There are certain Ayrton Senna videos that we’ve all watched over and over and over. Monaco qualifying from 1988, the very spiritual man’s very spiritual experience when he almost could have claimed pole with his eyes closed.
Then there’s Suzuka, in a red Honda NSX and those loafers.
Senna and the NSX was the first genuine link between a supercar and a superhero driver. Previous Grand Prix drivers had links to cars – even his old rival Alain Prost and the Renault 5 Turbo – but never had it been so hands on. Senna touched the NSX in a way no Grand Prix driver had truly touched the development of a road car.
That said, Bruce McLaren almost launched a road car. Indeed, one McLaren M6GT was made off the back of his eponymous squad’s dominance in the Can-Am series of North America. But it never transpired to bother a production line and it wasn’t until the 1990s that McLaren would truly hit the road.
It again had F1 flavour – not least in the name, but also in its development. Famously thrashed out by Gordon Murray and Ron Dennis on the way back from the Italian Grand Prix, the F1 was also developed by Dr Jonathan Palmer – former Williams Grand Prix driver. While talented, not least in a sports car, Ayrton he was not.
Nobody was.
A decade and a half later, Bruce's McLaren made the Senna. On the rear is the unmistakable Senna script and Woking has tapped into the Senna legend by using words such as ‘mesmerising’, ‘intense’ and ‘without compromise’. Equally attributable to both car and driver.
That McLaren was ending its partnership with Honda in F1 when the car was announced in 2017 is unfortunate. But while Ayrton’s connection to the Senna is merely spiritual, there is no denying its thread to the NSX.
Both the NSX and Senna are testament to (perhaps) the greatest of them all.
You'll find the Honda NSX and McLaren Senna as part of the Family Ties display at the Scramble on Sunday 9 October.