K I W I M A D E damaged M8A/B was parked at the back of the workshop. With McLaren dominating the Can-Am Series, Goodyear, as one of the major sponsors, decided in the early ‘70s that for advertising purposes, they needed a ‘show car’. Denny Hulme was approached for advice and it was suggested that they approach Lothar Motschenbacher. Motschenbacher had accumulated various McLarens, including Denny Hulme’s M8D-1 and it was agreed that Motschenbacher would “put together” an M8D show car, based on the old damaged M8A-2 tub and so the next part of the story begins. The damaged tub and bulkheads were “dollied up”, a “grenaded block” formed the basis of the dummy engine and an empty Hewland gearbox was attached at the rear. With a fine set of induction stacks, a collection of all sorts of genuine McLaren parts, new wheels and tyres and a genuine M8D body from Hulme’s car, the M8A-2 rolled out in all her newfound glory and became the Goodyear Show Car. However, show cars also pass their ‘use by date’ – eventually after it had finished its promotional tours, Goodyear gave the car back to Denny Hulme. In conjunction with Denny Hulme, Goodyear and MOTAT (the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland), it was agreed that the M8A-2 should come to the home of its driver’s and builder’s and arrangements were made for its trip down under to New Zealand. In March 1978, Hulme sat in the M8A-2 again as the car was officially presented to MOTAT by the Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Co. The McLaren created much interest and formed the basis of many special displays. In time and in line with MOTAT policy it was decided that some work should be done on the M8 to improve its presentation. In 1979 the restorer of the car saw an advert from the Northern Sports Car Club, looking for exhibits in a large car show. He telephoned the Club and they collected the car for the show. They spent some time cleaning up the car and after the show decided to store the car indoors at the clubrooms for better preservation. In 1995, with the formation of the Bruce McLaren Trust, Jan McLaren (Bruce’s younger sister) decided to try and resolve the cars ownership 8 March 2016 dispute with the help of other Trustee’s and after 18 months negotiation, all parties agreed to relinquish their ownership claims in favour of the Bruce McLaren Trust. When the M8A was gifted to the Bruce McLaren Trust it was in a major state of disrepair. Its reconstruction as a Goodyear show car included many severely damaged and incorrect parts. Added to this, it had also been fitted with an incorrect fibreglass body and a ‘dummy’ engine and gearbox made up from a collection of old and damaged parts. During its early time in New Zealand it unfortunately suffered deterioration by being left outside. Whilst under the control of the Northern Sports Car Club it was kept in a secure dry room, but as no work was done on it, due to the ownership dispute, further natural deterioration also occurred. Very little of the original car was salvageable or could be used in the reconstruction, but all parts were invaluable for patterns and for visual display in their deteriorated condition. Of prime importance was the fact that the original works McLaren tag was still riveted in place. The tub section, which forms an integral part of the construction of the chassis, was visually thought to be reusable in part. However, on further examination, deterioration of the inner strengthening bulkheads meant that the tub was unsafe and a decision was taken to totally reconstruct the tub. The aluminium tub has been painstakingly dismantled by hand grinding out over 1000 steel centred aircraft quality rivets and the many original pieces were used as patterns in conjunction with original line drawings to reconstruct the new tub section. Whilst the Trust had inherited M8A-2 as a ‘complete’ looking car with bodywork, the actual old bodywork on the car was from an M8D – a very different model that had seen two years of development, alteration, widening, wings, etc, and in no way could any of this bodywork be used for an M8A restoration project. So it was back to the drawing board and hours and hours of research and a challenge that had plagued the restorers from the very beginning – where in the world would they find any parts of the original body to at least give them a starting point? The buck for the body was finally finished after nearly five months of painstaking work and it was composed of about 18 different sections. “We had a 1968 chassis with 1970s bodywork, made out to look like a 1971,” says Duncan Fox, chief restorer and owner of Group 7 Sports
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