Yet, Bruce McLaren wouldn’t have input on the second refresh as he died on June 2, 1970, when a rear body panel came loose on his McLaren M8D Can-Am car on the Goodwood Circuit’s Lavant Straight, causing him to spinoff the track fatally. The logo remained the McLaren team’s emblem until 1980. None other than Michael Turner sketched out a more dynamic “Speedy Kiwi” to “emphasize the higher speeds at which Bruce’s cars were racing,” McLaren claims. In 1967, two years after Bruce McLaren left Cooper to drive full-time for his team alongside fellow Kiwi Chris Amon, the McLaren logo was radically redesigned. Diagonally separated by a red line, the all-white lower half sat below the top half depicting New Zealand’s racing colors, a checkered green flag. At the top of the shield was a green trapezoid that depicted a black silhouette of the front of a race car body, presumably his Trojan-built McLaren M2B. In the middle was a silhouette of a kiwi, the flightless bird that is New Zealand’s national symbol and used internationally as the demonym for New Zealanders themselves. Much different than its corporate design today, the first logo was heavily inspired by those of other racing teams, bright, highly detailed, and in the shape of a crest.

In 1964, Bruce McLaren called on close friend and famous motorsport artist Michael Turner to create the McLaren team logo.

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