“Life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.”
When a 27-year-old Bruce McLaren penned those words in 1964, his new company, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, was less than a year old.
In those days, Bruce’s vision was shared by fewer than half a dozen loyal souls, who slogged across the world to race his self-made cars. Nowadays, the McLaren Group employs more than 2000 people, all of whom still share Bruce’s ideals of combining sportsmanship with solid engineering practice and cutting-edge technical expertise.
On September 2nd 2013, the McLaren Group will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
If you were to follow Bruce’s words to the letter, there’d be little time for recollection, but on the eve of McLaren's half-century there’s surely time for the briefest of breaths and the opportunity to take a look behind at the sweeping vista built up in the indelible shadow of its founder.
The McLaren Formula 1 team has become a global household name; since its arrival in
the sport, at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, it has won more races (182) than any other
constructor, started from pole position 155 times and scored 151 fastest laps. In 2012,
McLaren achieved the fastest-ever time for a Formula 1 pitstop (2.31s at Hockenheim),
recorded its 58th consecutive points-scoring finish, an all-time record, and has now led
more than 10,000 racing laps.
McLaren went to the Indy 500 for the first time in 1970, returning with greater strength until
we won the USA’s most famous motor race in 1974 with Johnny Rutherford, and repeated
the feat with Rutherford in 1976, too.
Today, every single car in Formula 1, the Indycar Series and NASCAR relies upon
McLaren Electronics’ standardised ECUs to control their engines and feed data back to the
garage.
Introduced back in 1993, the McLaren F1 road car has lost none of its unique appeal and
is still considered by many to be automotive world’s definitive supercar. To this day, it
remains the fastest naturally aspirated production car in the world. In GTR racing guise, it
won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, also scooping third, fourth and fifth places on its debut in
1995.
Since its launch in 2010, McLaren Automotive has developed into a world-class road car
manufacturer, successfully developing and building the 12C and the 12C Spider high
performance sports cars. Both models exploit an unparalleled understanding of carbon
fibre and electronic driver systems to create a groundbreaking product of unequalled
weight, strength, performance and driveability.
It’s all a long way from that small south London lock-up back in 1963. But Bruce wouldn’t wish to merely look backwards without looking forwards, too.
Accordingly, echoes of the past will reverberate throughout a series of unique events and celebrations to be held across the anniversary year.
From the McLaren 50 logos on team shirts, through a specially commissioned heritage video features, to the launch of our new MP4-28 Formula 1 car with Jenson Button and Sergio Perez on January 31st, every lap, every corner, every mile and every road taken will be an opportunity to revel in McLaren’s present while recalling its 50-year past.
Ron Dennis CBE, executive chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, said: “McLaren’s history is long and storied, but McLaren’s legacy is harder to define – and that’s because it’s still being vividly written every day by the dedicated men and women who work at the McLaren Technology Centre.
“Bruce McLaren wrote the beginning of the story, and the legend is going to continue for many years to come. I’m only a chapter, not the book, and I want other people to come in and write their own chapters as time goes by.”
“This is a book that’s still being written, and that, perhaps, is the greatest legacy of McLaren.”
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