Originally Posted by
D28
And it must be said the conversion was a disaster for F1 racing. the engine and gearbox were too heavy and the hp inadequate. A rare dead end for McLaren, as Bruce spent most of the 66 season trying to get the Ford unit to work. Ironically, he had a lot of experience with the Traco modified Olds engine in sports cars, the same block that Brabham and Repco used to win 2 World Championships. A Ford F1 effort was being pursued independently by Colin Chapman and Cosworth, and evolved into the most successful F1 engine ever. McLaren eventually acquired one of these and things were fine, but first they had to go through the Ford, Serenissima and BRM engines on the way.