299
00:22:59,540 --> 00:23:01,860
Coopers had been really
brightened up by the Monaco result.

300
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:06,160
And I don't have to tell you folks,
Paddy had a ball meeting Royalty.

301
00:23:06,300 --> 00:23:08,180
Grace and Rainier
had a cocktail party.

302
00:23:09,020 --> 00:23:10,840
I was fixated by the emeralds.

303
00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:13,860
The necklace, the earrings,
the bracelet, the ring.

304
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:16,280
And it was just fabulous.

305
00:23:18,140 --> 00:23:20,680
Bruce McLean by then
was a jet-set person.

306
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:22,280
World renowned.

307
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,120
The youngest Grand Prix
winner of all time at that time.

308
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,800
Bruce was a superstar.

309
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:35,520
We had great fun, you know,
travelling around together.

310
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,160
Time.

311
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,040
Our life is time, and
heartbeats are seconds.

312
00:23:42,380 --> 00:23:45,280
Whatever we do, our
preoccupation with time is constant.

313
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,940
Speed doesn't exist
for a top racing driver.

314
00:23:50,980 --> 00:23:56,720
Your mind completely synchronizes with
the elements that you're competing against.

315
00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:58,380
And one of those
elements is speed.

316
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,660
There's an element of danger,
but Bruce was such a careful person.

317
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:09,280
But sadly, motor racing
has its share of tragedies.

318
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,500
Over the years, Bruce saw
a number of his friends killed.

319
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:22,920
You're dealing
with human beings.

320
00:24:23,980 --> 00:24:27,000
Cars that are put together by
human beings so they can brake.

321
00:24:28,540 --> 00:24:30,960
Human beings driving them
so they can make mistakes.

322
00:24:33,220 --> 00:24:36,480
Drivers know that sort of thing's on
any time they get into a car, really.

323
00:24:42,070 --> 00:24:43,981
It may sound callous,
but if you're going to

324
00:24:43,982 --> 00:24:47,311
keep racing, to think
on an accident is bad.

325
00:24:48,530 --> 00:24:51,050
It's best to try and forget
as soon as possible.

326
00:24:54,190 --> 00:24:55,310
Everything's in slow motion.

327
00:24:55,710 --> 00:24:57,390
You've got plenty
of time to brake.

328
00:24:57,450 --> 00:24:59,250
You've got plenty of
time to change direction.

329
00:25:00,330 --> 00:25:02,810
Speed only happens when
you're having an accident.

330
00:25:37,620 --> 00:25:40,760
To Nürburgring, he had an
accident, a high-speed accident.

331
00:25:45,610 --> 00:25:48,130
Bruce, he only remembers
waking up in hospital.

332
00:25:56,740 --> 00:25:59,940
I'd once promised myself I'd give
up motor racing if I had a major crash.

333
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,060
But I found myself
thinking, not yet.

334
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:09,240
I'd like to start something big.

335
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:12,380
Run my own outfit.

336
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,100
Bruce was preparing
for the future.

337
00:26:20,620 --> 00:26:25,100
Bruce was the great student in
that university which was Cooper's.

338
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:30,280
He had a voracious
appetite for information.

339
00:26:31,900 --> 00:26:35,320
That burning curiosity
and intelligence.

340
00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:38,640
He had the ability to think big.

341
00:26:51,340 --> 00:26:55,940
When Jack Brabham left, it became very
obvious that Cooper's didn't want drivers

342
00:26:55,941 --> 00:26:58,860
being involved in design
or in the drawing of us.

343
00:26:58,861 --> 00:27:01,480
And that's where
Bruce's passion lay.

344
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:08,980
Bruce, as an engineer, could see that
Cooper's best days were behind them.

345
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:15,580
This was the start of his plan
to get his own full team together.

346
00:27:18,660 --> 00:27:21,940
Jack said it's difficult, but
if you want to do it, go for it.

347
00:27:26,220 --> 00:27:29,600
I think the first thing I
did for Bruce, apart from...

348
00:27:30,225 --> 00:27:31,460
I mean, I painted
him several times.

349
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:32,840
Of course, winning races.

350
00:27:33,535 --> 00:27:40,000
But he asked me to design a badge for
the then embryo McLaren racing team.

351
00:27:41,060 --> 00:27:43,300
This tatty old ledger
came to light recently.

352
00:27:44,020 --> 00:27:45,180
I've got an entry here.

353
00:27:45,745 --> 00:27:48,000
Designing badge for Bruce
McLaren Motor Racing Limited.

354
00:27:48,820 --> 00:27:51,920
For use on racing cars,
transports, redheads, lapel badges.

355
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:54,080
39 pounds.

356
00:27:55,510 --> 00:28:00,340
He said, you know, can you design a badge
that is relevant to a New Zealand team?

357
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:03,200
It's a badge of his
heritage in New Zealand.

358
00:28:03,545 --> 00:28:07,480
OK, Kiwi racing car,
name of the team, a badge.

359
00:28:08,550 --> 00:28:10,360
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Team.

360
00:28:15,780 --> 00:28:19,720
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was
first formed to race in New Zealand.

361
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:26,160
In the Cooper workshop in England,
Bruce and I had built a car specially to

362
00:28:26,161 --> 00:28:28,121
win the New Zealand Grand
Prix from the ground up.

363
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,840
The car was, for all intents
and purposes, a McLaren car.

364
00:28:33,841 --> 00:28:36,699
But because he was still
contracted to and driving

365
00:28:36,700 --> 00:28:39,601
for Cooper, then it made
sense to call it a Cooper.

366
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:42,540
But it was really Bruce's deal.

367
00:28:44,660 --> 00:28:48,280
Cooper copied our car and built
a second car for Timmy Mayer.

368
00:28:51,930 --> 00:28:56,470
Timmy Mayer was a young American driver,
Bruce's teammate and, to some extent,

369
00:28:56,590 --> 00:28:57,590
protege.

370
00:28:59,710 --> 00:29:02,530
Timmy was a very
approachable young fella.

371
00:29:03,130 --> 00:29:05,930
He'd done very well in
England, a former junior.

372
00:29:06,570 --> 00:29:09,610
With his brother, Teddy,
as his team manager.

373
00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:13,710
It was the New
Zealand Grand Prix.

374
00:29:14,290 --> 00:29:16,010
This was what we were here for.

375
00:29:18,190 --> 00:29:22,370
Away goes the field of crack drivers
on their high-speed journey of 150 miles.

376
00:29:23,070 --> 00:29:24,070
The

377
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:41,940
win in a car that Bruce and I had designed
and built ourselves was just tremendous.

378
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:46,880
Lots of hugs all round.

379
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:48,000
It was a huge effort.

380
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:03,600
But, as you learn in motor racing,
the highs and lows were enormous.

381
00:30:07,670 --> 00:30:11,497
In practice at Longford, the
last race of the series, Timmy

382
00:30:11,498 --> 00:30:15,030
talked to Bruce about a hump
in the road just prior to a corner.

383
00:30:15,730 --> 00:30:17,817
Because Timmy felt
that he was braking

384
00:30:17,829 --> 00:30:20,250
before it and could
possibly brake after it.

385
00:30:20,630 --> 00:30:24,570
And Bruce said, yes, you can
brake after it, but be very careful.

386
00:30:27,450 --> 00:30:28,850
Timmy went out
and never came back.

387
00:30:31,570 --> 00:30:33,890
The vehicle landed a
little sideways into a tree.

388
00:30:34,340 --> 00:30:36,793
The car was virtually
broken in two behind the

389
00:30:36,794 --> 00:30:39,911
cockpit and, you know,
it just killed him instantly.

390
00:30:42,070 --> 00:30:44,610
That was really
our first tragedy.

391
00:30:46,910 --> 00:30:49,530
This was the first time that
it struck so close to home.

392
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,271
When you speak to somebody,
and they're minutes before and

393
00:30:56,272 --> 00:31:01,490
they're no longer with you,
it affects you quite deeply.

394
00:31:04,070 --> 00:31:05,930
But there was a
race the next day.

395
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:10,890
And the team turned up.

396
00:31:14,260 --> 00:31:15,350
And we raced the next day.

397
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,392
They seriously talked
about Bruce not racing,

398
00:31:22,412 --> 00:31:24,600
but decided, you
know, we must carry on.

399
00:31:24,700 --> 00:31:25,440
This is our business.

400
00:31:25,580 --> 00:31:26,580
This is what we do.

401
00:31:30,110 --> 00:31:32,901
At Timmy's funeral, the
eulogy Bruce wrote really

402
00:31:32,902 --> 00:31:35,630
was the mantra that the
team followed from then on.

403
00:31:36,550 --> 00:31:40,150
The news that he had died instantly
was a terrible shock to all of us.

404
00:31:42,850 --> 00:31:48,330
But who's to say that he had not seen
more, done more, and learned more in his

405
00:31:48,331 --> 00:31:50,710
26 years than many
people do in a lifetime?

406
00:31:53,250 --> 00:31:56,022
To do something well
is so worthwhile that to

407
00:31:56,023 --> 00:31:59,471
die trying to do it better
cannot be foolhardy.

408
00:32:01,670 --> 00:32:04,390
There would be a waste of life
to do nothing with one's ability.

409
00:32:05,650 --> 00:32:10,430
I feel that life is measured in
achievement, not in years alone.

