Richard West: You joined in 1984 as team coordinator and we shared that little office upstairs at Boundary Road with a couple of other people. Perhaps you could give us an early view on those days when, from the drawing office below, you'd hear the banging on the stairs and you'd say to Liz and Malcolm and myself, "JB's on his way upstairs." Do you remember those early days and, should I call it, the passion with which JB set about talking to Ron on certain subjects? Jo Ramírez: [...] In 84, yes, we were sharing that little office and next door was Ron's, and as you said, when John came in, the walls just... (mimicks walls shaking). [...] John Barnard: As I remember it, we'd just gotten back from one of my regular visits to Porsche, and at that time in 1983 they still allowed refueling so we'd made this rig –which looking back on it was absolutely terrifying because it was high pressure and a whole tank full of petrol– and I'd designed this fitting to go on the existing car which was never designed for refueling. So we built this test rig outside, in the yard, for safety of course. And as I'd just got back from my Porsche visit, I wandered out in the back and there was this mess sitting on the ground. That was actually a brand new chassis, never raced or rallied. There was no one around at the time so I just stood there looking at it and then a few people appeared and all I remember is somebody saying, "Ron told us to put the pressure up, and that's what happened". And the funny thing is that when I arrived tonight [at the McLaren 50th Anniversary Reunion], I started talking to Davy Ryan, and it turns out, the real reason it blew up is because Davy misput the vent pipe on! So Ron came out, Ron was there, and I'd just heard "Ron told us to the put the pressure up": so I unleashed my best Prince of Darkness job on Ron. A few people have told me it was a fairly good dressing down but I blacked out afterwards, so... So anyway, I really owe Ron an apology because turns out it was Davy who cocked it up! Richard West: I'm so glad we got that on film, JB apologizing– John Barnard: But I'm not gonna apologize anyway! (laughs)
Extracts from the McLaren 50th Anniversary Reunion [x]
The "mess" in question:
