McLaren
January 15th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
A McLaren F1 LM road car and many other exclusive vehicles are now on show at SkyCity in Auckland. The SkyCity Supercar show in partnership with A1GP World Cup of Motorsport opens today at the SkyCity events centre. On display is the new A1 Team New Zealand race car Black Beauty now powered by Ferrari.
The rest of the show is split out into four sections:
Luxury on Wheels – Some of the World’s most famous marques, including Lamborghini, Bentley, Aston Martin, Porsche and Ferrari. Highlights of this section include a Ferrari Enzo, Aston Martin DBS, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and an Audi R8. For the classic vehicle entusiasts there is Denny Hulme’s McLaren M8A Can-Am Car and a McLaren F1 LM Road Car.
Race Place – A selection of finely tuned speed machines used for circuit racing and a display on how top drivers progress from kart racing to competing with the World’s best. The highlight of this section is the new Black Beauty A1GP car.
Green Machines – A detailed insight into how today’s most energy efficent vehicles work. Models from Volkswagen, Lexus and Hyundai will be on display. The highlight is a diesel powered rally car.
Virtual Racing – Visitors can compete head to head with friends in race simulators designed to replicate the Taupo race track, venue for the NZ leg of the A1GP.
A special feature of the show is a daily seminar hosted by A1 Team New Zealand’s Data Engineer, Jonathan Moury. He will speak on aspects of race preparation, race simulation and data analysis followed by a Q&A session.
The Supercar Show is on from January 15-20, 2009.
Show Hours are Midday – 7pm weekdays, 11am – 6pm weekends.
Admission is $15 for adults and $5 for children.
For more information on the show, click here to visit the SkyCity website
October 2nd, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Tomorrow marks the 16th Anniversary of the death of racing legend Denny Hulme. Hulme’s greatest success was winning the 1967 Formula One World Championship with the Brabham team. Hulme later went on to race for McLaren. He was CanAm champion in 1968 and 1970. Hulme suffered a massive heart attack at the wheel of a BMW M3 in the Bathurst 1000, making him the first Formula One World Champion to die of natural causes.
Born and raised on a tobacco farm belonging to his parents in Moteuka in the South Island of New Zealand. Hulme’s first car was an MG TF, which he promptly entered into hillclimbing events. After making impressive progress, he purchased a Cooper-Climax, subsequently being chosen for the New Zealand driver to Europe program. Once there, he worked as a mechanic in Jack Brabham’s garage in Chessington and began to pave his way on his motor-racing path.
After making an impact on the local scene, he came to Europe in 1960 with George Lawton on the ‘New Zealand Driver to Europe’ scheme, racing a Cooper in Formula 2 and Formula Junior around the Continent. Unfortunately poor Lawton was soon killed at Roskilde Ring but Hulme carried on before returning home to contest his local series early in 1961. He was soon back in Europe, appearing at Le Mans for the Abarth team, before the late great Ken Tyrrell invited the likeable (but sometimes gruff) New Zealander to race in his Formula 2 team. After some impressive performances there, it was his old boss Jack Brabham who gave Hulme the call, and he joined the Australian legend’s F2 team. The pair set about dominating the Championship that year, resulting in a one-two finish in the European Championship.
After making numerous appearances in non-championship events for Brabham, Denny finally got the call he had been waiting for, making his World Championship debut in 1965 at the famed Monza circuit in Italy. Later that year, he scored his first points, for fourth position at the daunting Clermont-Ferrand (Charade) circuit in France.
1966 was Hulme’s first full season of Formula One. Now, after the departure of Dan Gurney, he was the outright number two at Brabham behind Jack himself. Finishing a fine fourth that year, the highlights came. A third place at Reims in France, a second behind Brabham at Brands Hatch, and the fastest lap at Zandvoort, before ignition problems put paid to his race there.
The 1967 Championship was essentially an internal affair within the Brabham team for most of the year, but the new Lotus 49 gave Jim Clark and Graham Hill the opportunity to bite back. But two wins in the 11-race Championship, at Monte Carlo and the ferocious Nurburgring (the Green Hell), and a series of strong points finishes, gave Hulme the advantage. He won the Championship by five points from Brabham, and a further five from Jim Clark. Hulme was the first (and to date, only) Formula One World Champion from New Zealand.
Hulme’s first Can-Am championship came his way in 1968, taking victories at Elkhardt Lake, Edmonton and in Las Vegas and notching up 35 points. 1969 saw the McLaren team dominate the series; they won every race. In 1970, he took his second Can-Am title in difficult circumstances, as the team mourned the loss of Bruce McLaren who had died while testing a new Can-Am car (the M8D) at Goodwood. Hulme took the championship, with 132 points.
After leaving the sport, Hulme lead the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) for a brief period, but the cut and thrust nature of the post was ill-suited to his gentlemanly nature and he did not fill the post for very long. He then retired to New Zealand, returning to touring cars in the early 1980s, driving for the concern of the well-travelled Scot Tom Walkinshaw, racing for his Austin Rover team in the European Touring Car Championship.