410
00:32:33,660 --> 00:32:36,932
At the end of that Tasman
series, we went back to

411
00:32:36,933 --> 00:32:39,601
England, not quite sure what
the future was going to hold.

412
00:32:44,380 --> 00:32:47,460
Ian Young actually called me up and
said, Bruce is here, wants to talk to you.

413
00:32:47,975 --> 00:32:50,460
Bruce came on the line and
said, I'm expanding my team.

414
00:32:50,540 --> 00:32:52,100
Would you like to
come and work for me?

415
00:32:52,910 --> 00:32:54,800
He wanted to hire more Kiwis.

416
00:32:55,780 --> 00:32:58,100
Oh yes please, thank
you very much, I'll do that.

417
00:33:00,300 --> 00:33:02,840
New Zealand mechanics
were very innovative.

418
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,649
They had learned how
to build cars in our little

419
00:33:06,650 --> 00:33:09,240
country, where it was
very difficult to get past.

420
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,500
And so they could make
completely new components.

421
00:33:13,580 --> 00:33:16,863
You know the old saying,
if you give a Kiwi a length

422
00:33:16,864 --> 00:33:19,201
of number eight fencing
wire, he'll make anything.

423
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:21,880
So he liked that attitude.

424
00:33:21,881 --> 00:33:23,040
Because that's how he was.

425
00:33:25,020 --> 00:33:27,820
Bruce McLaren now had a
team, but didn't have a workshop.

426
00:33:28,780 --> 00:33:30,860
Our tow car had
a rusty old trailer.

427
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,700
And Ian Young was sent out
urgently to try and find us a workshop.

428
00:33:35,140 --> 00:33:36,440
In retrospect, it was terrible.

429
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,020
It was very small, but in fact it
suited us perfectly at the time.

430
00:33:42,820 --> 00:33:47,243
What he came up with was
the corner of a large industrial

431
00:33:47,244 --> 00:33:50,480
garage that was used for
servicing earth moving machinery.

432
00:33:51,980 --> 00:33:53,960
With what was
virtually a dirt floor.

433
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,092
It probably had been
concrete once, but with all

434
00:33:56,172 --> 00:33:58,040
the bulldozers moving
around, it was broken up.

435
00:33:58,340 --> 00:34:02,680
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in
England started in a very grotty shed.

436
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:09,520
Well, that ought to do it.

437
00:34:19,150 --> 00:34:20,150
Money.

438
00:34:21,370 --> 00:34:23,870
It takes an awful lot
of money to run a team.

439
00:34:26,550 --> 00:34:28,510
Mechanics, drivers,
transportation.

440
00:34:29,710 --> 00:34:33,790
Bruce was up against Lotus, Maserati,
and of course, Coupes and Ferrari.

441
00:34:35,110 --> 00:34:37,210
There was a payroll
to meet every week.

442
00:34:40,330 --> 00:34:45,911
Bruce was asked to drive big American
sports cars, particularly as a test driver.

443
00:34:45,950 --> 00:34:49,730
Ford used Bruce a lot because
they appreciated his technical ability.

444
00:34:49,990 --> 00:34:53,990
With his engineering background,
Bruce could drive the car and he could

445
00:34:53,991 --> 00:34:56,350
tell the engineers exactly
what was happening.

446
00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:59,010
Bruce needed the
money from Ford.

447
00:34:59,710 --> 00:35:01,430
There was no money
in Formula One.

448
00:35:01,850 --> 00:35:06,251
The McLaren team really was
being financed doing testing,

449
00:35:06,252 --> 00:35:10,150
and we'd do anything up to
three, four hundred miles a day.

450
00:35:11,670 --> 00:35:13,690
There wasn't a lot
of money at the time.

451
00:35:13,870 --> 00:35:18,070
They did a lot of tyre testing for
Firestone, which paid good money.

452
00:35:20,150 --> 00:35:21,850
Just wonderful experience.

453
00:35:22,570 --> 00:35:25,990
So I knew Bruce quite well by
the time I started working for him.

454
00:35:26,470 --> 00:35:27,570
These were guys.

455
00:35:27,830 --> 00:35:29,190
None of them had hit 30.

456
00:35:29,191 --> 00:35:33,910
And they were full of enthusiasm,
full of innovations, and they were smart.

457
00:35:34,575 --> 00:35:36,050
We all spoke his language.

458
00:35:36,170 --> 00:35:37,270
We all shared his humour.

459
00:35:37,410 --> 00:35:40,330
And we were all
totally dedicated to him.

460
00:35:40,915 --> 00:35:42,350
He worked along with us.

461
00:35:42,450 --> 00:35:44,670
He didn't stand there
and issue instructions.

462
00:35:44,950 --> 00:35:46,890
He would be there with
his sleeves rolled up.

463
00:35:47,930 --> 00:35:51,332
I think now the cars like the
big GT cars, which we drive at

464
00:35:51,333 --> 00:35:54,610
Le Mans, Nürburgring and so
on, they'll do 200 miles an hour.

465
00:35:54,790 --> 00:35:56,630
And they also
accelerate like mad.

466
00:35:56,690 --> 00:35:57,350
They spin the wheels.

467
00:35:57,450 --> 00:35:58,790
You can't keep full
throttle all the time.

468
00:35:58,791 --> 00:35:59,890
And this is a lot more fun.

469
00:36:01,270 --> 00:36:03,330
Bruce decided sports
car racing might be the

470
00:36:03,331 --> 00:36:06,491
way to go for the
fledgling McLaren team.

471
00:36:07,810 --> 00:36:11,690
He'd heard of a car that was for sale
in America called the Xeric Special.

472
00:36:13,490 --> 00:36:16,716
Teddy Mayer was back
in America with his life in

473
00:36:16,717 --> 00:36:19,470
tatters because of the
death of his brother, Timmy.

474
00:36:19,570 --> 00:36:21,946
And Bruce said, well,
how would you like to try

475
00:36:21,947 --> 00:36:23,870
and buy this car for me
and come to England?

476
00:36:24,490 --> 00:36:25,570
We chopped the chassis up.

477
00:36:25,650 --> 00:36:27,570
Put an Oldsmobile
engine into it.

478
00:36:27,571 --> 00:36:30,750
Big stack exhaust pipes so it
looked like something from Mars.

479
00:36:30,930 --> 00:36:35,390
Shrewd on a plane took it to
Canada and won at Northport.

480
00:36:35,630 --> 00:36:38,610
Bruce McLaren from Oslo, New
Zealand gets the checkered flag.

481
00:36:45,150 --> 00:36:47,650
We in Europe were
racing for peanuts.

482
00:36:47,770 --> 00:36:50,154
And for us to go to
America and see the sort

483
00:36:50,155 --> 00:36:52,991
of money that was
available was mind-blowing.

484
00:36:54,070 --> 00:36:56,370
With his new team, Bruce
needed management.

485
00:36:57,430 --> 00:36:59,870
What about our mechanical
needs of taking the nuts off?

486
00:37:00,090 --> 00:37:01,450
Like Tyrell's air wrenches.

487
00:37:01,630 --> 00:37:02,630
Bad idea.

488
00:37:02,850 --> 00:37:04,590
Teddy Mayer was a lawyer.

489
00:37:04,990 --> 00:37:07,910
He became the business
brains of the operation.

490
00:37:10,890 --> 00:37:16,490
He took one look around the workshop
and said, God damn, he can't work here.

491
00:37:16,830 --> 00:37:19,390
And so Ian Young
was sent out again.

492
00:37:20,270 --> 00:37:24,790
Ian Young got us what was a
really upmarket workshop in Feltham.

493
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,310
It was 10,000 feet, the
ideal place to start up.

494
00:37:28,550 --> 00:37:29,430
It had lots of windows.

495
00:37:29,431 --> 00:37:31,010
And a good concrete floor.

496
00:37:31,230 --> 00:37:32,650
And nice work benches.

497
00:37:32,730 --> 00:37:33,730
And even an office.

498
00:37:35,030 --> 00:37:37,450
And Bruce decided to start
with a clean sheet of paper.

499
00:37:37,650 --> 00:37:39,390
And we would build
the first ever McLaren.

500
00:37:39,970 --> 00:37:43,870
This year we decided that the car that
would probably win would be a lightweight

501
00:37:43,871 --> 00:37:46,710
car powered by a relatively
big American engine.

502
00:37:47,835 --> 00:37:49,330
The McLaren M1.

503
00:37:50,330 --> 00:37:52,616
Bruce basically
sketched with a piece of

504
00:37:52,628 --> 00:37:55,150
chalk on the floor what
we were going to do.

505
00:37:55,860 --> 00:37:57,250
It was instantaneous stuff.

506
00:37:57,470 --> 00:37:58,730
There was no time to draw it.

507
00:37:58,731 --> 00:38:01,166
The chap would come in at night
and say, what have you made today?

508
00:38:01,190 --> 00:38:03,086
I said, oh, well, I've just made
a couple of wishbones here.

509
00:38:03,110 --> 00:38:03,730
Just draw those.

510
00:38:03,990 --> 00:38:06,730
I had an office with a sign on
the door that said, don't knock.

511
00:38:06,850 --> 00:38:08,130
We don't have that sort of time.

512
00:38:08,290 --> 00:38:10,426
Bruce was famous for
just waving his arms and

513
00:38:10,427 --> 00:38:12,670
saying, well, you know,
just make it like this.

