With Roger Donaldson's latest move about the life of Bruce Maclaren due to premier in at the end of the month, I can finally tell you the story of how we built a replica of Bruce's Ulster special used in the film. It started when my friend Richard McWhannell got a call from an ex art school colleague of his who was responsible for sourcing a Seven for the scenes to be shot here in NZ. What the film makers had not realised was that the special Bruce built although based on an Ulster was unique and that a std ulster which they thought they could use would simply not look right. Richard then called Joss Campbell and myself to see if we thought the three of us could construct a look alike, there was one big catch, because of the shooting schedule we only had a fortnight in which to build it!
However build it we did and very successful it turned out to be, we robbed parts from our own cars in order to get it complete, and tried to remain as faithful to Bruce and his Dad's original design as we could within the tight time frame we had. It was an extremely satisfying project for the three of us, the stunt driver fell in love the little car, the entire film crew were amazed with its performance and Donaldson even dubbed it "the worlds fastest Austin"

Location: NZ

Well done chaps, a car with some history only a couple of months old.

Location: Oakley , hants

That's a fantastic piece of work; the more so as it was built in next to no time.

Location: N W Kent

Great bit of A7 work keeping the Austin seven image alive
⚙️⚙️⚙️🔨🔨🔨🔧🔧🔧🔩🔩🔩🍷
Andrew

Location: Herefordshire

Great job guys - well done!!

A few more pictures of the build and filming for your enjoyment.

Location: NZ

Ian - a truly great work - Congrats. Are you going to retain it as such or pull it to pieces? If you wish to display it as a complete car, I'd suggest the addition of Big Seven bits on the front end (as did Bruce's father) would help. As for the title - I'd suggest a rival for the fastest was a Melbourne man who many years ago got a job on an Australian island and took his furniture & effects plus his Speedy with him. After a couple of years they didn't renew his contract and weren't helpful with the return of his effects. There was no room for the Speedy on the boat, so he pushed it off the highest cliff into the sea. He claimed it descended faster than it had even done on the road. Cheers, Bill.

Location: Euroa, Australia

Hi Bill,

We pulled it apart again after the movie, the body still exists and we may sell it to a worthwhile cause at some point. The car was built to Mk 1 specification as Bruce's father built the car and Bruce learnt to drive in, hence the Ulster front end. Bruce later fitted a big seven front end, we had one available to be installed for later scenes however that ended up not being used in the film. When viewing the remains of the genuine car in the McLaren collection one should remember it underwent several revisions as well as a couple of restorations during its life. The car today now looks rather over restored and the shape of the tail is not as it was during Bruce Mclaren's ownership, a lot of the genuine car sadly ended up in a skip during the first restoration here in NZ, McLaren racing then restored it again to the pristine condition we now see.

If I can get photo bucket to play ball I will see if I can upload some period pictures of it under construction and being raced by Bruce.

Location: NZ

Pictures as promised, showing construction.
Mark 1 with ulster front end
Mark 2 with Big 7 front end

Location: NZ

HI Ian,

Thanks for putting up the Photos

Location: TINOPAI NZ

and this was parked in the same museum, Queenstown I think, well it was over 40 years ago.

Location: oz

The trailer for the film is HERE .

There is a brief shot of an A7 cylinder head!

Rick

Location: Deepest Norfolk

We watched the film at the Uckfield Picture house on Thursday and I can confirm that the replica is well featured.
There is a mix of new and old, movie film and stills. colour and black and white.
Well worth seeing but please don't watch it on a TV or a laptop, go to a cinema.

Just after watching the movie online. Well worth a watch!

Location: Ireland