Mighty McLaren M8D and MP4/4 that starred at Goodwood ...

[Wouter Melissen]

At last week's Goodwood Festival of Speed, McLaren celebrated the company's 50th anniversary in great style with fabulous displays both on the the hill and in the paddock. Today, we take a closer look at two of the most spectacular and important examples in action. The earliest of the two is the M8D Chevrolet, which for all racing enthusiasts produces mixed emotions as it was in one of the four built that Bruce McLaren lost his life, yet it also continued McLaren's dominance in the Can-Am Challenge Cup, winning all but one round during the 1970 season. The example owned by McLaren today powered Denny Hulme, who raced with badly burned hands, to three wins. It was restored to full running order earlier this year for the anniversary celebrations. We captured the rare Can-Am racer with the likes of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez behind the wheel and also every detail, resulting in this 24-shot gallery.
Also out on the hill was the Honda-engined McLaren MP4/4, which has gone into history as the most successful Grand Prix cars of all time, scoring 15 wins in 16 attempts. This was achieved in the first season of the original McLaren-Honda partnership and the two companies will surely look for a repeat of that performance when they reunite in 2015. The MP4/4 piloted up the hill this year was a different example as we captured back in 2009 although we understand both used the same engine. The newly rebuilt chassis 1 was used by the late Ayrton Senna to score two wins early in the season. McLaren kindly permitted us a very close look and we have added the new shots to our existing gallery, which now features 37 shots of this fabulous machine.

Enjoy the links:

1988 McLaren MP4/4 Honda - Images, Specifications and Information

1970 McLaren M8D Chevrolet - Images, Specifications and Information

[RichardLane]

Hey Folks, I work at Canepa Design in Scotts Valley, CA. We've recently completed some work on the 1970 McLaren/Chevy chassis #BM8D/4 Can-Am ("Batmobile") car that was driven by Denny Hulme. This is car 4 of 4 and is also of the type in which Bruce McLaren tragically lost his life (M8D/2), and in which Denny Hulme took the Can-Am Championship (M8D/1), both of which occurred in 1970. Parts include a MacKay intake manifold (was originally set-up with Lucas mechanical injection, but those components are not included), a Hunt magneto and both front wishbones and link rods. Photos of parts are available as well as additional information. If interested, please reply to this forum and I will contact you.