514
00:38:12,950 --> 00:38:15,870
Whoosh, you take some tubes
and bonk, you've got a chassis.

515
00:38:16,350 --> 00:38:19,210
That was one of Bruce's
favorite terms, just whoosh, bonk.

516
00:38:19,350 --> 00:38:20,410
And of course that stuck.

517
00:38:20,605 --> 00:38:22,630
Then everything was
whoosh, bonk after that.

518
00:38:22,750 --> 00:38:24,790
But it was anything
but whoosh, bonk.

519
00:38:26,670 --> 00:38:29,884
The day we wheeled it out
of the workshop, painted black

520
00:38:29,885 --> 00:38:32,510
with a silver stripe and
a little Kiwi badge on it.

521
00:38:33,295 --> 00:38:36,150
It was a very, very proud moment
for all of us New Zealanders.

522
00:38:42,470 --> 00:38:45,310
Bruce went off to
America to run that car.

523
00:38:46,210 --> 00:38:48,950
And you'd kind of pack
up and become gypsies.

524
00:38:49,130 --> 00:38:51,956
You know, you'd find
space, somebody's garage,

525
00:38:51,957 --> 00:38:54,350
some dealership,
whatever to work out of.

526
00:38:54,910 --> 00:38:56,870
Spare parts that have
to come from England.

527
00:38:58,970 --> 00:39:03,150
It was a lightweight car, very
much like a formula car in Europe.

528
00:39:04,190 --> 00:39:06,090
It created a huge
amount of attention.

529
00:39:07,990 --> 00:39:11,990
The Americans at the time were
running heavy cars, incredibly heavy.

530
00:39:12,550 --> 00:39:15,181
Bruce was nimble and
he could duck and dive and

531
00:39:15,182 --> 00:39:18,111
weave amongst all these
great big heavy monsters.

532
00:39:19,210 --> 00:39:23,290
Phones started to ring and people started
to ask, how can we get one of these cars?

533
00:39:44,330 --> 00:39:45,830
Oh, that car is something else.

534
00:39:45,930 --> 00:39:46,290
Yeah.

535
00:39:46,590 --> 00:39:47,670
Would you like to drive it?

536
00:39:51,870 --> 00:39:52,870
Hmm.

537
00:39:56,410 --> 00:39:57,730
At least you got
yourself a deal.

538
00:39:57,930 --> 00:39:58,970
I'm glad you like the car.

539
00:40:06,590 --> 00:40:08,770
Dad, we're pretty pleased
the way things are going.

540
00:40:09,390 --> 00:40:12,310
We could have sold 30 sports
cars this year if they'd been available.

541
00:40:12,890 --> 00:40:15,070
A lot easier than winning
races, let me tell you.

542
00:40:16,510 --> 00:40:20,130
We've got a way to go before we understand
aerodynamics on these sports cars,

543
00:40:20,131 --> 00:40:22,450
but I guarantee we know
more than anyone else.

544
00:40:24,050 --> 00:40:26,290
The big excitement has
been in Formula One.

545
00:40:27,470 --> 00:40:29,130
But we're keeping
that very quiet.

546
00:40:31,470 --> 00:40:38,250
There at the end of the runway is Concorde
001, and in for loose is John Dragonback.

547
00:40:38,670 --> 00:40:40,250
Just seconds to go.

548
00:41:03,970 --> 00:41:06,755
Bruce said to me, you know,
we really need a full-time

549
00:41:06,756 --> 00:41:09,311
designer, because he
was flat out all the time.

550
00:41:09,770 --> 00:41:13,350
So I said, I've got this
friend called Robin Hurd, who

551
00:41:13,450 --> 00:41:16,570
works on the Concorde, but
he'd love to design racing cars.

552
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:21,750
I'd been three years out of university and
I was working at Farnborough, which is the

553
00:41:21,751 --> 00:41:23,511
headquarter of the
British aircraft industry.

554
00:41:24,570 --> 00:41:28,970
When Bruce says to a 25-year-old,
come and design my first Formula One car,

555
00:41:29,650 --> 00:41:33,570
you either say, yep, I'll do that, and
risk the biggest cock-up of all time,

556
00:41:34,730 --> 00:41:37,530
or no, you throw away
the opportunity of a lifetime.

557
00:41:39,390 --> 00:41:42,310
Robin was aware of all these materials
that we didn't know anything about.

558
00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:47,110
And one of the products
was called Malite.

559
00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:52,420
I did a sort of latest aircraft
technology version of a

560
00:41:52,421 --> 00:41:55,330
Formula One car, using
honeycomb, double-skin and bonding.

561
00:41:58,035 --> 00:42:00,030
Bruce took it with
great enthusiasm.

562
00:42:01,970 --> 00:42:04,410
The letters to Dad were
full of technical stuff.

563
00:42:04,610 --> 00:42:06,854
The first Malite car,
there's pictures of the

564
00:42:06,855 --> 00:42:09,130
tub and little drawings
of what he was doing.

565
00:42:09,420 --> 00:42:11,170
Of course, Dad just
lapped up every word.

566
00:42:12,690 --> 00:42:15,550
It was a very tedious
vehicle to build.

567
00:42:15,995 --> 00:42:19,090
We would be working
on the car come midnight.

568
00:42:19,370 --> 00:42:21,590
We would probably be
working on the car all night.

569
00:42:21,950 --> 00:42:24,624
When you've just been
working 12 or 14 hours a

570
00:42:24,625 --> 00:42:27,491
day, week after week,
there's a bit of tension.

571
00:42:29,150 --> 00:42:34,250
When somebody was welding and couldn't
see, we would fill a 20-cigarette packet

572
00:42:34,251 --> 00:42:37,695
with oxygen acetylene,
mixed at exactly the right

573
00:42:37,696 --> 00:42:40,790
ratio, and we just slid it
until it got to the flame.

574
00:42:42,290 --> 00:42:43,290
It was a real loser.

575
00:42:43,630 --> 00:42:46,190
I mean, it scared the
pants off of people.

576
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:49,480
You know, Bruce took all
those things in his stride.

577
00:42:51,550 --> 00:42:53,190
Bruce was always one of us.

578
00:42:54,170 --> 00:42:55,970
Very much one of the boys.

579
00:42:58,250 --> 00:43:02,590
When he built a new car, as soon as it was
on a jig, he would get into it and pretend

580
00:43:02,591 --> 00:43:05,059
to drive it and make
engine noises and steer

581
00:43:05,060 --> 00:43:07,350
it, and go, oh, boy,
this is going to be quick.

582
00:43:07,550 --> 00:43:10,130
And everybody would go, yeah,
yeah, yeah, it's really good fun.

583
00:43:12,850 --> 00:43:16,010
They built a jig to build
a mallet chassis with.

584
00:43:16,580 --> 00:43:20,830
There was a piece of coal-drawn
steel tube, about a four-inch diameter,

585
00:43:21,350 --> 00:43:24,050
and I always realised this would
make a wonderful gun barrel.

586
00:43:24,530 --> 00:43:28,290
We decided we'd make an
acetylene, oxygen acetylene cannon.

587
00:43:28,950 --> 00:43:32,810
The cap was welded in the end, and
then a little box and a spark plug fitted.

588
00:43:32,950 --> 00:43:34,910
Fortunately, I did
a pretty good job of

589
00:43:34,922 --> 00:43:37,190
welding it, not realising
what we were doing.

590
00:43:37,350 --> 00:43:40,530
Robin Hood was, you
know, an object of fun.

591
00:43:41,010 --> 00:43:42,266
I don't know what
we were thinking.

592
00:43:42,290 --> 00:43:43,866
There was a sense of
humour to everything.

593
00:43:43,890 --> 00:43:45,010
They seemed to accept me.

594
00:43:45,420 --> 00:43:47,246
He used to come to work
at nine o'clock or something.

595
00:43:47,270 --> 00:43:49,730
We would have already been
at work for quite some time.

596
00:43:50,250 --> 00:43:52,210
Drawing of his doors
at the top of the stairs.

597
00:43:52,510 --> 00:43:55,750
The way that Robin got in the
office, so this gun was set up.

598
00:43:56,090 --> 00:43:57,970
Pipe cans was a perfect fit.

599
00:43:58,250 --> 00:43:59,490
Pointed towards the door.

600
00:44:01,830 --> 00:44:04,050
And it was far more
successful than we expected.

601
00:44:04,250 --> 00:44:05,510
It went right through the door.

602
00:44:05,750 --> 00:44:07,950
He suddenly had
this door fly inside.

603
00:44:08,530 --> 00:44:11,210
We were all organised to
stow the gun instantaneously.

604
00:44:11,211 --> 00:44:12,730
It was wang under the bench.

605
00:44:12,810 --> 00:44:13,950
Everything was out of sight.

606
00:44:15,730 --> 00:44:16,170
What?

607
00:44:16,750 --> 00:44:17,190
Bang?

608
00:44:17,330 --> 00:44:18,330
Did you hear a bang?

609
00:44:19,230 --> 00:44:23,390
It was typical of New Zealand, and
by then, McLaren's sense of humour.

610
00:44:26,610 --> 00:44:27,050
6am.

611
00:44:27,290 --> 00:44:29,250
Daughter, eight
pounds, brown hair.

