An afternoon in Woking

Today was both fascinating and frustrating. The fascination came from visiting McLaren, the headquarters of the manufacturer of high performance sports cars and the Formula One team. The frustration resulted from their strict no-photography policy.

Happily they relented to allow a blip shot looking outwards from the spectacular headquarters building, a fabulous steel and glass structure designed by Sir Norman Foster. This car is the 2012 Formula One McLaren MP4 27 that was driven by Jenson Button.

Our tour guide was Amanda McLaren, daughter of the great New Zealand driver Bruce McLaren, who was a motor racing hero of the 1960s. He died in a crash at Goodwood when she was just four. How proud he would have been of what the company he started, and that still bears his family name, has now become.