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Excerpt from the books Prologue This is the story of 'Bruce McLaren Racing Car Constructor' and many of those who worked for him. The story covers the period from the last months of 1963 to June 2nd, 1970. It is a 'story', it is not a history. Those who wish to study the history of McLaren cars are advised to study Eoin Young's and Doug Nye's excellent books. What happened after 2nd June 1970 is not the subject of this book. ........................................................................ Review of �Bruce McLaren � Racing Car Constructor� By Eoin Young August 04
George Begg was a busy engineer who raced motorcycles
in Britain and on the Isle of Man, built his It helps if you�re of a mechanical bent but there are plenty of inside stories of life at McLaren Racing in the �sixties, spiced by Willmott giving his side of the story, warts and all, for the first time in print, which is another reason for spending $99.95 on the book. The team started as being an extending group of Bruce�s mates, racing people he had grown up with in various teams, getting together and working with Bruce. That was the key to it in the early days. You worked with Bruce, not for him. �Welder John� Thompson was one of the first �outsiders� to be hired for his brilliance with a welding torch, while Bruce was away racing for Cooper in formula 1. John had worked in a factory across the rutted road on the Feltham Trading Estate. �No one had thought to tell Bruce that he had a welding specialist on his staff and one day Bruce espied the new chap and went up to him saying �Who the hell are you?� �I�m John Thompson, and who the hell are you?� �Bruce McLaren�, said Bruce. �Never heard of you,� said John. John assures me that at this stage he had literally never heard of Bruce McLaren. He thought he was working for some wealthy bloke with more money than sense who had a hobby of building and racing cars. The Feltham works did not have any large sign up outside with the company name, as they had no intention of stopping there long. Bruce�s next words were very tongue in cheek: �I could fire you if I want.� �Well fire away,� said John. At that stage Bruce let out a howl of laughter at the funny side. Here was a bloke who was working for him and had no idea who he was working for or what they did with the cars�� Welder John was simply an artist with metal and he would work wonders for Bruce, and later set up his own company, fabricating the first monocoque formula 1 Ferraris. George writes of the team agonies with their frustrated efforts to reduce a 4.2-litre 4-cam Indianapolis Ford engine to 3-litres for the 1966 season but the sports cars were more competitive. At Snetterton on Easter weekend 1966, Denny Hulme won a 70-mile race heat in a Lola with Chris Amon second and Bruce third in a McLaren. �Bruce was very proud and conscious of the New Zealand connection, more so than Denny who just wanted to race and win and earn an income, or Chris who just took each day as it came and enjoyed it. It there was a good party at the end of the day, then so much the better.� The Can Am engines were built at Traco Engineering in California and George mused: �The new jet age of travel in the 1960s meant that Los Angeles, which seemed to be the centre of the performance industry, was now just over the horizon and not in a far-off foreign land. It was now said that the distance between London and Los Angeles was only �five meals, six Martinis and a movie.�� In 1967 Denny Hulme was racing a works McLaren Can Am car with Bruce. �To improve the brakes on Denny�s car, bigger rear discs were fitted and much more cooling was ducted to the front discs. The next complaint was that the brake pedal was too weak. Teddy (Mayer�s) rejoinder was that the pedal was amply strong enough and fetched a new one from the spares to demonstrate the strength. Without a word, Denny took the new pedal and with two hands bent it across the end of the car trailer, before he heaved it as far as he could into the distance. Denny was never one to enter into a verbal dispute where a simple demonstration would make his point!� The book bristles with these in-team tales, many of which must come from Willmott�s previously untapped memories. During the Can Am series a decision was made to fit an auxiliary tank and a search was made for �an aesthetically pleasing, nice round, lightweight container that looked as if it was part of the overall design. The only one that could be located at short notice was a square, heavyweight steel canister. Tyler (Alexander) was offended that such an out-of-place looking container would be placed in cars that he had slaved over with such loving devotion. There was no alternative so Tyler suggested to Colin Beanland that he fit the oil and air container in place, whilst he (Tyler) was away doing something else. This Colin did and it worked perfectly, but Tyler never ceased to be offended by its presence�� Colin Beanland went to Britain with Bruce on his first season as �Driver to Europe� in 1958 and would work with his old mate off and on until his death in 1970. �Beanie� now lives in Indianapolis. Begg�s first book �When the Engine Roars� was a meaty and absorbing racing and engineering autobiography and his biography of Burt Munro, the elderly Indian motorcycle speed record holder from Southland, is to be the basis of a movie with none other than Anthony Hopkins playing the role of hell-bent Burt. Shooting starts around now on the Bonneville salt flats and will then switch to an Invercargill location and speed on Oreti Beach. I wrote the foreword for George�s first book, ending with the comment that I wished I could write like George and he could spell like me. It still holds good but it�s a great read. ........................................................................ Book Review by Rand Millar Just a few notes here to sing the praises of Mr. Begg's wonderful book, a book which I wish could go on forever. Of course, running throughout the book is a more complete picture of Bruce's personality, lifestyle, and working methods, all of which are a delight to read about. The critical roles of Wally and Tyler are quite apparent, and we learn about the intricacies of corporate involvement with Ford through a very good analysis of the 66 Le Mans results (the history of this race has been distorted by many!). The Shelby turbine provides another example of a corporate style project, but this is more than counterbalanced by the wonderfully vivid descriptions of the origin and history of the "Jolly Green Giant." "Big Ed" and the 4-wheel drive and automatic gearbox experiments show how easy it was and is to be misled, but the very early wing experiments show how it is also easy to underrate the contribution of a new innovation. The fun-time "cannon experiments" give an insight into the personalities of the team and into the pressurized intensity of the workload. We also get a much more accurate picture of the M8D Goodwood accident, a picture that makes much more sense. I finally learned the identity of the fuel injection system on the M1B, the Tecalemit-Jackson system (with Traco parts), and I finally saw good pictures of the M6A/8A transition prototype. It is a great contribution to McLaren history. Rand. ........................................................................ The book will initially be sold as a limited edition quality hardback, signed and numbered by the author. Price will be NZ $99.95 plus p&p from the McLaren Trust, P.O. Box 109-050, Newmarket, Auckland. There are three methods of ordering: Print this page and mail to The Bruce McLaren Trust Print this page and Fax to The Bruce McLaren Trust (09) 309 3595 or submit electronically ( please be aware that this site is not 100% secure, we endeavour to provide as much security as possible, however e-mail at your own risk)
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