Negros of the World
...ateur titles from 1967-1971. The McLaren marque had solidified its spot as a Formula One racing team in 1966-1967, and won its first French Grand Prix race in 1968. In the midst of the winning, Bruce suddenly had his idea of what would later be known as the “ultimate road going sports car”. Pursuing this vision he had, he modified the design of the 1967 Championship winning Canadian-Amateur race car to produce the M6GT – McLaren’s first “road-car”. Unfortunately, Bruce was not around to see his dream of “the fastest car in the world” come true. He lost his life in a tragic accident while testing at the Goodwood racing circuit in the United States in 1970. The legacy of Bruce McLaren lived on as new generations of leaders were brought on the scene. “Actuellement le PDG de McLaren est Ron Dennis.” Ron has done some great things with the company since he took control is 1980. In 1988, Dennis decided to form a road car company, because of the domination of the 1988 World Championship season. Thus, the McLaren Cars Limited was formed by the TAG McLaren Group in March of 1989. This group was designed to develop and manufacture the finest cars in whatever class might be addressed in any given race, and to enhance and reinforce the McLaren image. The company set forth on designing the world’s ultimate supercar, the McLaren F1, which debuted to the world in 1992. The debut of the McLaren F1 on the racing scene happened a bit prematurely, but nevertheless, in 1995, the advanced, carbon composite, three seater with a central drivers seat was put on the racing the circuit. It was intense pressure of early customers that convinced the McLaren Group to develop the F1 for competition. Following early successes in the 1995 GT championship, the company modified the car to cope with a 24 hour race and launched an assault on Le Mans in France. Now Le Mans isn’t just an ordinary race track. In his day, Bruce McLaren beat many opponents racing in the French Grand Prix at this course, so for the McLaren Group, the debut of Bruce’s dream car couldn’t have been a better race track. Mans is a very old city which has existed since Celtic time, before the Roman conquest of Caesar. It is a town of approximately 200,000 inhabitants, and is located at the confluence of two rivers, the Sarthe and the Huisne. Each year, as the 24 hour race at Le Mans approaches, Mans is one of the hot spots in France. It draws in over 1 million tourists in the week of racing alone. That is a definite boost to the economy of the region and to France in general. The McLaren racing team ended up staying at the Chateau de la Commaderie while participating in the Le Mans race. While there, they were introduced to the culture of France and soaked up the atmosphere of French life. Le Mans seemed to be calling the name of McLaren the day the F1 debuted because out of the 7 McLaren F1 GTR’s that raced, they placed 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 13th. This was by far the finest Le Mans debut by any marque. It was only the third time in the races history that a novice car had won, and it gave notice that McLaren Cars were a force to be reckoned with at Le Mans in the future. Since then, the company has produced two more variations of the F1, the F1 LM and the F1 GT. In 1998, McLaren Cars got together with McLaren Internatio...