HAVING A FAVOURITE COLLECTION OF model cars as a youngster is, I’d wager, par for the course for most people reading this magazine. Retaining some of that collection in a half-forgotten box somewhere as an adult? Also pretty common. Owning the full-size, real-life version of most of the model cars in that box? Not so much. When that collection includes race-winning F1 cars, Indy cars, endurance racers and touring cars, together with some all-time-great road cars, this is a particularly unusual case study.
Zak Brown’s career – or careers, plural – is a case study far from the norm too. The 52-year-old CEO of McLaren Racing has also been a racing driver, built a global marketing company from scratch, become a media mogul and a co-owner of a front-running race team – all before taking the reins at McLaren’s F1 operation in 2016. But he’s always been a fan, first and foremost: of cars, and above all, motorsport.
‘I always used to collect model cars – still do, in fact; they’re all over my desk,’ he explains. ‘So I’ve always been a collector, but I never thought I’d be fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to afford anything other than
