Bruce McLaren

Shot at 2007-08-17

Bruce Mclaren al volante di una M7b

Questo topic e` dedicato a chi ama questa scuderia che per noi e` una passione che sconfina nella fede,senza fanatismi ma con grande piacere e competenza.Facciamolo diventare una sorta di enciclopedia,la piu` completa, che ci possa soddisfare per tutto cio` che ruota attorno a questo team.

Shot at 2007-08-17
Il  primo logo Mclaren con il Kiwi,uccello senza ali Neozelandese ormai estinto ,scelto da Bruce in quanto neozelandese lui stesso.

Come noto a tutti la McLaren ha debuttato nel campionato del mondo di formula 1 nel lontano 1966. Per quanto riguarda il motore quell'anno la McLaren adatter? alla f1 un propulsore ad 8 cilindri realizzato per la 500 miglia di Indianapolis.

Iniziamo con la biografia del fondatore

Dal sito http://www.bruce-mclaren.com/

IN MOTOR RACING we all mentally form intimate lists categorizing world class drivers. One is headed "Safe, highly experienced and skilled; indestructible." Bruce McLaren headed many such lists. The shock, apart from the grief, following his sudden death at Goodwood while testing the new McLaren Can-Am car was therefore intensified. Espe?cially ironical and cruel was the fact that he had thoughtfully elected not to drive either of the two McLaren entries at Indianapolis and returned to England after that race to busy himself, typically, with testing the usual impeccably prepared Can-Am cars.

Bruce being only 33, with his ageless, joyful, youthful appearance, it was easy to forget that of all the world-class drivers he was, with the exception of his friend Jack Brabham, the most experienced of all in terms of years.

At 16 he was a secretly frightened competition license holder competing in his first hill-climb in a highly tweaked Austin 7. His father, an engineer and motor car man, had encouraged him and was his greatest supporter.

Bruce, especially when tired, had a marked limp as a result of an illness known as Legg-Perthes disease which classically descends out of the blue on previously healthy nine-year-old boys and caused them, in those days, to be placed flat on their backs in traction for periods up to two years in an orthopedic hospital. After recovery the hip joint is never completely efficient and is occasionally painful.

In retrospect, it is clear that Bruce's glorious sense of humor, resilience, patience and puckishness was born, or at least solidified, during that long period. One incident needs to be recalled. He was always a quiet leader and led, during this sojourn in the hospital, his like-aged colleagues in a grid of four-wheeled "spinal chairs" on a secret night foray down the winding, smooth, downhill paths. The steering and handling were, of course, lamentable, and there was naturally an awful multiple shunt into the flower beds. The important part of the story is that all involved-by team effort and leadership got back to their rightful bed stations totally undiscovered and unharmed.


Also of great importance in his early life were his parents. Their support and parental concern clearly helped evolve Bruce's unquestioned adult happy acceptance of life's ups and downs, his compassion; kindness, interest in others and his huge determination to succeed.

It is entirely appropriate to add the objective genetic fac?tor of inheritable traits at this point. Bruce was the first of the New Zealand International Grand Prix Association's "Driver to Europe" scholarship winners. This scholarship got the young driver to Europe all right but left him virtually on his own on arrival. A somewhat forlorn 20-year-old Bruce with his friend Colin Beanland, acting as mechanic, set foot in England in 1958. Jack Brabham, John and Charles Cooper provided the much-needed father figures and the two New Zealanders moved into the Cooper works to literally build their own Formula 2 Cooper.

It wasn't long before Bruce was getting entries at good Formula 2 races and causing enthusiasts to look at the program to see who this small, very young Commonwealth type might be. Everyone was suddenly made to really sit up at the 1958 German Grand Prix, a combined F1 and F2 race at the Nurb?rgring. The end of this episode is best summarized by Jack Brabham. "I don't know. A couple of Arabs came over with three spanners and a spare wheel just to fill up the entry list and then they win the bloody race." Bruce was 5th overall and first F2 car and stood on the victory dais beside Tony Brooks, who had won the Fl race in a Vanwall that day. At this point Bruce had truly arrived and his career in the big time started.