612
00:44:29,470 --> 00:44:30,150
Amanda Lee.

613
00:44:30,430 --> 00:44:31,430
Both fine.

614
00:44:31,530 --> 00:44:32,530
Father, poorly.

615
00:44:34,710 --> 00:44:35,990
We've certainly been very lucky.

616
00:44:36,420 --> 00:44:38,780
Little Amanda Lee is as perfect
as we could have wished for.

617
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,080
I'm bringing them home and
picking up the nurse on Tuesday.

618
00:44:42,990 --> 00:44:44,830
I don't go to Nassau until
Wednesday afternoon.

619
00:44:47,260 --> 00:44:48,420
He coped with it wonderfully.

620
00:44:48,750 --> 00:44:50,370
I think I had to do more coping.

621
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:54,430
Well, you have to, if you're going
to have a successful marriage.

622
00:44:56,110 --> 00:44:58,650
And whatever comes
along, you take in your stride.

623
00:45:00,460 --> 00:45:02,290
Because he was
away a lot of the time.

624
00:45:12,580 --> 00:45:17,080
1966 was Bruce McLaren's first
year as a Formula One constructor.

625
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:25,900
Bruce, above all, wanted to win in Formula
One, to the extent that he got hold of

626
00:45:25,901 --> 00:45:29,340
numbers one and two, the numbers
that go on the car, Chris and himself.

627
00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:33,860
Chris Amon was going to
be running the backup car.

628
00:45:34,755 --> 00:45:35,755
It never happened.

629
00:45:36,220 --> 00:45:41,080
I never got to do any races at all
because the engine was a disaster.

630
00:45:43,630 --> 00:45:48,140
Bruce put an Indianapolis Ford engine
into the back of his Formula One car.

631
00:45:50,130 --> 00:45:55,180
It made a fantastic noise,
but just had no speed at all.

632
00:46:01,100 --> 00:46:02,846
Dear folks, it's been
so long since I've

633
00:46:02,847 --> 00:46:06,001
written, I guess you must
wonder what's going on.

634
00:46:06,460 --> 00:46:08,800
The last few months
have been a little difficult.

635
00:46:09,710 --> 00:46:11,740
For the first time ever,
we've had a major setback.

636
00:46:12,970 --> 00:46:15,120
The F1 season is over, and
we've certainly lost a few people.

637
00:46:15,121 --> 00:46:16,121
We've only had a failure.

638
00:46:17,240 --> 00:46:19,240
It's hard to keep up
the spirits of the team.

639
00:46:21,490 --> 00:46:25,180
The team stuck at it as they do,
but, you know, with that engine,

640
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,220
there was no hope,
which was a real blow.

641
00:46:41,695 --> 00:46:43,255
I've been feeling
a bit of pain lately.

642
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:45,640
Just one question, Bruce.

643
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,440
The doc asked, do I get
headaches, and I said yes.

644
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:50,940
Quite possibly due to
the curve in your spine.

645
00:46:51,225 --> 00:46:53,320
Due to the pelvis not
being square when I stand.

646
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:55,200
Your left leg being...

647
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:56,320
shorter than your right.

648
00:46:57,050 --> 00:47:00,260
For a more permanent solution,
there's a rather radical procedure that we

649
00:47:00,261 --> 00:47:04,080
can do, in which we replace the
head of your femur with a steel one.

650
00:47:05,270 --> 00:47:08,350
He sent me to have an X-ray, and when
I looked at them, I was a little shaken.

651
00:47:08,900 --> 00:47:12,700
The right was a butte ball and
socket, and the left was a tatty old thing.

652
00:47:13,970 --> 00:47:16,140
Quite normal Perthes
disease recovery, he said.

653
00:47:17,580 --> 00:47:18,580
But it shook me a bit.

654
00:47:19,420 --> 00:47:24,180
His short leg and the pain it caused him,
to him personally, was a great problem.

655
00:47:26,260 --> 00:47:27,720
It was never talked about.

656
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,480
It was never ever considered to
be of anybody else's concern but his.

657
00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:34,320
But it was his reality.

658
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:40,980
Bruce, you need a lift.

659
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:43,800
This is Le Mans.

660
00:47:44,060 --> 00:47:46,860
Home of the most famous
road race in the world.

661
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,820
Through his contacts with Ford, Bruce
was contracted to drive at Le Mans.

662
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:54,940
It was a race that
was never done before.

663
00:47:54,941 --> 00:48:00,160
McLaren had been commissioned by Ford
to build a special version of the GT40.

664
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,620
I first met Bruce about 1966.

665
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:08,140
We were testing and
developing with Ford.

666
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:11,992
We used to kid around
because he had a bit of a limp,

667
00:48:11,993 --> 00:48:16,000
and he had to have the
clutch pedal closer to him.

668
00:48:16,530 --> 00:48:17,800
And I said, you know what?

669
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:19,920
I said, I keep hanging
my shins on that.

670
00:48:20,195 --> 00:48:22,260
You know, stupid things.

671
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:24,080
But that's what friends do.

672
00:48:26,385 --> 00:48:27,780
I was in good hands with Bruce.

673
00:48:28,370 --> 00:48:31,980
I wanted to learn as much as I
could because Bruce was an artist.

674
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,780
I loved the way he
would rotate the car.

675
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:37,440
And there was a finesse to that.

676
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:42,940
To be able to extract every ounce
of what this machine is capable of.

677
00:48:43,460 --> 00:48:47,240
A machine that can hurt you.

678
00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:52,902
You took that GT40 from a
vehicle that was dangerous at 190

679
00:48:52,903 --> 00:48:57,440
to a car that was going 214
or so miles an hour hands-off.

680
00:48:59,180 --> 00:49:03,656
Bruce had contributed a
lot of his expertise to the

681
00:49:03,657 --> 00:49:08,120
program, and Fords were
pretty dominant at that time.

682
00:49:08,940 --> 00:49:11,020
The mind was really
the big objective.

683
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,520
Henry Ford had decided he wanted to
win it and it didn't matter what it took.

684
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,020
There wasn't a budget constraint
like we all had in Formula One.

685
00:49:22,580 --> 00:49:25,420
Bruce and I teamed
up as Ford drivers.

686
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:29,180
I guess it became natural
to put the two Kiwis together.

687
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:34,660
Having a chance to
win them all was huge.

688
00:49:38,910 --> 00:49:41,837
The race always started
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon

689
00:49:41,838 --> 00:49:44,131
and finished at 4 o'clock
the following afternoon.

690
00:49:47,270 --> 00:49:48,750
Bruce started the race.

691
00:49:49,570 --> 00:49:52,590
He sprinted across the track,
one leg shorter than the other.

692
00:50:03,030 --> 00:50:07,970
In those days, those cars, you
couldn't drive them flat out for 24 hours.

693
00:50:09,170 --> 00:50:11,790
But Bruce said, you know,
we've got nothing to lose.

694
00:50:11,950 --> 00:50:13,130
Let's give it everything.

695
00:50:13,430 --> 00:50:15,150
And that's exactly what we did.

696
00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:16,750
We just drove it flat out.

697
00:50:16,751 --> 00:50:20,390
Headlight beams pick out the
advertising signs in high relief.

698
00:50:20,670 --> 00:50:24,370
The long, lonely night
of endurance lies ahead.

699
00:50:30,550 --> 00:50:35,930
As daylight dawned on a Sunday,
the Fords were in a very strong position.

700
00:50:47,060 --> 00:50:51,380
Ford made the decision, well, we're first,
second and third, we'll have a dead heat.

701
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:58,420
When the decision came to slow us down, I
can remember Bruce being really annoyed.

702
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,000
Bruce did the last stint.

703
00:51:04,060 --> 00:51:08,428
I'll never know whether Bruce
put his foot down or Ken Miles

704
00:51:08,429 --> 00:51:11,740
backed off, but Bruce
crossed the line clearly in front.

705
00:51:19,110 --> 00:51:22,729
Suddenly, you know, we're
standing up on the podium with Henry

706
00:51:22,730 --> 00:51:25,870
Ford, and we've won one of
the most famous races that exists.

707
00:51:26,790 --> 00:51:28,010
We've just won Le Mans.

708
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,940
People on the street, they own a
Ford, and Bruce was driving a Ford.

709
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,940
They'd say, McLaren, that's
the guy that won Le Mans.

710
00:51:54,770 --> 00:51:56,660
It impressed so many people.

711
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:03,760
It was a huge PR boost.

712
00:52:06,180 --> 00:52:11,220
Bruce's entire racing operation at that
time was really aimed at the Can-Am series.

713
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:17,120
Can-Am is the Canadian-American
Challenge Cup, and that series consisted of

714
00:52:17,121 --> 00:52:19,806
unlimited engine, unlimited
almost everything, so

715
00:52:19,807 --> 00:52:22,540
that people could be very
innovative with their cars.

716
00:52:23,020 --> 00:52:25,540
Well, this is Mossport,
and I'm Bruce McLaren.

717
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:28,280
What do you think
was your biggest break?

718
00:52:28,720 --> 00:52:34,140
The creation of the Can-Am series was
very good for us in that just at the stage

719
00:52:34,141 --> 00:52:36,817
where we were starting to
concentrate on sports car racing,

720
00:52:36,818 --> 00:52:39,060
sports car racing became
a very big thing in the US.

