McLaren Birthday Party: Velocity Invitational
We’ve started to look forward to the late fall each year, which is new to us. Typically, most motor sporting events have concluded by October, but in recent years the Velocity Invitational has been there to feed us a little more speed and sound before the holiday season. After a few years at another track, the event returned to it’s birthplace, the rolling hills of Sonoma Raceway, and we were lucky enough to go spend a day to take it all in.
As we wrote in previous years, the Velocity Invitational brings together both the classic and modern. The paddock included vintage race cars of significance all the way to modern hyper cars and their spaceship designs and advanced materials. A little bit of something for everyone.
McLaren, for the last several events, has been bringing some serious muscle to the event, and this year they used the occasion to celebrate their 60th birthday with an mega selection of historic Can-Am and Formula 1 cars.
Not stopping at just cars, McLaren brought out current McLaren CEO Zak Brown, F1 driver Lando Norris along with IndyCar drivers Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, David Malukas and Tony Kanaan as well as drifting icon and Top Gear presenter Tanner Foust.
The iconic McLarens on display included Niki Lauda’s 1984 World Championship-winning MP4/2A-1, Lewis Hamilton’s MP4/23A-05, which he drove to fifth place in Brazil to win his first World Championship in 2008, and the MP4/6-10 that Ayrton Senna powered to his third and final World Championship, helping McLaren win their fourth consecutive Constructors’ Championship. Additionally, the MP4/14A-04 that Mika Hakkinen drove to victory in the 1999 Japanese grand prix en route to his second consecutive Championship.
On top of the more modern hardware, the event featured a double high-winged 1969 M7C-1, Emmerson Fittipaldi’s 1973 M23-5, James Hunt’s 1977 M26-2, Ayrton Senna’s 1991 MP4/6-10, and even a few more from McLaren’s 1980’s F1 history. And on top of all that, there were more McLaren Can-Am cars on display at this event than we’ve seen at any other event event…maybe more than we’ve seen at all the events we’ve been to…combined. The Velocity folks did a commendable job presenting them in a (more or less) chronological display, giving all the ability to see the evolution of McLaren’s Can-Am racers, but also of the progression of the Can-Am series itself.
These monuments to the McLaren motorsports legacy were not just on display but were hustled around the track several times through the weekend. There is nothing like hearing the scream of the V10 engine in the MP4/14A-04 reverberate around the hills of Sonoma Raceway.
Ford was there too…
The Invitational wasn’t just McLaren’s day to shine. Ford was also at the event to debut the track-only Ford GT Mk IV, which made it’s world debut equipped with a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 capable of generating 811 horsepower. Only 67 units will be produced with a price of $1.7 million. It is the final send off of the Ford GT supercar, and the GT is definitely going out with a bang. The folks at Ford Performance somehow one-upped themselves from the performance and styling of the previous gen GT. What a thing. Here is Ford’s video from Velocity.
There was so much more, and throughout paddock and around every tent and corner was another rarity to make attendees go ooh and ahh. As Velocity has delivered at past events, they’re truly committed to deliver just about everything, and all at once. It is a bit of overload (no, literally), but maybe we shouldn’t complain about being spoiled with almost too much of the very stuff we love at an event that’s so well presented and well run. We can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves for 2024.
If you want to see a sample of the overload, we’ve prepared a mega gallery below. Enjoy!
-The Loud Pedal
