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Easy listening: 1970 McLaren F5000 M10B start up

19 July, 2017

Bruce McLaren knew a thing or two about hill climbing and the first event the then 15-year- old Bruce ever competed in was a hill climb. Bruce won his class on the shingle slope, and his destiny was set.

Fast forward to the mid 1960s, and a short run of cars built specially for hill climbing and sprints. David Good purchased one of those hill climb specials — McLaren’s new M10B — which was essentially the same as the 1969 title-winning M10A, but with the key tweaks being redesigned suspension, a slightly restyled body, a new radiator, and modification to accept a dry sump engine installation. Good never let having no right arm dissuade from getting involved in sporting activities, either, however, he was never able to get a licence to race cars — the next best thing then was to head for the hills. Good had his McLaren fitted with a 5.5-litre Chev pumping out some 335kW at 6000rpm. The cockpit was modified because its pilot needed to sit close to the wheel — and, uniquely, the car had a much- modified gear linkage so that Good could change gear. The hole for the shaft on the left-hand side of car (the McLaren, like most racing cars, being a right-hand change) remains. Good was fourth in the championship after one ‘fastest time of the day’ (FTD), a second and a pair of thirds.

Today the car resides in New Zealand, owned by David and Katya Mitchell. The Mitchells had it shipped to New Zealand in May 2014, and it appeared at the Gulf Oil Howden Ganley Festival at Hampton Downs in January 2015. David will compete in Formula Libre races in the coming season, and intends to retain the treaded tyres rather than make a move to slicks.

The next issue of NZ Classic Car will include a full feature on the 1970 McLaren F5000 M10B, but for now, enjoy the beautiful sound of this historical piece of machinery firing into life in its makers own workshop 57 years later:

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.