721
00:52:39,860 --> 00:52:41,200
I started as a racer.

722
00:52:41,201 --> 00:52:44,240
I was the race queen, if you
will, with flags and the jumping.

723
00:52:44,980 --> 00:52:47,040
I hear those engines,
and I'm, whoa.

724
00:52:48,420 --> 00:52:50,720
I would go around with
this camera all the time.

725
00:52:50,780 --> 00:52:52,100
They'd do the driver's parade.

726
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,060
They'd all wave at me
when they go by, like a family.

727
00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,440
Got to meet Bruce
and became friends.

728
00:53:00,220 --> 00:53:03,080
I love the way he always
said, she be right, mate.

729
00:53:06,570 --> 00:53:11,480
Bruce had a good team, and he was trying
to raise enough money so he could spend

730
00:53:11,481 --> 00:53:15,540
enough money to stay on the
cutting edge of racing car development.

731
00:53:16,020 --> 00:53:18,520
McLaren's design mastery
was very much in evidence.

732
00:53:18,860 --> 00:53:21,460
13 of his streamlined
models were in the race.

733
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:24,360
The McLaren was
the class of the field.

734
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:27,545
I was so envious,
wishing so much as if I

735
00:53:27,546 --> 00:53:31,021
could just drive one
of those things myself.

736
00:53:31,820 --> 00:53:34,360
McLaren brand
cars appealed to me.

737
00:53:34,980 --> 00:53:38,720
It was smooth and it looked
good, so that inspired me.

738
00:53:40,700 --> 00:53:45,120
Charging up the back straight, McLaren
makes 165 miles an hour look easy.

739
00:53:47,965 --> 00:53:54,120
I met Lothar, and Lothar raced a Cobra
for a while, but when he saw the McLaren...

740
00:53:54,121 --> 00:53:55,280
I sold my Cobra.

741
00:53:56,340 --> 00:53:58,000
I sold my house.

742
00:53:59,140 --> 00:54:00,460
I bought the McLaren.

743
00:54:05,530 --> 00:54:08,636
Bruce McLaren was very
important to me, and what

744
00:54:08,637 --> 00:54:11,721
he started with the McLaren
team was tremendous.

745
00:54:12,530 --> 00:54:14,360
It was a great couple
of years of my life.

746
00:54:15,750 --> 00:54:18,860
But I was approached
to meet Mr Ferrari.

747
00:54:21,710 --> 00:54:26,024
Bruce was very disappointed,
because I think he was thinking

748
00:54:26,025 --> 00:54:31,120
about stopping racing himself
and just running the team.

749
00:54:33,660 --> 00:54:36,456
Well, Bruce, you're so busy on the
construction side and the management side,

750
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:39,441
are you planning to retire
from racing yourself and

751
00:54:39,442 --> 00:54:42,160
devote seven days a week to
construction and management?

752
00:54:43,035 --> 00:54:44,200
Not just yet.

753
00:54:45,340 --> 00:54:48,460
I imagine that in a couple
of years or so I will do this.

754
00:54:48,620 --> 00:54:52,060
But at this stage, it's still
necessary for me to do the driving.

755
00:55:10,170 --> 00:55:14,790
In 67, we spent three months just building
these Can-Am cars to go to the States.

756
00:55:14,950 --> 00:55:15,950
That's all we did.

757
00:55:15,990 --> 00:55:17,630
It was just mad activity.

758
00:55:17,990 --> 00:55:20,322
We needed to win to
earn the prize money to

759
00:55:20,323 --> 00:55:22,770
be able to afford to do
our Formula One car.

760
00:55:23,030 --> 00:55:25,526
I don't know how they scream, but
they break through all those years.

761
00:55:25,550 --> 00:55:29,030
I guess Teddy basically put a lot
of money in it on the early days.

762
00:55:29,330 --> 00:55:33,870
The Formula One failure
hit Teddy's wallet very bad.

763
00:55:34,355 --> 00:55:39,110
It was one thing for the sponsors
to say, yes, we'll stick with you.

764
00:55:39,340 --> 00:55:42,430
But they had to have a
reason for sticking with us.

765
00:55:43,790 --> 00:55:47,650
The McLaren team has built a
completely new Can-Am car for 1967.

766
00:55:48,170 --> 00:55:49,330
It's the M6A.

767
00:55:52,710 --> 00:55:55,590
Bruce's new teammate is fellow
New Zealander Dennis Holm.

768
00:55:56,890 --> 00:55:58,610
Where are you finding
that extra speed?

769
00:55:58,990 --> 00:56:02,290
I would say largely with our car on
acceleration coming out of the corners.

770
00:56:03,750 --> 00:56:05,610
So you don't expect
any trouble in the race?

771
00:56:06,150 --> 00:56:07,470
Well, I always expect trouble.

772
00:56:07,510 --> 00:56:08,710
I just hope we don't have any.

773
00:56:13,020 --> 00:56:15,080
At Mossport, the
race was going to start.

774
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:17,120
Bruce said, look,
we've got a problem.

775
00:56:17,180 --> 00:56:20,760
New Zealander Bruce McLaren,
who qualified second, is not on the grid.

776
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:24,640
Minutes before the cars were lined up,
the McLaren mechanics discovered a leaky

777
00:56:24,641 --> 00:56:28,800
fuel bag and are feverishly working
to replace it, but time is running out.

778
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,500
Teammate Dennis Holm
will carry the McLaren banner.

779
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,340
Dan Gurney in the second
row will be his major threat.

780
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:44,681
The field is off for one tour around the
two and a half mile course without McLaren.

781
00:56:51,830 --> 00:56:55,310
And then the American store
person has to do something special.

782
00:56:56,430 --> 00:56:58,110
McLaren is off, flat out.

783
00:56:58,850 --> 00:57:01,290
To play catch up is a
tough way to go racing.

784
00:57:01,810 --> 00:57:05,010
McLaren almost a lap behind
as the pack gets the green flag.

785
00:57:06,690 --> 00:57:09,390
Bruce McLaren is
55 seconds behind.

786
00:57:13,150 --> 00:57:16,950
Dennis Holm in the number five McLaren
leads Gurney to the deceptive downhill

787
00:57:21,770 --> 00:57:24,390
season and blasts for the
start-finish straight in green.

788
00:57:27,780 --> 00:57:29,980
Holm and Gurney are
setting a blistering pace.

789
00:57:32,060 --> 00:57:33,060
Five

790
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:55,040
places in just five laps.

791
00:57:55,700 --> 00:57:56,700
Spring

792
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:01,200
drive rarely seen
in motor racing.

793
00:58:19,660 --> 00:58:23,020
Gurney and the sensational
Bruce McLaren battle for second.

794
00:58:41,330 --> 00:58:42,610
McLaren now in second.

795
00:58:44,590 --> 00:58:45,590
He's

796
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:52,200
done serious damage
to the bodywork.

797
00:59:07,500 --> 00:59:09,180
Incredibly, Denny
holds on to win.

798
00:59:09,181 --> 00:59:12,720
Bruce storms back to make it
a sensational McLaren one-two.

799
00:59:14,560 --> 00:59:17,100
Every racing driver
likes the other.

800
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:24,800
Even though Bruce was really wanting
to try and wind down, he loved racing,

801
00:59:24,940 --> 00:59:27,160
he loved driving, and
he was still good at it.

802
00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:31,940
Bruce needed another
driver in Formula One.

803
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:35,760
Quite clearly, Bruce and
Denny got on very well.

804
00:59:39,030 --> 00:59:40,800
They were Kiwis
taking on the world.

805
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:49,980
Please don't mind them.

806
00:59:49,981 --> 00:59:51,576
Denny had a foot in
both camps, as it were.

807
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,080
He was driving with Jack
Brabham in Formula One.

808
00:59:58,600 --> 01:00:01,760
The Formula One season ended up
with Denny becoming world champion.

809
01:00:04,540 --> 01:00:06,000
Bruce won the
Can-Am Championship.

810
01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:07,520
Denny was second.

811
01:00:09,420 --> 01:00:12,840
The longer we went, we got stronger
together, and Bruce decided that there'd

812
01:00:12,841 --> 01:00:15,396
be a place for me in his Formula
One team, his new Formula One team.

813
01:00:15,420 --> 01:00:16,540
Oh, it's beautiful.

814
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:17,920
I don't like thick ones.

815
01:00:18,120 --> 01:00:18,460
I do.

816
01:00:18,540 --> 01:00:19,540
I'm with you.

817
01:00:19,600 --> 01:00:21,760
Yeah, but you've got to
play up in the fans, don't you?

818
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:25,620
A Formula One car was designed.

819
01:00:25,780 --> 01:00:26,620
The M7.

820
01:00:26,760 --> 01:00:28,160
Rob and her
designed the chassis.

821
01:00:29,540 --> 01:00:31,480
The car was a success
right from the start.

822
01:00:37,460 --> 01:00:39,420
We were starting
to look very good.

823
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:45,180
And then in 1968, Bruce
made history at Spa.

824
01:00:55,700 --> 01:00:58,460
Spa is a very, very long race.

825
01:00:58,600 --> 01:00:59,640
Very high speed.

826
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:03,120
Fuel consumption
is absolutely critical.

827
01:01:06,740 --> 01:01:08,320
Spa was a bit like Monaco.

828
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:10,240
Sometimes only three
or four cars would finish.

