McLaren's M7A...as good as it looked

The McLaren M7A wasn't the first Formula 1 car to bear the McLaren name but it is arguably the best looking in more than three decades. What's more it won first time out, providing a huge morale booster for New Zealander Bruce McLaren and his fledgling racing team.

First appearance for the Ford Cosworth V8-engined McLaren M7A was at the Brands Hatch Race of Champions in March where Bruce fought against tough competition. Not only did the 30-year-old Aucklander lead from start to finish, but he also set the fastest lap - an outright record of 104.15 miles an hour. Bruce qualified chassis Number 1 fastest in practice, beating Mike Spence (BRM) and Jackie Stewart (Matra-Ford) while Denny Hulme in the second works McLaren was equal fourth in practice.

The M7 would appear in three forms during 1968 and 1969 and firmly established the McLaren name in Formula 1. New Zealander Phil Kerr, who was manager of Bruce McLaren Motor Racing during the company's great expansion period in the late 60s and early 70s, recalls that the car's design was delightfully simple and not over-complicated.

"Bruce's thinking was to keep cars simple as the more complicated they were, the more things which could go wrong," says Kerr. "The car was relatively advanced for the time and met the requirements for being light yet strong. It was competitive straight-off and very quick in a straight line. At Monza (for the Italian Grand Prix in 1968) the M7A was pulling well over 200 miles an hour using the 405 horsepower Cosworth V8," says Kerr. Remarkably, this straight line speed is little slower than today's Formula 1 cars using 800 horsepower.

When Bruce first drove the car at Goodwood, he got down to 1m 13.6s. This was the fastest a Formula1 car had circulated the southern English circuit. At Brands Hatch Bruce finished just over 14 seconds in front of Mexican Pedro Rodriguez in the works BRM V12 with Hulme was another 16 seconds back in third. A month later at Silverstone for the International Daily Express Trophy Hulme led team-mate McLaren home in a McLaren M7A one-two.

McLarens had won the first two European Formula 1 races for 1968 and then in the Spanish Grand Prix on May 12 Hulme finished second to Graham Hill's Lotus. Hulme qualified on the front row of the grid, with his team mate on row two. Bruce would run fourth until engine failure retired his car.

At Monaco McLaren qualified on the third row of the grid and Hulme was on the fourth row. Bruce's race lasted only a few seconds when he slid on some oil and was hit by Jackie Oliver's Lotus. Denny had a prolonged pit stop to change the left rear driveshaft and it was only because of the high retirement rate that he was classified fifth.

At Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix McLaren had a race-long scrap with the BRMs of Pedro Rodriguez and Piers Courage and the Lotus of Jo Siffert in what was a battle for second position. Jackie Stewart seemed assured of winning in the Matra-Ford but ran out of petrol on the last lap.

Both McLarens suffered handling problems, although Hulme made a second row grid position, one row ahead of McLaren. Hulme ran fourth in the early stages but retired on lap 19 with driveshaft problems. Bruce worked his way towards the front of the field after a bad start but was passed twice by a determined Rodriguez. McLaren still thought he was second when the chequered flag was shown, not knowing Stewart had stopped.

At Zandvoort in Holland the M7As were out of the points at Zandvoort in late June with ignition problems on the Hulme car and an off-circuit excursion by McLaren. Aerofoils appeared on the M7As at Rouen for the French GP and Hulme qualified fifth fastest for a second row grid position. and McLaren was on row three after being eighth fastest. Significantly, the two cars finished fifth and eighth in the same driver order.

Two weeks later the McLarens were fourth and seventh at the British Grand Prix, driven by Hulme and McLaren respectively. Jackie Stewart drove brilliantly in appalling conditions to win the German GP at the Nurburgring while Hulme and McLaren finished seventh and 13th respectively after both team cars started well back on the grid.

At Monza for the Italian Grand Prix the M7As shone after Bruce qualified second best. In the race both works McLarens shared turns in leading as the orange cars ran one-two. Less than two seconds separated the leading four cars for more than half the race and Denny went on to win at a record 234 km/h (145.414 mph) average but Bruce retired on lap 34 with engine failure.

Hulme and McLaren claimed first and second in Canada, while Bruce finished sixth in the United States Grand Prix and was second in Mexico. When the world driver championship points were totalled, Hulme had 33 for third place, just three points behind Stewart, while Bruce was fifth with 22 points. At the same time, the M7A finished second in the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship with 49 points.

In 1969 the M7 design would win only one Grand Prix - in Mexico where Hulme was victorious - but Bruce was second in Spain and the team had a succession of third placings. Bruce finished third in the drivers' championship and Denny was sixth.

The M7B side-tank F1 car appeared in 1969 as did the M7C which was based on the Formula A car. Then in 1970 the M7D was launched, using an Alfa Romeo T33 engine, but all three were modest developments of the M7A which was such a good package from day one.

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