In this same year, 1958, Tyrrell, one of the great spotters of driving talent, offered Bruce the drive in his F2 Cooper and this friendship and educational experience was also important. The perfectionist in Bruce began to show itself in many ways. The late "Noddy" Grohman and Mike Barney were perfectionist Cooper mechanics and friends also. One hour before the race, Bruce, with a little list in his hand would say, "Noddy and Mike, did you top her up with oil?" The two mechanics would not even deign to answer and gave him looks that could kill. When they were not looking, however, Bruce simply could not resist undoing the filler cap to peek.

The next year saw him join the Cooper factory team along with Jack Brabham and Masten Gregory. It is not widely known that Bruce received much training in engineering school and during the next years there cannot have been two other drivers who spent more time involved in testing, development and preparation than he and Brabham. This was a period of the most important and happy hard work.

This was also the time when the leaders in the sport were quietly realizing that while it was important to get maximum horsepower, seconds could also be knocked off lap times by tuning the chassis. Ken TyrreIl was a pioneer here and he always thought very highly of Bruce in this regard. As TyrreIl explained it, one of the most difficult things a driver is called upon to do in testing is to drive constantly flat-out at exactly the same speed, lap after lap, and then report on the handling and so on. It was here that all the ground?work for the subsequent maturation in the whole field of motor racing was done.

At the end of 1959 Bruce McLaren became, at 22, the youngest driver ever to win a World Championship Fl race, the U.S. Grand Prix at Sebring. For Cooper, 1959 was the first of the two successive golden years, as they won the Manufacturers? Championship, and in 1960 Jack retained his World Championship with 23-year-old Bruce second in the standings for World Cham?pionship driver. Bruce was to win a total of four grandes epreuves: U.S. (1959), Argentina (1960), Monte Carlo (1962) and Belgium (1968). As an indicator of his experience and reliability over the years, in accumulative cham?pionship points he ranked fifth behind Graham Hill, Fangio, Jim Clark and his friend Brabham.

He remained with Cooper until 1966, succeeding Brabham as their No. 1 driver when Jack left in 1962 to build his own cars. He started during this time his dogged versatile expansion into all branches of racing, including sports cars. He came to enjoy this very much and made many friends in the U.S. In 1966 he won the 24 hours of Le Mans with Chris Amon in a 7-liter Ford Mark IIA and in the following year the 12 hours of Sebring with Mario Andretti in a Ford Mark IV.

Another milestone was reached in 1963-64 because he was itchy to break out and have his own team. For the Tasman series he had his own two specially built 2.5-liter Coopers. The late Timmy Mayer had spent his first European season in Formula 3 driving in Ken Tyrrell's nursery and Bruce invited him to join him Down Under, being much impressed with his talent. This was to be a sort of rehearsal as John Cooper had also been impressed enough to sign the young American as his number two driver to number one McLaren for the following season. Although Bruce won that Tasman series championship, the new team returned in sadness for Timmy was tragically killed in practice for the last race of that series. For Teddy Mayer, manager for his brother, and mechanic Tyler Alexander, however, this was the start of their long subsequent association and eventual setting up of McLaren Racing Ltd. in 1966 with Teddy Mayer as partner. From that point on we saw another quality emerge in Bruce, that of an astute businessman and hard working executive.

Bruce remained a world-class driver but more and more his maturity allowed him to be comfortable that others were quicker and that his future lay in design, building and development. McLaren Formula 1 cars were then produced and Bruce won Spa in 1968 in his own McLaren-Ford and later that year his team driver, Denny Hulme, won the Italian and Canadian GPs in McLaren-Fords.

During all this time, the planning was going on inside the heads of Bruce and Teddy Mayer which was to lead to the pinnacle of his overall career-the Canadian-American Chal?lenge Cup series for Group 7 sports cars. McLaren Racing Ltd. won support effort from Chevrolet, Goodyear, Reynolds and Gulf and produced the McLaren car that won five of six races in the 1967 series, four of six in 1968 and all 11 in 1969. This superb domination of the series had many re?wards and just before Bruce's death, the Royal Automobile Club was ready to announce its presentation of the Seagrave Trophy to him for these outstanding performances.

But now Bruce McLaren has stopped. Suddenly and awfully, we shall all stop seeing the most famous and attractive grin in all of motor racing; waiting for the hesitation while he carefully thought something out before replying calmly, quietly and firmly. And waiting too for the chance of an accompanying funny remark which would in its turn produce a deep booming laugh which rippled up his whole small body into the laughing eyes. Can there have been in the history of the sport a more universally loved figure? Did anyone ever hear so often a man who, listening to a conversation in which some unpleasant individual was having his character assassinated, find some redeeming feature and defend him?

