Gear: The Great Helmet Designs of McLaren’s World Champion Drivers in 1:2 Scale

Although these days they tend to be redesigned, tweeted and Facebooked seemingly multiple times between each practice session, a driver’s helmet is one of their most significant brands, and the helmet designs of the golden age of motorsport still stand today as icons of the sport’s greats.

McLaren is well on board with this idea, and has released an excellent range of 1:2 scale helmets which feature the iconic designs of their legendary World Champion drivers as part of their 50 years of Bruce McLaren celebrations.

Headlined, of course, by the unmistakable colours of the Brazilian flag, and Ayrton Senna’s helmet.

Also featured are some of my personal favourites; Niki Lauda’s ’84 design and James Hunt’s awesome black ’76 helmet, along with Mika Hakkinen’s ’98 design, Alain Prost’s ’85 design,Emerson Fittipaldi’s ’74 design and Lewis Hamilton’s ’08 helmet.

At 1:2 scale you’ll need a very small head to be able to try them on, and I doubt they’ll do much good as protection for your historic motor racing, but with a durable fibreglass construction and hard-wearing polyurethane paints they’ll work just fine in the man cave, on the office desk, or as a magnificent piece of memorabilia for the historic motorsport connoisseur.

Check ’em out over at the official McLaren Official F1 Store here.

Images via McLaren Official F1 Store