829
01:01:10,780 --> 01:01:12,340
Danny was very competitive.

830
01:01:12,860 --> 01:01:14,176
He was second
right from the start.

831
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:17,020
Bruce was running sixth or
seventh, making his way up the field.

832
01:01:17,100 --> 01:01:18,560
And Danny got into the lead.

833
01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:20,640
And then the next thing,
there he is in the pits.

834
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:23,400
Pits stopped.

835
01:01:23,540 --> 01:01:24,540
What's wrong?

836
01:01:25,140 --> 01:01:27,100
Drive shafts melted off
the side of the gearbox.

837
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:32,280
But Bruce's car was
running particularly well.

838
01:01:34,380 --> 01:01:36,099
Towards the end of the
race, he'd worked himself

839
01:01:36,100 --> 01:01:38,741
up into second place
behind Jackie Stewart.

840
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:42,060
Tyler was out there with a pit
board to Bruce, waving furiously.

841
01:01:42,860 --> 01:01:44,128
Telling him to go faster
and faster because

842
01:01:44,129 --> 01:01:46,381
there was every chance
he could catch Jackie.

843
01:01:47,680 --> 01:01:52,840
On the last lap, unbeknown to Bruce,
Jackie Stewart's car stopped out of fuel.

844
01:01:53,700 --> 01:01:56,260
But he didn't see Jackie run
out and he crossed the line.

845
01:02:00,020 --> 01:02:02,440
As far as Bruce was
concerned, he'd finished second.

846
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,500
And we were trying to say to him,
you've won, you've won, you've won.

847
01:02:05,780 --> 01:02:06,780
You've won the race.

848
01:02:17,530 --> 01:02:19,390
Oh, I just thought
it was fantastic.

849
01:02:20,550 --> 01:02:21,610
Absolutely fantastic.

850
01:02:22,510 --> 01:02:23,930
And he deserved it.

851
01:02:28,720 --> 01:02:32,659
Bruce had now won Formula
One and Grand Prix in a car

852
01:02:32,660 --> 01:02:36,120
of his own design and
manufacture, bearing his name.

853
01:02:36,780 --> 01:02:39,980
And it was just a major step
forward for the race team.

854
01:02:42,780 --> 01:02:47,128
It is so appropriate that the
first ever win for a McLaren

855
01:02:47,129 --> 01:02:51,120
and a Formula One car, was
with Bruce McLaren at the wheel.

856
01:02:51,660 --> 01:02:55,599
And it was the second
time in history that a driver

857
01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:58,901
won a Grand Prix with his
name on the nose of the car.

858
01:02:59,700 --> 01:03:00,920
And it's never happened since.

859
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:07,720
Well, I'd said to Bruce, you know,
when we first started over here eight or

860
01:03:07,721 --> 01:03:12,200
nine years ago, and we dreamed
about doing something on our own.

861
01:03:12,260 --> 01:03:16,200
We didn't know how long it would take,
when we could do it, but we've done it.

862
01:03:20,590 --> 01:03:23,990
Here in the cul-de-sac, right under
the flight path of London Airport,

863
01:03:24,270 --> 01:03:27,950
is the home of one of the most
successful areas of British motor racing.

864
01:03:30,170 --> 01:03:34,210
David Ode was a very basic
kind of English industrial estate.

865
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:44,420
To us at the time, it seemed
like this was very grand, but...

866
01:03:44,421 --> 01:03:47,700
Every 80 seconds, we had
a jet land over the top of us.

867
01:03:47,800 --> 01:03:50,316
And of course, if you're on the
telephone, you just had to stop talking.

868
01:03:50,340 --> 01:03:51,480
Just say, excuse me a minute.

869
01:03:51,500 --> 01:03:53,020
We're just going to
wait for 60 seconds.

870
01:03:53,021 --> 01:03:53,360
And it's right there.

871
01:03:53,361 --> 01:03:54,801
It's the building
of our great city.

872
01:03:55,640 --> 01:03:58,420
Having the factory so close
to the airport suited Bruce fine.

873
01:03:58,460 --> 01:03:59,660
He was constantly in the air.

874
01:03:59,780 --> 01:04:03,140
He was able to jump off the plane at
the airport, get to David Road, have a few

875
01:04:03,141 --> 01:04:05,180
meetings, and be back
on the plane within minutes.

876
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:08,321
Bruce and Denny
spent a lot of time in

877
01:04:08,333 --> 01:04:10,661
airplanes back and
forth across the Atlantic.

878
01:04:17,220 --> 01:04:21,851
The drivers, Bruce and Denny's
involvement was split between

879
01:04:21,852 --> 01:04:25,160
a Can-Am weekend and then a
Formula One weekend in Europe.

880
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:28,477
They'd fly in on the
Thursday, because the jet

881
01:04:28,478 --> 01:04:30,781
lag was quite bad between
England and the US.

882
01:04:31,080 --> 01:04:32,580
And we'd run Friday.

883
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:36,120
And then Saturday, practice and
qualifying, and then race on Sunday.

884
01:04:38,880 --> 01:04:43,840
Team McLaren earned more than
$162,000 in prizes for the series.

885
01:04:46,340 --> 01:04:49,400
Bruce must have been
something of a workaholic.

886
01:04:50,840 --> 01:04:54,640
There was this great
need for him to be busy.

887
01:04:55,665 --> 01:04:57,540
I'm not sure when he
ever found time to sleep.

888
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:04,040
Bruce also did have big plans to
manufacture street cars, road cars.

889
01:05:04,340 --> 01:05:07,100
I remember the prototype
coupe that he built.

890
01:05:07,320 --> 01:05:10,960
We were in England setting up to
get delivery of our next McLaren.

891
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:15,640
When we were in the office, he showed us
this model that was there, the GT that he

892
01:05:15,641 --> 01:05:17,480
wanted to build, because
that was his dream.

893
01:05:19,790 --> 01:05:21,351
We would like to do a
road car in the future,

894
01:05:21,352 --> 01:05:23,100
and we're talking about
it and thinking about it.

895
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:25,040
Some way down the
line, I hope it happens.

896
01:05:27,320 --> 01:05:30,480
That road car really
was Bruce's baby.

897
01:05:43,950 --> 01:05:46,742
All the neighbours
came out when he very

898
01:05:46,754 --> 01:05:49,831
quietly tried to drive
it out of the garage.

899
01:05:51,830 --> 01:05:56,130
I only drove it briefly and wanted to
show off when he had a cocktail party.

900
01:06:23,030 --> 01:06:25,490
Tenths of a second on lap time.

901
01:06:25,630 --> 01:06:27,090
This really keeps you working.

902
01:06:31,210 --> 01:06:37,390
Cars were becoming increasingly more
powerful, and designers were trying to

903
01:06:37,391 --> 01:06:40,751
find ways of creating
downforce to keep the cars

904
01:06:40,752 --> 01:06:44,111
on the track, on fast
corners in particular.

905
01:06:44,250 --> 01:06:46,250
And cars started
sprouting wings.

906
01:06:48,530 --> 01:06:51,930
Aerofoil section, put it on struts,
took it on the back of the car,

907
01:06:51,970 --> 01:06:53,939
put something on the
front to balance it out, and

908
01:06:53,940 --> 01:06:56,111
it gives more downforce
and therefore more grip.

909
01:06:56,650 --> 01:07:02,370
You know, aerodynamics has come a long way
since those days of us putting a wing on a

910
01:07:02,371 --> 01:07:05,310
minivan and measuring the
downforce with bathroom scales.

911
01:07:09,750 --> 01:07:14,010
For the 69 season, the
car was designated M8B.

912
01:07:14,270 --> 01:07:16,935
This was the car that
we ran a high-wing

913
01:07:16,936 --> 01:07:20,310
configuration with struts
down onto the uprights.

914
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:22,410
That proved to be unbeatable.

915
01:07:22,970 --> 01:07:26,190
Group 7, the fastest
racing cars in the world.

916
01:07:26,191 --> 01:07:30,790
Champions McLaren and Holm drive
these cars to win on Golf Premium No-Knock.

917
01:07:34,810 --> 01:07:36,430
If McLaren and Holm...

918
01:07:41,830 --> 01:07:46,590
The success of Bruce McLaren and
Danny Holm in Can-Am was extraordinary.

919
01:07:59,420 --> 01:08:03,840
In 1969, there were 11 rounds
of the Can-Am Championship.

920
01:08:05,260 --> 01:08:06,640
McLaren's won all 11 of them.

921
01:08:07,520 --> 01:08:08,520
Every race.

922
01:08:09,180 --> 01:08:12,100
Holm won five, McLaren won six.

923
01:08:15,820 --> 01:08:16,980
It's just unbelievable.

924
01:08:32,410 --> 01:08:33,890
He was bringing
home buckets of cash.

925
01:08:35,100 --> 01:08:38,290
Lots of other race team owners made
themselves rich and beggared their teams.

926
01:08:38,950 --> 01:08:40,270
Bruce had it the
right way round.

927
01:08:40,800 --> 01:08:43,350
Put your money and your effort into
your race team and then when it's really

928
01:08:43,351 --> 01:08:45,730
winning, then you
can live off the high life.

929
01:08:48,550 --> 01:08:51,090
So, we've finished building
the house in Walton-on-Thames.

930
01:08:54,900 --> 01:08:56,120
Three-quarters of an acre.