He would say that he had had a marvelous life; that he hoped we wouldn't forget him and that we would always talk about him and of the myriad of exciting and happy times. We won't ever forget and we will do as he would want. All his many friends are thinking of his wife and his daughter and extend their deep sympathy to them and to his parents.

Autobiography - Bruce Leslie McLaren

Bruce Leslie McLaren: 1937 - 1970
Can-Am Champion: 1967 & 1969
Winner: First United States Grand Prix (Sebring, 1959)
Winner: 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours (with Amon)
Winner: 1967 Sebring 12 Hours (with Andretti)
Born to Les & Ruth on 30th August 1937 at Auckland, New Zealand, I was the second child in the family. Dad had invested in a service station in Remuera late 1936, after driving petrol tankers for the Texaco/Caltex Oil Co. My younger years were spent learning to broadside around shop corners on two wheels of my tricycle becoming a pest, borrowing mechanics spanners, etc. just when they needed them to repair my "racing machine".

We moved to 8 Upland Road approximately 1946 and it was there that we found that, owing to a fall, I had developed Perthes Disease (a hip joint problem), so I left Meadowbank School and spent the next two years in the Wilson Home in Takapuna on a Bradford Frame - had many unofficial races there (see "From The Cockpit"). My family came across on the Vehicular Ferry every weekend from the city. Dad used to say "I have just about brought this Ferry boat" then at the end of 1949 I was allowed to go home on crutches. It was nice to be there with Mum and Dad, my older sister Pat and younger sister Jan. I started correspondence school with a tutor and then in 1951 had my first year at Seddon Technical Memorial College doing an engineering course. By now I had discarded my walking sticks for good.

Motor racing was in my blood - my father had always shown great achievements in his motor cycle racing days and now was becoming very interested in motor car racing. Eventually a truck full of boxes of spare parts towing the Austin Ulster arrived at 8 Upland Road. My motor racing career had started. How Mum put up with Dad and me with her kitchen table covered in bits and pieces of the engine during meals I will never know. She used to say "If I gave them dry bread and water they wouldn't have noticed".

As soon as the Austin was driveable I carved out a figure 8 around the fruit trees in the back of our section. When I turned 15 and was able to obtain a driving licence my early and wonderful days of local hill climbs, gymkhanas, sprint meetings etc. began. My lucky break came when I was allowed to race Dad?s Austin Healey at Ardmore then I graduated to a Bob Tail Cooper. Then my "god father" Jack Brabham came onto the scene. I was selected as "Driver to Europe" by NZIGP Association and my next two years at University studies were put on hold and a new life had started for me. I left New Zealand on March 15th 1958 for England with my good friend and mechanic Colin Beanland and my first year driving for John Cooper of Cooper Cars as his "new boy", (see "From The Cockpit"). I returned to Auckland for Xmas and motor racing as No. 2 for Coopers, then back to England and Europe coming home again late 1959 for another season of motor racing and catching up with family members. At this stage I was beginning to feel that our family members might increase as I was becoming very interested in a Timaru girl, Patricia Broad whom I had met at my sister?s and then again at a dance and to whom I became engaged and married on December 9th 1961.

By now motor racing had become my life with all its potentials which I would explore and also be aware of its constant dangers. I returned to NZ as often as I could to catch up with Mum and Dad, Pat and her husband John Hunter and their five children. Pat lived in the South Island so it was a good stopover point. I managed to squeeze in some wallaby hunting, water skiing (one ski only owing to earlier hip problem), and some rowing. My younger sister Jan was still at home with Mum & Dad in these years.

In 1965 I decided to invest in a service station - just like Dad - so purchased one at Te Atatu, a western suburb of Auckland and called it Bruce McLaren Motors. Pat and John returned from down South in 1967 and managed this for me.

Wonderful news - my daughter Amanda was born on November 20th 1965 - so we now required a bigger house. Patty and I found just what we needed - bought same then called it "Muriwai" in memory of my happy days as a child, watching Dad race his cars on the black sands of the beach at low tide and my own early days of doing the hill climbs in the Austin Ulster on the Quarry Road, where my motor racing days started. One day I had hoped to return home and have my own beach house there.

My last trip to Auckland, New Zealand was the 1968 season. My parents had moved to Te Atatu South - so Dad could keep an eye on my business - and be nearer to his fishing grounds - he was an expert surf caster for beach fishing.

