He was the first, and is currently the only New Zealander to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and it all started in an MG TF 1500 Denny Hulme bought to go hill-climb racing in the Papamoa Hills as a teenager.
The car will be one of three formerly owned by Denny that will be part of the Te Puke Christmas Float Parade on December 2. The parade will celebrate 50 years since the boy from Pongakawa won the F1 World Championship in 1967.
Denny died of a heart attack 25 years ago, driving a BMW M3 during the Bathhurst 1000 race in Australia.
Te Puke motor sport enthusiast Richard McNair has been campaigning for a memorial for Denny, who received an OBE, and his father Clive Hulme, a Victoria Cross recipient, for some time and was pleased to be approached to help organise the tribute parade.
Richard has arranged to borrow Denny's MG TF 1500, now with Denny's widow in Rotorua, and the 1973 McLaren M23 race car which Denny once owned, which now belongs to Sir Colin Giltrap, for the parade.
Denny's sister, Anita Hulme, still lives in Te Puke and will also be lending the Austin Mini her brother used to drive when he lived in London.
All of the cars will be towed on trailers, with Anita possibly towing the Mini behind her uncle's 1971 Chrysler Valiant.
Anita, herself a keen driver, has fond memories of her and her famous older brother competing in gymkhanas with the Tauranga Car Club at Mount Drury.
'They were just simple little things like having stakes in the ground with grapefruit on it,” says Anita. 'Your passenger would spear it with a piece of wire, and then you'd reverse back and put it in the box and then go up and stop at the next one.
'It was quite fun really. We both did flying and standing quarter miles on the Kairua straight.”
Anita also remembers buying Denny his first pair of racing overalls, which she picked up in a racing shop in London and sent back to New Zealand.
Denny joined her in Europe with fellow Kiwi driver George Lawton after they were chosen for the New Zealand Driver to Europe programme. George later died in Denny's arms after he crashed at the Formula 2 Danish Grand Prix in 1960.
Anita describes her brother as a man 'who didn't suffer fools gladly”, which accounted for his nickname The Bear.
She recalls his reaction when he was asked how he was feeling after a crash on the race track.
'How do you think I bloody feel after skidding along on my head at 150 miles an hour?”
During his career, Denny drove the most powerful cars of his era. He raced in F1, F2, Indycars, Saloon/Touring Cars, CanAm and endurance races, all during the same season. After retiring from F1, he even drove in truck races.
The Seeka Te Puke Christmas Float Parade and Multicultural Food Festival celebrating Denny Hulme will be held on Jellicoe Street, Te Puke on Saturday, December 2 from 10.30am-1.30pm. The parade starts at 11am.
Floats will be judged within their category based on the theme of Denny's life and achievements, with a prize giving ceremony outside the post office directly after the parade.