Racing Line

That's Neat Paddy No. 93 - Remember when McLaren were the silver ones?

Jun 06, 2025

Hello and welcome to another edition of That is Neat, Patrick. What follows is a collection of things Paddy found Neat this week.

Things I’m Bullish on for the Summer

Espresso & tonic
Camp collar shirts aren’t going anywhere
Gelato
Bird watching
Boat shoes
Gin & tonic
Telling myself I’m going to care about the Gold Cup followed by not watching a single game
Getting an Irish tan (burning as soon as I step outside)
Buying a $250 pair of Hokas just to run at a 11 minute/km pace
Leaving work early on Fridays regardless of how many hours I’ve worked that week
Foot long hot dogs
Beach towns
Linen pants
Seersucker shirts

Buy me a coffee!

Neat Video

Something to think about.

The McLaren Company Magazine, Racing Line

I recently came into possession of a number of copies of Racing Line, the official magazine of the McLaren Group. From what I can gather online, the magazine ran from 1998 to 2009, with the final issue celebrating Lewis Hamilton’s first championship win. This was a good time to end it, as McLaren had a 10-12 year run after that where they didn’t do anything of note, other than ruin one of the most iconic partnerships in F1 history by trying to run it back with Honda.

Throughout its run, Racing Line gave a behind the scenes look at McLaren's operations, including race reports, technical analyses, and interviews with team members. I stumbled into possession of copies from the year 2000, with the addition of issue no 1, dated March 1998. Most of these issues cost £4.50 in the year 2000, or just under £10 in today’s currency. Now, £10 is still nearly 20 Canadian pesos, which is far too much money for what are essentially booklets of ads, but after Netflix got it’s hands on F1 and turned what was already a rich man’s sport into an even richer man’s sport, that is low for anything with an F1 team’s logo on it.

Aside from an insight into the racing world, these magazines are a look into the aesthetics of the world in the new millennium. Spiky gelled hair. Short sleeve button up work shirts. Sports sunglasses with orange lenses. Tobacco sponsors. Not a cell phone in sight, people just living in the moment (Vodafone was a few years away from being a sponsor).

This is still true almost 30 years later

Nobody loved motion blur like an early 2000s photographer.

Included in the collection was a catalogue for team wear, complete with a phone number to call for ordering merch. The images in the catalogue are some of the most aggressively “new millennium” looking photos I have ever seen. With that being said, some of these fits do in fact go hard. There is nothing new under the sun, with much of this style becoming trendy again.

Things I Like

Drake’s Summer Tailoring Lookbook

I love a Drakes summer tailoring lookbook. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times. I need a seersucker suit. I also need some suede loafers. I’m having a Wes Anderson summer.