At the opening of Formula 1: the Great Design Race

I attended the opening of Formula 1: the Great Design Race at Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of New Zealand, last night. The highlight was meeting Chris Amon, whom to most New Zealanders is a living legend, and one of the great race car drivers of all time. I also met Jan McLaren, sister of Bruce McLaren, and the only person whom I have spoken to in New Zealand who knows about Peter Kaus’s Rosso Bianco collection in Aschaffenburg, Germany.
   One downer was having to offer a prayer for Dr Seddon Bennington, CEO of Te Papa, who was missing on a trek at the time (he has since been found dead). (As a clarification: praying is not a downer, but the fact that Dr Bennington was missing was.)
   You do not need to be a car nut to enjoy this exhibition: the Formula 1 vehicles on display are works of art, and I imagine that we enthusiasts simply are able to appreciate them more than the average museumgoer—in the same way a connoisseur of fine wine will know more about his subject than I do.
   The designers of the McLarens, Ferrari, Cooper, BRM and other models on display have provided them with either a sense of purity or aggression. And there are other treasures there, including the helmets that were worn by New Zealand’s most celebrated drivers, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon.

Chris Amon

   Unfortunately, while I uploaded these in chronological order, I couldn’t find a way to select a bunch of them in anything but reverse chronological order.

   Meanwhile, my friend Robert Catto, who was there with his wife, Delia Shanly, gave a remote-control Ferrari a spin:

  The exhibition opened today (July 15) and runs till November 1.