McLaren biopic in Cinemas today

31 May, 2017

“An honest and in-depth account of the Auckland boy that took on the world, and won: McLaren.

While the name McLaren moniker is now more recognised as that of one of the best supercar companies in the world, to most Kiwis, the name McLaren remains synonymous with the man that was. He spawned the now globally famous brand on the back of an epic tale of hard work and pushing the limits.

The Roger Donaldson directed biopic is now in cinemas across New Zealand. Utilising old footage of Bruce and his crew testing and racing around the world and interviewing those nearest and dearest to him, the film is a must see for all Kiwis regardless of the amount of benzine running through their veins.

Check out the trailer here:

Design accord

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

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.