931
01:08:56,600 --> 01:08:58,020
Mum, you'll love it, I'm sure.

932
01:08:58,600 --> 01:08:59,600
I'm happy.

933
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:01,440
It's a real family home.

934
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:03,800
We've called it Muriwai.

935
01:09:15,240 --> 01:09:19,020
When you talk to anybody that's
there to hide, it has to be all-consuming.

936
01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:20,760
It has to be your total life.

937
01:09:22,060 --> 01:09:23,540
It was like working in a circus.

938
01:09:23,541 --> 01:09:28,400
The circus would go to America or the
circus would go to Mexico or South Africa.

939
01:09:28,560 --> 01:09:31,820
And you would turn up at the racetrack and
be the same tyre people and the same fuel

940
01:09:31,821 --> 01:09:33,621
people and all the other
same team members and

941
01:09:33,622 --> 01:09:36,541
you hadn't seen each
other for three weeks.

942
01:09:37,160 --> 01:09:40,400
It was just like a small community
that had moved around the world.

943
01:09:41,300 --> 01:09:46,441
New Zealander Bruce McLaren driving in his
hundredth Grand Prix at the age of only 32.

944
01:09:47,340 --> 01:09:52,240
Each year, it gets a little harder to
keep everything as neatly and as nicely

945
01:09:52,241 --> 01:09:57,780
controlled as we did in previous years
because there's just that much more

946
01:09:57,781 --> 01:09:59,900
administration, there's
that much more to go wrong.

947
01:10:00,100 --> 01:10:03,560
We had grown very quickly in
the space of two or three years.

948
01:10:05,720 --> 01:10:10,000
Bruce was so busy that I would sort of
wave to him as he passed in the factory.

949
01:10:10,440 --> 01:10:14,580
There was always a rush to get the
Formula One cars built for the January,

950
01:10:14,680 --> 01:10:17,240
February start and then
Can-Am didn't start until June.

951
01:10:17,500 --> 01:10:19,000
Resources were fairly stretched.

952
01:10:19,260 --> 01:10:21,260
Not a huge team
of people at all.

953
01:10:21,261 --> 01:10:27,540
Maybe 50 guys working on Can-Am,
Formula One and Indianapolis cars as well.

954
01:10:27,700 --> 01:10:33,420
People say the three big races in
motorsport are the Monaco Grand Prix,

955
01:10:33,580 --> 01:10:36,260
Le Mans and the
Indianapolis 500.

956
01:10:36,820 --> 01:10:40,900
The Indy 500 is arguably the
best snow race in the world.

957
01:10:44,150 --> 01:10:47,453
I suppose it was logical
for a workaholic to

958
01:10:47,454 --> 01:10:51,451
look at Indianapolis as
the next thing to tackle.

959
01:10:52,370 --> 01:10:53,970
Yeah, he was building an empire.

960
01:10:54,670 --> 01:11:00,050
Dear folks, two Indy cars went off last
night and Denny, Chris Amon, Teddy and I

961
01:11:00,051 --> 01:11:02,091
should be running at
Indianapolis on Monday morning.

962
01:11:02,910 --> 01:11:06,970
Nobody in the team other than Denny
really had any experience of the place.

963
01:11:07,530 --> 01:11:12,190
Very early on in the month, Denny's car
caught fire going down the back straight.

964
01:11:15,490 --> 01:11:17,615
Denny's overalls were
on fire but because it

965
01:11:17,616 --> 01:11:20,931
was methanol you couldn't
see any flame burning.

966
01:11:22,670 --> 01:11:27,550
And Denny ended up getting his hands
badly burnt which put a stop to his drive.

967
01:11:27,690 --> 01:11:29,010
In fact, he ended
up in hospital.

968
01:11:37,140 --> 01:11:39,840
We were scheduled for a
test with the Can-Am car.

969
01:11:43,620 --> 01:11:48,520
The entire month of May had been a massive
intersection of all of our projects.

970
01:11:52,120 --> 01:11:58,620
Formula One, Indianapolis and Can-Am
was almost too much for one man and I think

971
01:11:58,970 --> 01:12:01,300
he'd come to the realisation
that he was going to lose.

972
01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:03,360
He was going to need to
step away from some driving.

973
01:12:04,030 --> 01:12:08,060
And I suppose perhaps Paddy had an
influence on that as well, understandably.

974
01:12:10,765 --> 01:12:15,080
Well, he'd just arrived back from
America the day before from Indianapolis.

975
01:12:15,765 --> 01:12:18,499
Denny should have been
testing the car because

976
01:12:18,500 --> 01:12:21,741
of Bruce just being
back and jet lagged.

977
01:12:22,970 --> 01:12:23,970
But Denny couldn't drive.

978
01:12:25,750 --> 01:12:28,180
The design side of the
car hadn't changed a lot.

979
01:12:28,380 --> 01:12:32,220
How are you going to do a lot
better than 11 out of 11 wins anyway?

980
01:12:33,020 --> 01:12:36,880
The main change came about
through banning high wings.

981
01:12:37,295 --> 01:12:40,220
There were so many accidents in
Formula One with the high wings

982
01:12:43,500 --> 01:12:47,120
that the Americans followed suit and
banned them at the end of the year.

983
01:12:47,500 --> 01:12:50,938
Kerry Taylor and myself
were at Goodwood and

984
01:12:50,939 --> 01:12:54,121
they were exploring
rear wing configurations.

985
01:12:54,940 --> 01:12:57,454
They had a wing section
hung between fins on the tail

986
01:12:57,455 --> 01:13:00,160
for the first time and this
generated huge problems.

987
01:13:00,180 --> 01:13:01,240
Huge amounts of downforce.

988
01:13:09,340 --> 01:13:12,268
We were testing there with
a Formula One car and a

989
01:13:12,269 --> 01:13:15,080
Can-Am car and he was
climbing from one car to the other.

990
01:13:21,840 --> 01:13:25,806
He was in a great frame of
mind and I always remember he'd

991
01:13:25,807 --> 01:13:29,920
been to see the Sundance
kit film and it took his fancy.

992
01:13:30,680 --> 01:13:32,220
He was pretty impressed by that.

993
01:13:32,700 --> 01:13:33,700
Ready?

994
01:13:35,720 --> 01:13:36,760
You're a real chump.

995
01:13:50,640 --> 01:13:54,620
And you always stop at
midday at Goodwood for lunch.

996
01:13:55,620 --> 01:13:57,160
The aero club insists.

997
01:13:57,880 --> 01:13:59,920
But Bruce wanted
to do one more run.

998
01:14:00,120 --> 01:14:02,700
And he wanted to use
some more rear wing.

999
01:14:07,280 --> 01:14:12,109
There was a bit of a frantic
get the car out to get just

1000
01:14:12,110 --> 01:14:15,540
another lap in to evaluate
this particular adjustment.

1001
01:14:29,290 --> 01:14:32,875
You can hear those
cars, a V8 running about

1002
01:14:32,876 --> 01:14:36,991
6,000 revs and those
were monstrous engines.

1003
01:14:47,260 --> 01:14:55,260
All of a sudden it's
just and a silence.

1004
01:15:03,650 --> 01:15:10,170
Jim Stone and I jumped in my car and drove
around and I lifted him out of the car and

1005
01:15:10,171 --> 01:15:12,289
it was obvious to me
that he was dead because

1006
01:15:12,290 --> 01:15:15,071
he was broken and
he was like a rag doll.

1007
01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:19,370
And so I held on to him.

1008
01:15:19,820 --> 01:15:23,652
I sat there and held him
until the ambulance came

1009
01:15:23,653 --> 01:15:26,390
and then the ambulance
people took him off me.

1010
01:15:32,190 --> 01:15:33,760
It wasn't too long
before I had a phone call.

1011
01:15:33,761 --> 01:15:38,860
And it was a tragic accident
and we had lost Bruce.

1012
01:15:41,250 --> 01:15:46,645
So being what we were we
took the broken car and put it

1013
01:15:46,646 --> 01:15:49,741
in the truck and I drove
the truck back to the factory.

1014
01:15:50,530 --> 01:15:53,360
I had to tell Patty
what had happened.

1015
01:15:56,010 --> 01:15:59,500
A couple of the people from
McLaren's just came to the house.

1016
01:16:00,230 --> 01:16:02,420
I think one's in a state of
shock for such a long time.

1017
01:16:02,421 --> 01:16:05,240
Amanda obviously was little
so she wasn't totally aware of it.

1018
01:16:06,700 --> 01:16:09,620
I said to Denny,
let's just go outside.

1019
01:16:09,980 --> 01:16:14,860
So we went outside and walked around
the lawn and the garden in Bruce's house.

1020
01:16:16,140 --> 01:16:20,960
I realised I would have to call
Bruce's parents in New Zealand.

1021
01:16:22,930 --> 01:16:24,820
And it was now
after midnight there.

1022
01:16:27,750 --> 01:16:31,580
Pop answered the phone
and it was just so difficult.

1023
01:16:33,970 --> 01:16:35,380
To tell them what had happened.

1024
01:16:36,265 --> 01:16:37,340
I spoke to Pop.

1025
01:16:38,060 --> 01:16:39,180
I spoke to Mrs Mack.

