Gordon Coppuck trained as an aviation engineer and worked at the National Gas Turbine Establishment in the early 1960s. His hobby was motorcycle racing and he was quite successful in grueling endurance trials events, winning a gold medal in an international race in 1961. In 1965 he was recruited by a former colleague Robin Herd to join the design team at Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd. in 1965. He assisted Herd in designing the successful CanAm cars of the late 1960s and the less successful F1 machinery. When Herd left the company in 1968 Coppuck worked alongside Jo Marquart, producing a string of successful Formula 5000, CanAm and Indycar designs. When Marquart left in 1971 Coppuck became chief designer but chose to concentrate on designing cars for the USAC series leaving Ralph Bellamy to design the F1 machinery. Coppuck's M16 began winning races in 1971 with Mark Donohue winning both Pocono and Michigan that summer. The following year Donohue won the Indianapolis 500 and Gary Bettenhausen and Roger McCluskey added further victories for McLaren.Developments of the McLaren M16 went on winning until 1976 with McCluskey winning the National Championship in 1973, and Johnny Rutherford winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1974 and 1976.Coppuck then turned his attention to Formula 1 and designed the McLaren M23 which first appeared in 1973. It was a success with Denny Hulme winning the Swedish GP and Peter Revson winning in Britain and Canada. In 1974 Hulme was joined by Emerson Fittipaldi and the Brazilian won the World Championship with three victories while Hulme won once in Argentina. At the end of that year Hulme retired and was replaced by Jochen Mass. Fittipaldi fought Niki Lauda for the World Championship (winning twice but losing the title) while Mass won the controversial Spanish GP.Fittipaldi then quit to run his own team and James Hunt was hired to partner Mass.