How often do you see Bruce McLaren and his boys gathered around to hear his assessment of the latest bunch of tweaks?
Motorsport’s caption, “The McLaren team are seen during a private practice session with Bruce McLaren seated in his new F1 car with B.R.M. V8 engine – McLaren M4B BRM P111 2.1-litre V8 – holding conclave with Robin Herd (designer) and Mike Barney (mechanic) on his left, and technicians Charlie Scarrano and Tyler Alexander on his right. On their knees at the front of the car are Wally Willmott and Gary Knutson.’ : https://primotipo.com/2016/10/07/mclarens-19667-f1-cars/ ‘
‘In the foreground, less its nose cowling is one of the 1967 F2 cars of the McLaren team. The cars are painted red because “our sports cars were red, and they seemed to go pretty fast” to quote McLaren.’ It’s Bruce’s 1967 F2 weapon, McLaren M4A-1 Ford FVA, another Robin Herd/McLaren collaboration.
He first raced the M4A at Snetterton on March 24. The Guards 100 was the first round of the European F2 Championship – the first ever round of a European F2 Championship – where Bruce was fifth in the race won by F2 King, Jochen Rindt’s Brabham BT23 FVA, very much the story that year! See here: https://primotipo.com/2019/11/02/the-wills-barc-200-f2-silverstone-march-1967/
Etcetera…
McLaren had contracted to run BRM’s new customer 3-litre V12 in 1967 and built the M4B powered by the tried and true Tasman spec 2-litre V8 as a stop-gap pending the twelve’s delivery.
The car used a modified M4A chassis cut away to accommodate the bulkier V8 rather than the FVA for which it was designed. The fuel capacity was increased, too.
Bruce raced the car five times: in the March Race of Champions at Brands Hatch DNF, the April Spring Cup at Oulton Park, fifth, and the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone in late April where he was again fifth, at Monaco, where he was a splendid fourth behind Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT20 Repco, Graham Hill’s Lotus 33 BRM 2-litre and Chris Amon’s Ferrari 312.
In Monaco (#16 shots), Bruce was fourth, and in the Dutch GP, he crashed; the car was then written off in a testing accident at Goodwood.
Credits…
MotorSport April 1967, enwheelsage.com
Finito…
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