NZ Festival of Motor Racing featuring Denny Hulme


A couple of sketches from Hampton Downs last weekend. Great to see so many visiting cars from overseas, the Lotus 23b below is one of 2 23b's visiting from the US. This one belongs to Travis Engen, and I understand he also owns and wins historic Enduros in an ex Le Mans winning Audi R8! 

Anorak fact: The 23b Lotus caused such a stir at their debut at the Nurburgring in 1962 (leaving much more powerful Porsches, Aston Martins and Ferraris in their dust - not bad for 1000cc) that the Le Mans officials outlawed them on a minor technicality for the upcoming Le Mans, causing Lotus to boycott Le Mans indefinitely.

The whole event is held in celebration of Denny Hulme, our only Formula 1 title winner. On display and on track are many of his cars and even his jet boat called 'Can Am' powered by an enormous V8 out of Can Am racer and towed by a McLaren orange Range Rover. Here's a sketch in the McLaren Trust garage below of his Yardley McLaren M23 with the nose off for a battery recharge and his 1968 Can Am championship winning McLaren M8. I found the video on motorsportretro.com - it'll really put you on the mood for looking at this post!








Comments

Luc said…
Great Sketches. I Love it !!! And remember me memories of old challenge on prototype and F1 championship (Denny Hulme, bruce McLaren ...)
Murray Dewhurst said…
Thanks Luc, must have been great to see them all in action! What tracks did you visit?
Luc said…
Oh Murray ... unfortunately not from live !!! I saw from live only some F1 GP in the early '70 (Austria, Monza) with Niki Lauda ...
Murray Dewhurst said…
That must have been great! A lot closer than we could get in New Zealand anyway.
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