McLaren supercars roll through Nelson as part of McLaren epic tour

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

McLarens in Monaco: It's not quite the same as 50 years ago, but all these million-dollar cars, which toured New Zealand in 2016, owe their existence to Bruce. One of the stops was in the Nelson suburb of Monaco.

Millions of dollars worth of super cars purred into Nelson as part of road trip from Auckland to Wanaka.

The convoy of 32 cars, worth $45 million, arrived in Nelson on Tuesday afternoon and will depart the city at 7am on Wednesday bound for Tekapo.

Taking part in the McLaren Epic New Zealand Tour 2016 were Brent and Debbie Forman, of Auckland, driving their three-month-old 650S Spider.

Brent and Debbie Forman of Auckland with their McLaren 650S Spider.

The Formans were looking forward to enjoying the South Island roads in their convertible – which has 650 horsepower and a price tag in excess of $500,000.

READ MORE: $45m supercar convoy hits NZ roads

A McLaren 650S Spider on Trafalgar St, Nelson during the McLaren Epic Tour New Zealand.

Brent, who described himself as a car enthusiast, said driving his supercar was a dream, but it was definitely a car that you had 'to respect'.

'You have to drive it very carefully because of the power.'

It was hard to be anonymous in the super car, especially when they driving in a convoy, and there were plenty of police officers on the road.

So they had enjoyed the freedom of testing the car at the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo. They get another chance to put the car through its paces again further south at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell.

'It really is a fantastic car. It's an amazing beast,' Debbie said.

The Formans said the response from the public at seeing the cars had been great and it was worth driving past the schools at 40km an hour to see the excitment of the kids hanging over the fences.

For the short time they were parked on Trafalgar St several people stopped to look and photograph the Spider.

One guy in his 20s asked: 'What do you have to do to get a car like that?'

'Work long and hard,' Debbie said.

Another highlight of the event had been meeting others on the trip. Of the 32 cars in the convoy 18 were from overseas and they had met people from Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and the US.

The 32 cars were split into separate convoys each of which had their own professional driver with them. The celebrity drivers were able to give them tips on handling their expensive and powerful cars, they said.

Amanda McLaren daughter of the late Bruce McLaren, was on the trip, as well as Formula 1 racing star Ayrton Senna's nephew Bruno Senna was on the trip and five-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race Derek Bell.

Among the convoy is an unassuming-looking F1 (McLaren's first road car from the 1990s with an estimated value of $22m), several 675LTs and two examples of the P1 'hypercar' – McLaren's flagship model.

McLaren Automotive (often simply McLaren) is a British automaker founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren and is based in England. It produces and manufactures sports and luxury cars.