A favourite event of Hulme’s was the Bathurst 1000, held at the famous Mount Panorama track in Australia. In the 1992 event he was sharing a Benson & Hedges-sponsored BMW M3 with Paul Morris. After complaining of blurred vision Hulme suffered a massive heart attack at the wheel whilst travelling down the 200-mph Conrod Straight. After veering into the wall on the left side of the track, he managed to bring the car to a relatively controlled stop on the opposite side of the course. When marshals reached the scene they found Hulme still strapped in, dead, making him the first Formula One World Champion to die of natural causes.
He was always a shy man who never basked in glory, but instead was fair, subtle, and motivated by mechanics. He was a gentle giant who for many years showed just why his deft touch and excellent car control left him well deserved of his F1 crown in 1967.
Before 1960, he was know for his preference for driving barefoot and it was not until 1960 that people convinced him to start racing with shoes on. His nickname at the time was “The Barefoot Boy From Te Puke”
The Current issue of Classic Car features a 1965 Can-Am car.
September 3rd, 2008 by NZCC Editor
McLaren: The Cars 1964-2008 (Coterie Press)
by William Taylor
I’ve always had a soft spot for Coterie Press — probably because the company was initially founded in 1997 to make sure that their very first book — The Lotus Book — was published in time for the 50th anniversary of Lotus. That book is still available as The Lotus Book S3: The Complete History of Lotus Cars, and remains a definitive publication for all Lotus enthusiasts. Other notable books from Coterie Press include Jeremy Walton’s Lotus Elise: The Official Story Continues and Lotus Esprit: The Official Story. Bill Emerson’s The Healey Book: The Complete History of Healey Cars is also a stand-out book.
Now, William Taylor — the creative force behind Coterie Press and the author ot The Lotus Book — has burst into print with yet another superb book; this time on a subject much closer to home — McLaren cars.
McLaren: The Cars 1964-2008 is a simply stunning book and covers every model produced by McLaren between the years 1964 and 2008 — featuring each and every race car, road car and even a ‘soapbox.’
With 304-pages, this large-format, all-colour 12×12 inch, hardback publication contains over 750 photographs, 80% of which were specially commissioned for the book. Add in chapter introductions from McLaren drivers past and present — Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton and comprehensive appendices covering race results and specifications — and you’ve got a really definitive study of McLaren.
As an added bonus, the book’s overall design is absolutely top-of-the-class — something I’ve come to expect from Coterie Press.
This is one book that all Kiwi motor racing enthusiasts will want to own. McLaren: The Cars 1964-2008 is now available from Techbooks in Auckland (http://www.techbooks.co.nz) but copies are selling out fast so make sure that you don’t miss out. RRP is $175 which is an extremely reasonable price for such a beautifully produced and authoritative book.
And, if you feel the need to really splash out, McLaren: The Cars 1964-2008 is also available in a limited edition version. Only 1000 copies of this edition will be produced, each one personally signed and numbered by the author and presented in a gloss slipcase with a printed metallic finish with the McLaren logo prominently displayed on the front of the case.
Just for good measure, Coterie Press have also produced a matching poster which features William Taylor’s terrific side profile photographs of all the McLaren cars included in the book.
If you want to learn more about Coterie Press, visit their website here — http://www.coteriepress.com
June 9th, 2008 by NZCC Editor
It’s always nice when another McLaren arrives back in it’s spiritual home — New Zealand — especially as so many of them seem to reside in the US. So, it came as excellent news when we heard that a noted Auckland car collector brought a very early McLaren M1B into the country last year. Just a few days ago, NZCC carried out a full photo-shoot on this historical CanAm racer — once raced by Mike Goth as the Mike Goth Special. When the beast’s big Chev V8 was fired up, it was enough to make even our hard-bitten, been-there-done-that photographers go a little weak at the knees. Even Greg Murphy couldn’t resist the lure of the Big Mac during his last visit to New Zealand! Look out for a full feature on the McLaren M1B very shortly in NZ Classic Car.
August 28th, 2007 by NZCC Editor
Our October cover car will be a McLaren M22 F5000 single-seater — a race car that has only just arrived in New Zealand to swell the ranks of McLaren cars resident here. Purchased by well-known McLaren and Corvette racer, Tony Roberts, this F5000 car was first raced by Tom Jones in the US. No, not the Welsh singing star! We look into the history of this racer — which is scheduled to make its NZ racing debut at the Icebreaker race meeting at Pukekohe on 15-16th September.
In keeping with a racing theme — to mark the opening of the 2007/08 classic racing season — we also travel to Australia to follow the Sun Coast Rally. And, as a bit of a side excursion, we also visit the Bowden Collection to gape at a brace of Falcon GT-HOs — Phase I, Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV. Try counting up the dollar value of that lot!
Back on home soil, we journey down to Tauranga to check out a beautifully restored Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII. Fresh out of the restoration shop, this gleaming black beauty has to be one of the best Big Healey’s in NZ.
And, just because we like to travel around NZ, we also visit Nelson to profile a delightful 1949 Ford ‘Woody’ — and look at the history behind this particular car.
There’s loads more — this month’s Salon feature casts the spotlight on a lovely ’58 Corvette and we also test-drive the new Maserati Gran Turismo.
Below is a great photo of Tom Jones racing our featured McLaren M22 back in the early ’70s. For more photos, check out my image collection (NZCC-October).
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