1026
01:16:41,090 --> 01:16:45,821
And Mrs Mack said, you know,
I had a dreadful premonition

1027
01:16:45,822 --> 01:16:48,221
this morning that something
was going to happen.

1028
01:16:49,560 --> 01:16:57,560
And I sat up suddenly in bed, just bolt
upright and Lee said, what's the matter?

1029
01:16:59,100 --> 01:17:00,940
That whole day's
come back Roger.

1030
01:17:05,020 --> 01:17:06,020
It's a...

1031
01:17:07,310 --> 01:17:09,780
You build a pretty close
relationship with a driver.

1032
01:17:09,920 --> 01:17:10,920
He's got to trust you.

1033
01:17:13,100 --> 01:17:14,100
And...

1034
01:17:16,760 --> 01:17:17,760
Yeah.

1035
01:17:18,680 --> 01:17:19,680
Yeah.

1036
01:17:20,160 --> 01:17:21,280
Very sad day.

1037
01:17:26,480 --> 01:17:32,020
I wanted the boys to carry on
and I wrote a letter to the team.

1038
01:17:32,660 --> 01:17:34,660
The boys as I
always called them.

1039
01:17:37,650 --> 01:17:38,650
My boys.

1040
01:17:49,320 --> 01:17:51,300
What happened should never have.

1041
01:17:52,380 --> 01:17:57,225
At say 180 mile an hour
with the rear wing set at a

1042
01:17:57,226 --> 01:18:00,840
fairly high angle the rear
section of the car lifted.

1043
01:18:06,290 --> 01:18:11,400
Unfortunately there was a marshals post
due for demolition hadn't been demolished

1044
01:18:12,350 --> 01:18:13,640
right in the path of the car.

1045
01:18:19,440 --> 01:18:22,056
Teddy and I decided we
would get everybody in the

1046
01:18:22,057 --> 01:18:25,140
factory together and we said
to them, take tomorrow off.

1047
01:18:25,885 --> 01:18:29,140
The next day everyone turned up.

1048
01:18:29,340 --> 01:18:30,860
You know, we
decided to carry on.

1049
01:18:31,000 --> 01:18:32,960
I mean, that's what he
would have wanted us to do.

1050
01:18:36,420 --> 01:18:42,520
Ian Young, Paddy McLaren and myself would
fly out to New Zealand for his funeral.

1051
01:18:45,600 --> 01:18:50,380
The funeral procession We had one
session left to drive to the cemetery.

1052
01:18:51,420 --> 01:18:56,520
At every intersection there was a
traffic officer making sure the lights were

1053
01:18:56,521 --> 01:19:00,340
overridden so that the cortege
was never going to be slowed down.

1054
01:19:00,880 --> 01:19:06,360
All of the traffic officers stood to
attention and saluted as we went through.

1055
01:19:07,600 --> 01:19:08,600
We

1056
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:19,525
got a huge photograph of
Bruce and we put it up on

1057
01:19:19,526 --> 01:19:22,501
the far wall of the factory
in the prototype shop.

1058
01:19:23,240 --> 01:19:25,673
Denny was there virtually
every day other than

1059
01:19:25,674 --> 01:19:28,581
the days that he had to
go and see the specialist.

1060
01:19:29,000 --> 01:19:33,880
And he took over the
mantle of team leader.

1061
01:19:34,320 --> 01:19:37,855
At the back of everyone's
mind of course was here we are

1062
01:19:37,856 --> 01:19:41,880
due to be on Mossport first
Can-Am race June the 14th.

1063
01:19:42,060 --> 01:19:43,480
Within two weeks.

1064
01:19:43,720 --> 01:19:46,844
And so another car had
to be built very quickly

1065
01:19:46,845 --> 01:19:49,941
if we were a functioning
motor racing team.

1066
01:19:50,020 --> 01:19:52,598
They quickly designed
a whole new system of

1067
01:19:52,599 --> 01:19:56,461
struts to hold the
bodywork in the rear wing.

1068
01:19:56,580 --> 01:19:59,981
Denny said I'm going to drive
at Mossport because he said

1069
01:19:59,982 --> 01:20:03,120
we've got to be there with two
cars and we said no you're not.

1070
01:20:03,160 --> 01:20:07,240
You can't Denny the doctors have all said
to you that you know your hands are so bad.

1071
01:20:07,680 --> 01:20:12,300
Denny certainly made it very obvious
that come what may he was driving.

1072
01:20:13,900 --> 01:20:19,140
The immediate thoughts was who
can we approach to drive the second car.

1073
01:20:20,780 --> 01:20:24,680
The McLaren team is here dedicated
to winning in the memory of their boss.

1074
01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:29,220
Dan Gurney a close friend of Bruce's has
volunteered to drive the second McLaren.

1075
01:20:29,380 --> 01:20:32,838
I drove a Can-Am car
for a McLaren under the

1076
01:20:32,839 --> 01:20:36,300
worst sort of circumstances
when Bruce left us.

1077
01:20:36,615 --> 01:20:39,367
I felt as though my old
friend would probably

1078
01:20:39,368 --> 01:20:44,140
be honored if I could
do well and so I said yes.

1079
01:20:44,420 --> 01:20:48,800
He joins Denny Holm whose hands have been
badly burned in testing for the Indy 500.

1080
01:20:49,020 --> 01:20:52,040
Against doctor's orders and
with his hands heavily bandaged.

1081
01:20:52,340 --> 01:20:53,340
Denny will race.

1082
01:20:54,520 --> 01:21:01,440
So on the grid at Mossport there's Denny
with extremely painful burnt hands and

1083
01:21:01,441 --> 01:21:05,961
then that left hand went
onto the wheel and we had to

1084
01:21:05,962 --> 01:21:10,640
sort of mold it around the
wheel so he could hold on.

1085
01:21:12,320 --> 01:21:15,660
Unbelievably the doctors at
Mossport allowed him to start.

1086
01:21:20,220 --> 01:21:24,500
Denny led for most of the way
until he had gearbox problems.

1087
01:21:25,560 --> 01:21:26,880
Dan won the race.

1088
01:21:28,560 --> 01:21:30,020
Denny finished third.

1089
01:21:30,660 --> 01:21:35,840
It was a great opportunity to do
something for Bruce to keep things going.

1090
01:21:37,040 --> 01:21:39,380
McLaren went from
success to success.

1091
01:21:40,080 --> 01:21:42,900
Denny won the Can-Am
Championship in 1970.

1092
01:21:43,460 --> 01:21:45,080
We won the Indy 500.

1093
01:21:45,081 --> 01:21:48,020
And the new M16
with Mark Donoghue.

1094
01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:51,820
In 1974 we achieved
our ultimate goal.

1095
01:21:51,960 --> 01:21:54,920
We won the Formula One World
Championship with Emerson Fittipaldi.

1096
01:21:55,660 --> 01:21:59,360
We won the Indy 500 with the
Works car with Johnny Rutherford.

1097
01:22:00,560 --> 01:22:04,560
Repeated that in 1976 with
James Hunt in Formula One.

1098
01:22:04,680 --> 01:22:07,380
Johnny Rutherford
again at the Indy 500.

1099
01:22:07,880 --> 01:22:12,080
And McLaren became the only team
in history to have completed the World

1100
01:22:12,081 --> 01:22:15,060
Championship Indy
500 double for two years.

1101
01:22:17,520 --> 01:22:20,700
The legacy of Bruce
McLaren lives on.

1102
01:22:21,820 --> 01:22:22,420
And it's not set in stone.

1103
01:22:22,421 --> 01:22:22,440
The legacy of McLaren lives on.

1104
01:22:22,441 --> 01:22:23,681
The legacy of McLaren lives on.

1105
01:22:31,900 --> 01:22:36,900
I've always said that if Bruce had come
into the factory one morning and said okay

1106
01:22:36,901 --> 01:22:40,780
men, because he always addressed
us collectively as men, okay men,

1107
01:22:41,470 --> 01:22:43,016
we're not going to work
on racing cars today.

1108
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:44,840
We're going to march
across the Sahara desert.

1109
01:22:45,470 --> 01:22:48,640
We'd have all said
okay Bruce, no problem.

1110
01:22:51,260 --> 01:22:56,880
I remember when I was young, My
first actual race, it was on a beach.

1111
01:22:57,300 --> 01:22:58,300
I had a plastic

1112
01:23:13,580 --> 01:23:16,729
certificate which says,
the steroid declares that P.

1113
01:23:16,730 --> 01:23:20,740
McLaren won a up to 1500cc
all-comers handicap race.

1114
01:23:21,300 --> 01:23:23,340
But I was certainly
excited by it.

1115
01:23:45,580 --> 01:23:47,711
They tell me that there
have been quite a few

1116
01:23:47,712 --> 01:23:49,660
modifications carried
out on this car of yours.

1117
01:23:49,740 --> 01:23:52,080
What would some of
those modifications be?

1118
01:23:52,140 --> 01:23:54,680
I believe for a start that you're
using a bamboo space frame.

1119
01:23:54,860 --> 01:23:55,260
That's correct.

1120
01:23:55,340 --> 01:23:56,560
It's a bamboo space frame.

1121
01:23:56,561 --> 01:24:01,740
And we're also using the most sensational
development as of course the square wheels.

1122
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:04,900
That gives us more tread area
when the car is going sideways.

1123
01:24:05,360 --> 01:24:07,920
That's tread area on the ground
as you must of course understand.