Bruce McLaren was born to Les (Pop) & Ruth on 30th August 1937 at Auckland, New Zealand, He was the second child with an older sister in the family. His father had invested in a service station in Remuera late 1936, after driving petrol tankers for the Texaco/Caltex Oil Co. Mclarens younger years were spent learning to broadside around shop corners on two wheels of his tricycle becoming a pest, “borrowing mechanics spanners, etc. just when they needed them to repair my ‘racing machine’”. The family moved to 8 Upland Road after the war and it was there that we found that, owing to a fall, that he had developed Perthes Disease (a hip joint problem). He Meadowbank School and spent the next two years in the Wilson Home in Takapuna on a Bradford Frame – a special traction bed.
His family came across on the Vehicular Ferry every weekend from the city. Pop used to say “I have just about brought this Ferry boat” then at the end of 1949 (2 Years later) McLaren was allowed to go home on crutches. This must have been a traumatic experience for that family as well as for a boy of nine but McLaren never seemed to dwell on it. Not allowing his disability to limit his life hood dream McLaren started correspondence school with a tutor and in 1951 he attended Seddon Technical Memorial College (actually a secondary school) studying engineering.
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Bruce McLaren was born to Les (Pop) & Ruth on 30th August 1937 at Auckland, New Zealand, He was the second child with an older sister in the family. His father had invested in a service station in Remuera late 1936, after driving petrol tankers for the Texaco/Caltex Oil Co. Mclarens younger years were spent learning to broadside around shop corners on two wheels of his tricycle becoming a pest, “borrowing mechanics spanners, etc. just when they needed them to repair my ‘racing machine’”. The family moved to 8 Upland Road after the war and it was there that we found that, owing to a fall, that he had developed Perthes Disease (a hip joint problem). He Meadowbank School and spent the next two years in the Wilson Home in Takapuna on a Bradford Frame – a special traction bed.
