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Inside McLAREN’s goldmine of heritage cars and collectables

From F1 to IndyCar and Le Mans, exploring our treasure trove of legendary racing cars

Read time: 12.6 minutes

If you like racing cars – and most people who work here really, really like racing cars – then the McLaren Technology Centre can be a very distracting place. Walk along the Boulevard at the front of the building, and you’ll see several all-time greats on display. If you then descend through the Spine via a hidden door, you’ll see even more parked nose-in to the wall, like a high-performance underground car park.

It’s easy to lose track of time - and it’s only gotten worse now that McLaren Heritage have returned to the MTC with a new workshop on the main floor, having spent five years off-site at a separate facility in Woking.

Back where they belong

McLaren’s fleet of classic cars is… vast. It features 100s of cars, representing every era of McLaren Racing, and beyond, covering Formula 1, Can-Am, IndyCar, Le Mans… and a few others that defy description. From Bruce McLaren’s Austin 7 - originally constructed in 1929 - all the way to 2021’s Italian Grand Prix-winning MCL35M and 2023’s MCL60.

Our Heritage department look after them all… but don’t be fooled, this isn’t a museum. Whilst there is a rotation of legendary cars on static display, the aspiration is to maintain everything in running order so that it’s capable of firing-up and heading out onto the track… given sufficient warning.

McLaren Heritage - Gary Wheeler

“The bottom line, I suppose, is that we’ve got two roles,” says Build Manager Rory Clements. “The first is that we’re here to keep our assets in tip-top condition as working vehicles. The other part is taking them out and running them at events.”

The summer months are a good time to catch a glimpse of a classic McLaren. The British Grand Prix had an MP4/21 on track, while the Goodwood Festival of Speed featured two title-winners: Emerson Fittipaldi turned back the clock to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first F1 titles, driving his M23, and Bruno Senna drove Ayrton Senna’s MP4/6. Although it didn’t run, Johnny Rutherford’s 1974 Indy 500-winning M16C/D was also on display at Goodwood.

The Heritage workshop usually has five or six cars on the floor at any time, made up of those undergoing a long-term rebuild, and those that have just returned from an event.  

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2024

The greatest hits

Luke Dudman, Head of, Build, has a big smile on his face when he points to a partially built MP4/8. “I love this car, it’s my favourite - iconic when I was growing up. This particular chassis was driven by Ayrton Senna for his final victory, in the 1993 Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. It’s all original – it even still has the scrutineering sticker in the cockpit.

“Getting it ready to run again is a long-term project for us that we’re halfway through. The engine has been away for a rebuild and has just come back, and we’re servicing parts of the chassis. It’s an active suspension car, so we’re currently working through some stuff with the hydraulics to understand how we’re going to run it when it’s back together. Definitely one of the cooler cars in the collection!”

“There is a lot of teamwork here, but also you take ownership of more areas of the car, and develop a much broader understanding”

Rory Clements

Build Manager

In theory, any car can be taken out of the box to be played with – but in practice, it’s the greatest hits that tend to get the most exposure. The M23, a championship winner in the hands of both Emmo and James Hunt, sees a lot of track time, as does 1988’s record-breaking MP4/4, Mika Häkkinen’s 1999 MP4/14 and Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 MP4/23.

These aren’t exactly plug-in-and-play, because they’ll require regular servicing – but preparation for them might be as little as 20 working hours. In contrast, 500 working hours may be required to get something a little more exotic into running condition, requiring everything from a full set of suspension x-rays to an order for a new fuel bag (which have a limited shelf-life). There’s always one or two of these projects in progress – either with a specific event in mind, or simply as part of the rotation.

On the shop floor, alongside the MP4/8, we can see the MP4/21, which is having the ratios changed in its gearbox. There’s also a Jenson Button MP4/25 - complete with fully-functioning F-duct - an MP4/16, Daniel Ricciardo’s Italian Grand Prix winning MCL35M from 2021, and the MP4/6. “Eclectic,” says Rory.

McLaren Heritage

Knowledge sharing

Luke and Rory both have many years of service under their belts as part of the McLaren trackside team: Luke most recently as No.1 Mechanic on Jenson Button’s car, Rory as Test Team No.1. Other members of the Heritage team are of a slightly more mature vintage, stretching back to the days of Senna and Prost. Those include Indy Lall, Alain’s No1. Mechanic, and Gary Wheeler, Ayrton’s No.2 Mechanic.

