Pato O'Ward Drives Bruce McLaren's 1969 M7C F1 Car

[@Jt7166]

How can you not love Pato, what a great kid

[@Max_Flashheart]

4:32 Great to see the NZ Kiwi Logo next to the race number. Big thanks from New Zealand and Mclaren F1 Fans for posting this video it is amazing. That sound is wild.

[@stephenscisney7814]

"You lose it in the quick stuff, OUCH!" Best. Quote. EVER!!

[@GBURGE55]

Great car & in great condition. Nice to see it driven properly.

[@nighttrain1565]

I love how inquisitive the engineers are

[@mikekadlcak1963]

learned pretty quick to downshift in this car. Good job Pato! :-P

[@Simon_Hawkshaw]

What an amazing trip back down memory lane to my youth and watching these iconic vehicles live. Thank you so much for sharing this with us all.

[@markpatton1214]

I would rather go to see this than F1 Vegas

[@didickcheeseburger]

theyre gonna have to leave the tire blankets on during the race

[@MRX5000X]

100%

[@bloqk16]

@@didickcheeseburgerI've heard about the concerns of the tires for the 2023 race may not get warmed up enough for proper traction. Gee! [in sarcasm] Maybe the skills of the drivers may have to come into play with the F1 Vegas race if there are traction issues with the tires.

[@markcrooks1631]

It was an amazing weekend I was there. Fantastic to see amazing cars on track doing what they do best. If you ever get the chance to go - then go!

[@markhale8084]

I did!

[@sw23971]

I could imagine when Bruce first drove the car and told his mechanics," wow, it has much better grip!"

[@didickcheeseburger]

for real. standards have changed lol

[@bloqk16]

I recall in a Bruce McLaren interview back then, when the FIA banned the rear wing attached to the suspension struts, when he was asked about the revised rules only allowing wings bolted to the bodywork. His response was that the revised wing configuration altered the suspension geometry with his car. The tone of his response gave an indication he preferred the previous wing setup struts on the suspension.

[@GBURGE55]

​@@bloqk16Jochen Rindt hated the strutted wins. They nearly killed him! (Spain 1969)

[@steveskrobot9496]

Can you imagine driving that car in '69 on the limit? insane! Bruce and the legends around him had big cahoonas!

[@bloqk16]

Denny Hulme won the 1968 Italian Grand Prix in the M7A that was wingless; as Bruce McLaren felt the aero drag would hamper the speed.

[@Lianpe98]

They didn't have choice either

[@benmalec3258]

Pato's living his best liife!

[@ElliottNest41]

One of my favorite videos of 2023.

[@JamesPancoast]

Oh man this got me funny bits excited!

[@judithdominick5428]

Coolest thing ever!!!

[@peterf1]

Food for though: with those modern Avons, the quality of the track, this car likely had considerable more grip than original. Grip was something that drivers searched for while the race occurred.

[@bloqk16]

Ah! That thought had crossed my mind, too, with the improved grip from the modern tires being used, as the race cars back then still used treaded patterned tires. I checked the web for images of the cars back then which confirmed my recollection.

[@deepinthewoods8078]

That badass first generation rear wing ...

[@bloqk16]

It was a short-lived generation at that.

[@johnressler18]

Colton driving his dad's car was so awesome. He pushed and hearing the engine scream.

[@Allan-ts1ux]

Thought he should have upshifted there at one spot... Very amazed that engine held up... .. beautiful car ..

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Same here.

[@sebastianpoloorozco6458]

This is my new favorite car of competition😊

[@bloqk16]

The 1960s were certain a *Grand* time for F1 Grand Prix builders, as the cars, such as this McLaren M7C, had *_style_* to them.

[@inferno9103]

I wish mclaren made livery close to this. With retro numbers over circles and mostly orange

[@lightsoutracingproductions]

Check out rossi’s indy 500 livery this year

[@JoelRipke]

Proud of myself for recognizing it's Sonoma from first sector, as I don't think I've watched an onboard since playing NASCAR 2001 on the PS1

[@Saabjock]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I believe he thinks it's "cool". Seriously though....good to see these guys with an appreciation of the old machinery.

[@bloqk16]

The Autosport YT channel that ranks the top 5 McLaren F1 cars does NOT include the M7 series of F1 racers; that was a serious omission with rankings, as it was the M7 series that gave Bruce McLaren the breakthrough to become a top-tiered Formula 1 entry back in the 1960s.

[@roelsiebrand7181]

He even looks a little bit like Bruce.

