Bruce studied alternatives for 1967, and became BRM’s first customer for a Formula One version of a new 2-cam V12 engine they were developing primarily for sports car racing. A new McLaren M5A monocoque chassis design was laid down for this engine, but BRM would plainly be late in delivery so for the interim a little F1 hybrid works McLaren was built up instead.

This car – the McLaren BRM M4B – was based upon a Formula 2 production design intended for the new 1600cc Formula 2 class then poised for launch in ’67. An initial batch of ten of these basic Cosworth FVA 4 cylinder engined F2/Formula B cars was being laid down by Lambretta-Trojan as part of their production agreement with the McLaren team. Now the works F1 hybrid car for early ’67 was produced by modifying its rear bay to accept a 2.1 litre Tasman BRM V8 engine, delivering around 280bhp – fitting long range pannier fuel tanks to provide GP distance range – and then ballasting the reassembled little car to meet the minimum weight.

This handsomely compact single-seater was then finished in the team’s brick-red sports car livery. Bruce and Teddy Mayer were continually changing their minds about the right colour for their cars as you will see on these pages. The 1966 F1 car had been painted white with a green stripe, partly as a distinctive stand-in for the Phantom ‘Nomura’ F1` car required by MGM who were filming John Frankenheimer’s ‘Grand Prix’ epic around the circuits. Now the new McLaren M4B was to be a rich red and in this livery it made its debut – Bruce driving – in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, finished fourth in heat one but then its engine broke due to a missed gear in Heat Two. Fifth places then followed in two more of the traditional non-Championship season opening F1 races at Oulton Park and Silverstone, and then to Monaco.

There, the little M4B was just about tailor-made for the tight street circuit, and but for its battery running flat – forcing a dramatic pit stop – Bruce could well have finished second behind fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme’s victorious Repco Brabham. Some of the spirit of Formula One in those days is typified by the pit stop as Bruce believed his misfire problem was fuel pressure and bawled as much at the crew. But Jack Brabham – a rival of course but out of the race by that time – had come into the pit and he was shouting "it’s your battery – it’s your battery!"

As Bruce wrote: Good old Jack. It was the battery and we quickly whipped another one on. He rejoined and finished fourth – three further championship points … thanks in part to a rival team chief!

Unfortunately, the M4B was then badly damaged on lap two of the Dutch GP at Zandvoort as Bruce went off on spilled oil in the fast Huzaren Viak corner. After the damage had been repaired he was testing the M4B at Goodwood when it caught fire out on the circuit, and he could do little other than watch it burn to the waterline. The McLaren team’s first forays into Formula One had shown promise, had accumulated six World Championship points, but left great room for improvement. And that would surely come …

Reprinted from Racing Line August 1997

Notes:

The interim F2-based BRM-powered car (the M4) and one-off BRM V12 (M5) kept the team in F1 before they gained access to the Ford Cosworth DFV

With the M7 the team made leaps and bounds and became a force to be reckoned with in the F1 community

The first GP win for the team came in 1968 when Bruce McLaren won the Belgian GP at the wheel of the Ford-Cosworth powered M7A racing car