MARARN NEW ZEALAND’S ONLY PRODUCTION MCLAREN

Even being saddled with a name like ‘Mararn’ does not spoil the raw appeal of this local kit version of Mclaren’s original but ill-fated road-going supercar

Imeet Andrew Farrow in the little South Island town of Rangiora, where he introduces me to the current version of his constantly changing car collection. He owns the Eyrewell Forest Motor Company. Not having a forecourt his sales generally occur online where he buys and sells cars to add to his fluid collection. An example of what I mean by ‘fluid’ is the F-type Jaguar that he purchased recently and enjoys driving. It is advertised on his website and will eventually sell, at which point it will be replaced by another exotic he would like to own such as a Ferrari 599. Consequently, his collection is always in a state of flux and he never has time to get bored with a particular car, as another car will always be somewhere on the horizon.

I have come to see one of the more permanent cars in his collection and one of his favourites, a Mclaren M6GT replica. “It’s not the fastest or most expensive car here,” says Andrew, “but it does get the most attention.”

Anybody who knows about cars will instantly recognise this car as being a replica of the Mclaren M6GT, conceived by Bruce Mclaren as having the potential to be the first road-legal Mclaren supercar, conceived decades before the Mclaren F1.

The original Mclaren M6GT prototype was manufactured in aluminium. A mould was taken off this car and a further two bodies were manufactured by Mclaren out of fibreglass. It is believed that another 100-plus bodies were commissioned and manufactured by Trojan, a small UK manufacturing company that built other Mclaren bodies.

The Mclaren M6GT also came to be manufactured here.

MCLAREN BEGAT MONTAGE

One of the two previously mentioned fibreglass cars went on tour to the US in the early ’70s where it was spotted by brothers Tim and Brad Lovette. At that time they were already making a

His collection is always in a state of flux and he never has time to get bored with a particular car

replica kit of the Mclaren M8 called the ‘Manta Mirage’. They asked if they could ‘borrow’ the M6GT for a while and the people responsible for touring the car agreed. It is not known if they knew the Lovette brothers were going to use it to make a mould but, in those days, second-hand race cars / prototypes had almost no value. Once they had made the mould Manta Cars introduced a new VW Beetle–based kit car called the ‘Manta Montage’.

It was a very successful entrylevel kit car and sold well. One of these Montages became a star of the TV series Hardcastle and Mccormick (1983–’86). No doubt having a Montage seen during the show’s opening credits performing stunts and high-speed chases helped sales. The highlight of each episode of the TV series involved a vehicle pursuit with the Coyote X (Manta Montage) chasing down bad guys attempting to escape in other sports cars. The show was similar in concept to the better known Knight Rider TV series (1982–’86) albeit not as high-tech.

Well-known New Zealand race car driver and designer Graham Mcrae visited Manta Cars in the US and brought an unfinished Montage back to New Zealand with him in the late 1970s. Always the entrepreneur, he had the idea of producing and selling the car here. He approached David Harrod of Fibreglass Developments Limited (FDL) in Feilding about the possibility of producing the car in his workshops.

MONTAGE BEGAT MARARN

His timing was perfect because for some time David had been considering building a car and seriously contemplated building a Cobra replica but, thanks to Graham, he got sidetracked into building the (M6GT) Montage, which he called the ‘Mararn’. Working in his spare time it took David about a year to strip the car and get it to the point at which a set of moulds could be taken from it.

Along the way, several modifications were made. The original car had door handles on top of the door. These leaked and were perfectly sited to fill the door with water. David moved these to the side and fitted Leyland Marina units, which looked better than the originals. A big issue was the poorly functioning door hinges on the Montage. David set about making a complicated double-hinge system with two different opening pitches that used rose joints. The result was extremely tricky to develop and it would have sent volume manufacturers back to the drawing board but the final result on this already-special car was worth it.

A key problem was the car’s windscreen. At the time Pilkington Glass was manufacturing glass for the local automotive industry in Lower Hutt. David approached Pilkington with the windscreen that came with the car in the hope that the company could manufacture it and after some thought it said that it couldn’t and returned David’s windscreen, in pieces! David was not happy and demanded a meeting with the company board of directors. At that meeting David insisted that as the company had broken the only windscreen of its type in New Zealand, it was honour bound to replace it. Pilkington agreed, but it would take the company more than 100 attempts before it was able to manufacture a windscreen that David could use.

Meanwhile, Graham had been offered the opportunity to be the chief mechanic of the US Skoal Bandit Racing team owned by well-known actor and race car driver Paul Newman. Given such an opportunity, Graham was happy to sell out his share of the car to David.

It would take Pilkington more than 100 attempts to manufacture a windscreen that David could use