[@PersonaGrip]

"Steering was light."...yet, his left hand cramped up. Hmmmm....this was due to his right hand contributing turning effort only occasionally since it's having to do the shifting. Plus, without any molding, the static coefficient of friction of leather/leather is around 0.35-ish when NEW, and this wheel was clearly polished as shown at 1:40s prior to him grabbing it. I haven't molded a wheel for him yet, but last week I got a call from an IndyCar team who said the expanded foam they're using doesn't have the right "stickiness"...something I spent 19 months dialing in on my prototype injection mold machine. So, he does have SOME practice squeezing while turning. In addition, the ONLY leveraging effect came from the EDGES of the thin, horizontal spokes which impinged on both the median (thumb) and ulnar (pinky) nerves killing any chance for them to provide any valuable information on the location of the top of the mu-slip curve. Bottom Line: compared to a molded wheel on a modern IndyCar wheel today, he was driving practically blind! GREAT job, Pato...respect.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

It's about 2/5ths the mass of a current Indycar or F1, with about 1/2 the power of either, almost no downforce, smaller brakes, all made for going flat out. No wonder he's grinning like mad.

[@LagmasterB]

Is this Sonoma. Pato can definitely push this car

[@asterixdogmatix1073]

Pato accidentally touched on the fact you often didn't walk away from crashing this era of cars. Noting of course Bruce was in a Can-Am car.

[@mitchell-wallisforce7859]

I don't even wanna think about going full bore at some psychotic thunderdome like Montjuic in one of these. EDIT: LOL @ 1:19. Hey man, it was the dawn of aerodynamics. They were just getting the kinks worked out!

[@bloqk16]

Yeah! When it comes to aerodynamics, check out the front-suspension with the exposed shocks and coil springs in the airflow. The bodywork openings near the nosecone did provide some airflow downforce.

[@sandorjuhasz5764]

Jó volt látni, formula 1 ma is ilyen verseny autókkal kellene menni 😀😍

[@MrMichkov]

What tyres are they using on the car, modern cross ply slicks?

[@bloqk16]

Towards the end of the video the Avon name comes into view on the tire's sidewall. They certainly weren't using original pattern treaded tires that were originally used for the era of that car. You can check the web for images to see the treaded tires the F1 cars used in the late 1960s.

[@gavinvalentino1313]

I'd like to see the entire lap(s) video. I have an odd feeling there were at least a couple of surprise moments. He is looking at the car like it's the friendly dog he was petting and then it tried to maul his face off.

[@bloqk16]

A YT recommended video just showed up for me from Marshall Pruett that is titled: _Ride with Pato O'Ward in the 1969 McLaren MC7 F1._ The video has Pato doing a couple of laps around the race course. You'll need to search for it, as links don't seem to work for me with this comments section.

[@pampa4790]

Vamos patitooo! Un genio!

[@jeffmotsinger8203]

I think the word he was looking for is 'primitive'.

[@bloqk16]

Those cars back then went the full 200+ miles [322+ km] *without* a pit stop; so the tires and fuel had to last the race distance.

[@espitianava]

its cool

[@toddwasson3355]

What's up with the tachometer? I've been seeing this a lot lately in old cars. Modern replacement tach no doubt, but why is it so horrible?

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

Looks correct for age. Some were mechnaically driven, that one looks to be electric with a 'hold' feature that stays long enough to look and see how high the revs got.

[@toddwasson3355]

@@PiDsPagePrototypes It's awful. I can't see how it's even useful. It lags about a second behind the engine and looks like it jumps about 1000 rpm at a time. The tach on a regular passenger car is better than that.

[@sandorjuhasz5764]

A kis szivarral ma is ez az igazi nem túlkombinált 2023 autókkal........ 😀

[@RymaMokdad-tv8ps]

😊

[@bloqk16]

A well-prepared F5000 car [using a 5 liter pushrod engine] of the late 1960s could compete with a poorly setup F1 car back in the late 1960s.

[@dmurphy1578]

And he didn’t wreck it like Chuck did Nicky lauda’s.

[@nololol]

this car makes 3rd gear look like 1st cant imagine driving this around the nordschleife....

[@rider65]

Like a video gamer! 😁 He's a nice guy but man not a technical driver at all

[@antonioascari3294]

So nao entendo porque escolheram essa pista horrivel pra fazer algo tao incrivel

[@Lucky-ou4vz]

Does that have a Modified Beetle Engine

[@RickyJr46]

A lot of those guys never made it out…🪦