The McLaren Bruce is a project hatched by designer Marc Señán Fernández during his days spent at home due to restrictions imposed by Covid19. Having been forced to stop his usual activities, he took the opportunity to stay creative and work on some ideas he had in mind but never had time to make come to life.
Fernández spent roughly four weeks in lockdown and used the time to develop the fast project, creating only a few sketches and quickly jumping into 3D modeling to insert the idea into a real package and make it look as feasible as possible.
“McLaren has always been one of my favorite brands,” Fernández told Form Trends. “During their history, they created so many great cars and everything was born from the mind of Bruce McLaren, a true inspiration of ambition and passion for racing cars.”
Bruce McLaren was an inspirational figure in the motor racing world. Raised in New Zealand, he began racing in 1952 at the age of 14 and enjoyed a successful career in Formula 2, Formula 1 and the Can-Am racing series. McLaren’s knack for design and his relentless pursuit of perfection eventually spurred the creation of his own eponymous race team in 1963, which he ran until his untimely death at age 32, while testing the M8D prototype in 1970.
“Although I really like the style of the current McLaren range, I wanted to take inspiration from models such as the M8D, with its dramatic sculpted hood and front wheelarches, and the iconic F1 from more recent times,” says Fernández. “I wanted to create something alternative from the current models but respecting the history and the DNA of the brand.”
Ron Dennis bought out McLaren Racing a decade later and McLaren Cars was founded in 1985. By 1992, the McLaren F1, a powerful and innovative road-legal racecar – designed by Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens – made its debut.
“The package of the F1 is formidable so I used it as the main inspiration,” says Fernández. Having a central driving position stabilizes everything, so the intake of the roof is also in the middle and goes right to the engine. In the Bruce, the exhaust continues the direction of this center axle of symmetry.
In the side view, the McLaren Bruce is a modern interpretation of the F1, with a large air outlet that gave the direction and tension to the rest of the bodyside. “I wanted to give a big presence to this feature,” says Fernández.
“The front is all based on clean and sculpted surfaces with a strong DRL signature, in some ways also playing with the kiwi nose. The rear is the result of the big engine that is pushing inside, pure muscle and stance.”
Fernández, a designer who has spent time working at Seat, Fiat, and Lamborghini (he was involved in the design of the Huracan, Urus, Veneno, Aventador SVJ and was the lead exterior designer for the Asterion concept), is obviously pleased with the final result of his design exercise, considering the amount of time he dedicated to it. He hopes design enthusiasts will appreciate and enjoy the design as much as he enjoyed creating it.