My last race in New Zealand was at the Teretonga circuit (South Island) on 28th January 1968 where I came 1st driving a McLaren M5A V12 B.R.M finishing just ahead of Jimmy Clark.

Mid-1969 Dad "Pop" and Mum returned for another visit to England and America - the last time they were with me here in England and the Continent was in 1959. I was able to make this trip very special to repay them for all they had done in the early days.

Bruce Leslie McLaren died 2nd June 1970 while testing a Can-Am Car at Goodwood.


In Auckland, New Zealand the following are named after Bruce:

Bruce McLaren Intermediate School
Bruce McLaren Park
McLaren Industrial Park
Bruce McLaren Road
Bruce McLaren Hall at Meadowbank School

Bruce was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall Of Fame in 1991 and the New Zealand Hall of Fame.

La McLaren ? ad oggi l'unico costruttore al mondo ad aver ottenuto almeno una vittoria in ciascuna delle tre pi? prestigiose competizioni automobilistiche (campionato di Formula 1, 500 Miglia di Indianapolis e 24 ore di Le Mans).
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

McLaren ? anche sinonimo di tecnologia:

http://www.mclaren.com/technologycentre/


RON DENNIS CBE - McLAREN GROUP CHAIRMAN AND CEO
"The McLaren Technology Centre is a model for the new technological optimism and a showcase of industrial architecture for the 21st century.
Together with our Partners, the McLaren Group has created a building that as well as being forward thinking in design and construction provides an environment that will motivate and influence the people who will work within it.

"Our company is all about people, we all want the company to win ? and I?m not just talking about winning grands prix. I?m talking about everything we are involved in. We need highly-motivated, dedicated people, and such people can only exist if you provide them with an environment in which they can aspire to be the best. Quite simply, great facilities attract great people. That?s where the story of this project really has its roots."


"We're obviously thrilled at being involved in this project. It's one of those rare occasions when the nature, the workings and the appearance of a building really do matter, not just to those who'll work there but to those who visit.

"McLaren came to us with a number of preconceptions ? not so much about what the building should look like, but more about what the spirit of the building should be, its aspirations and its social generators. I think that although neither of us knew when we first met, there was actually a natural synergy between us on a number of aspects of what our companies, in our very different fields had been trying to do.

"As architects my colleagues and I had been engaged for many years in meeting the challenge of social, technological and lifestyle change, the way they interlock, and looking at the re-evaluation of the workplace as a good place to be. In many ways, both Ron Dennis and McLaren have been an extraordinary inspiration. This inspiration has permeated down into the building itself."


TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
The McLaren Technology Centre is located on a 50 hectare site located approximately three kilometres north of Woking town centre, Surrey, UK.

The building?s 57,000 square metres of office space is home to the majority of the McLaren group?s 900 employees, in an area large enough to hold nine Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

The building is environmentally friendly, with natural light used wherever possible and energy recycled throughout the site.

"This is a very large building, something like 100m by 200m, and it's 11m high," says David Nelson, partner at Foster & Partners. "That means it is low and flat. In plan it is circular, to incorporate the formal part of the lake which is set within a full circle.

"The main body of the building is broken into 18-metre wide 'fingers', with six-metre wide strips between them, which we call the 'streets'. These allow daylight into the interior of the building and give everyone working inside an awareness of the outside. They also form part of the ventilation system of the building."

In cross section, there are mezzanine floors 18m wide incorporated in the 11m from ground to roof level. "In simple terms," says Nelson, "the idea is that the design, administration and people working in areas like light assembly will work on the upper level, directly under the roof. ?

The lake, one of the signature features of the building is not simply there for the sake of appearances. Functional as well as aesthetically attractive, its 50,000 cubic metres of water form a vital part of the cooling infrastructure for the building. Water is pumped, one third directly and two thirds via a natural filtration system of reed beds and a cleansing biotope, through a series of heat exchangers which extract heat from the chiller plant. The water is recirculated via a 160m long cascade that extends around the far edge of the lake and its temperature reduces as it cascades down a series of shallow steps. Plus the fast flowing movement of the water causes it to aerate thereby helping to oxygenate the system.


ENVIRONMENT
The McLaren Technology Centre posed the challenge of sensitively accommodating a 62 hectare site, within which 57,000m2 of accommodation had to be contained within a 20,000m2 footprint.