But the team isn’t solely made up of experienced heads. “It’s both ends of the spectrum,” says Luke. “People who have been racing in the past, and people that want to go racing in the future.

“There’s a good mix of experienced people like Rory and myself, but also people coming through that are new to it, perhaps from other formulas, with a view to moving onto the F1 race team. In that sense, this is a stepping stone. Something like an MCL35M, for example, is a hybrid car and very close to what the race team is working on.”

Rory adds: “Even working on, for example, the hydraulic system from a 20-year-old car is relevant, because the methodology hasn’t changed that much. There is a lot of teamwork here, but also you take ownership of more areas of the car, and develop a much broader understanding. Heritage is not a retirement home!”

Teaching the next generation of engineers

New old parts

Walking around the workshop, you get the impression that many of these cars are old friends, each with their individual quirks and personalities. Everything is referred to by chassis number, which is, in effect, a name: this isn’t just an M23, it’s a 23-05.

McLaren have always hoarded our cars, with the complete Heritage collection featuring upwards of 200 chassis. Though, Luke assures us that they’re not nearly as notorious at hoarding the unnecessary as they used to be - much to Rory’s dismay.

In the modern era, the team will go through the season with around four chassis. Whereas, back when in-season testing was a full-time occupation, there might have been 10. Going even further back, the M23 raced for six years and so there are even more of those.

This is where the notion of keeping all of the cars in running condition becomes a little… nebulous. These cars need to be pushed hard on track to work properly, and that means preparing them to the same spec and safety standards as when they were raced. The goal is to maintain rigid authenticity, but many parts have a limited shelf life and so new ones are regularly required.

Heritage Collection

The majority of a heritage car will be original, but if new parts are made, they’ll be produced to the exact spec on the original drawings – albeit perhaps taking advantage of a more advanced production methodology.

“That’s always the approach,” says Rory. “Just because it’s an old car doesn’t mean you have to build it in the old way: you can bring in modern production techniques, and obviously we’ve learned a lot over the years and can retrofit that knowledge onto the older cars – but we’ll be making original parts.”

Does anyone have a copy of Windows 3.1?

Authenticity is a big word around Heritage – and it extends beyond the chassis to the support equipment and garage kit, such as period-correct jacks. Everyone takes this stuff to heart, and the more period-perfect the car can be, the better.

Although, the team are working to modernise certain elements of their processes, which includes moving to new laptops and software. Whereas, previously, they had been known to work from brick-like beige laptops, run on their original software. They’re also working through a paper-to-CAD conversion process for any blueprints where a digital version doesn’t exist.

Heritage McLaren

Business benefits

There’s a great sense of pride in having the classic cars running, but maintaining the fleet is an expensive business. The costs of doing it are offset by being able to call on the manufacturing infrastructure and knowhow available at the MTC, but Heritage still has to sing for its supper.

The valuable training opportunities it provides young team members in place of the now-defunct permanent test team is one way it does this, but there’s also a promotional benefit, with various McLaren racing cars on display around the world at McLaren Automotive showrooms and partner headquarters.

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Our Heritage

It also provides something very nice to look at for our people, our partners and our fans. The carefully curated, ever-changing display of Heritage cars on the Boulevard isn’t assembled by chance. The team will know who’s visiting the factory, and the display will sometimes be arranged with their interests in mind. Bringing the Heritage workshop back into the MTC adds an extra layer to this, as their workshop can be seen from the Boulevard.

“If you look into McLaren Racing’s bays, quite a lot of the time there isn’t much to see if the team are away at a race,” says Rory. “With us, even if we are away at an event, the workshop is always busy and always has something to see, and that’s nice for people. It’s old IP, so we’re happy to have the covers off and let people get a good look under the skin of these wonderful machines. It’s very exciting – for people who are here for a day, or the staff that have worked here for years!"

“This is our legacy, isn’t it?” Adds Luke. “It’s what we do, and having the workshop back at the MTC, effectively front-of-house, looks really good. There are so many cars on display, it’s the perfect way to show off our history.”

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