A height limitation for the building was given ? 11 metres above groundlevel ? and the low built, deep plan building was sunk into the landscape, shielded from view by the planting of 100,000 new trees.

Turkish hazel, Norwegian Maple, White Stemmed Himalayan Birch and Scots Pine trees have been specially selected along with a wide variety of ornamental shrubs and two-and-a-half kilometres of box hedging to provide an ever changing, year round display. In addition, 33 hectares of the site have been sown with wild flower seeds to establish a wild-flower meadow.

There are five lakes at the McLaren Technology Centre, the formal lake at the front of the building and a further series of interconnected ecology lakes. The lake water is used to cool the building. It is pumped through a natural filtration system system of reed beds and a cleansing biotape through to the building?s heat exchangers. Cold water is stored in five cooling buffer vessels located next to the building?s staff restaurant. The water circulates every 48 hours. The use of lake water for cooling purposes has reduced the requirement for cooling towers from seven to two.

All run off water goes through the network of lakes: the rainwater from the roof goes directly into the formal lake while car-parking drainage flows through the reed beds before dissipating into the adjacent River Bourne. The form of the cascade and the affect of the water flow was developed using full size models.

Non per niente la mia firma ? dedicata proprio ai grandi Padri di questa scuderia, l'unica come ha detto amante ad aver vinto tutte le principali categorie automobilistiche:



Da sinistra:



Bruce McLaren, Can-Am WC 1967, 1969

Denny Hulme, Can-Am WC 1968, 1970

Peter Revson, Can-Am WC 1971

Mark Donohue, 500 Indy Winner 1972

Emerson Fittipaldi, F1 WC 1974

Johnny Rutherford, 500 Indy Winner 1974, 1976

James Hunt, F1 WC 1976

Niki Lauda, F1 WC 1984

Alain Prost, F1 WC 1985, 1986, 1989

Ayrton Senna, F1 WC 1988, 1990, 1991

Jarvi Lehto-Masanori Sekiya-Yannick Dalmas-24h Le Mans Winner 1995

Mika Hakkinen, F1 WC 1998, 1999

I GRANDI PADRI DELLA MCLAREN

McLaren unica squadra di F1 ad aver trionfato per cinque volte di fila nella Can-Am (il cosidetto "Bruce and Denny Show" dal 1967 al 1971 consecutivamente) e ad aver vinto per ben tre volte la 500 miglia di Indianapolis, la prima volta con la McLaren Sunoco privata di Mark Donohue

tecnologia e design alla Mclaren sono di casa ovunque




interno del nostro castello mobile

Pensa che su Racing Line c'? scritto che le due camere di alonso e hamilton sono collegate via internet con la playstation e che possono giocare online standosene ognuno nelle sue camere....e che l'ufficio di Dennis ? di fronte alla porta di Alonso  ;D ;D ;D

una galleria di vetture McLaren dagli inizi ad oggi.
Gli inizi con vetture prodotte dalla Lambretta-Trojan,che acquisisce la Elva,costruttrice delle prime vetture

Elva MK VII 1963


McLaren Elva M1A 1965 Questa appartenuta ad un personaggio sconosciuto !!!

McLaren Elva 1C1 1967

Mclaren M6A 1967

McLaren M8C 1970


Versione Can Am

Parallelamente alla costruzione di vetture Can Am affidate per lo pi? a privati e vendute dalla Trojan la costruzione di vetture da GP ? il fulcro dell'attivit? di Bruce

Bruce in Belgio nel 1968

Questa ? una rarit?,La McLaren 4 ruote motrici a silverstone 1969 pilota  Bell


McLaren M7C 1969-1971



McLaren M9A  Pilota Bell


McLaren M10B 1970


McLaren M14A piloti Peter Gethin,Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme,Bruce Mclaren,Jecki Oliver  1970 1971

Si trionfa anche a Indy



e in 5000 con Howden Ganley 1970

Eh st? creatura !!

Vincitrice 24 ore lemans  !!

No Maurizio, quella vettura la non ha vinto a Le Mans



questa ? la vincitrice con Lehto Dalmas e Sekiya

McLaren campione del mondo Can-Am per cinque anni di fila 1968-1971 con il Bruce and Denny Show (Bruce 2 volte campione del mondo canam 1967-1969 e Hulme due volte campione del mondo canam 1968-1970, Revson campione del mondo 1971)