BEST OF BRITISH: We interview Amanda McLaren

From the undulating glass walls to the polished flagstones and hushed atmosphere, McLaren's Technical Centre is one man's architectural tribute to Formula 1 and everything you need to know about him is revealed as soon as you step inside his temple.

Absolutely nothing adorns the receptionist's desk, other than a single phone and tablet. No photograph of a partner, notebook or even a mobile phone, just a spotless expanse of white marble.

Small radio blasting out Rhianna? She wouldn't dare.

Instead there's just silence.

Add McLaren's most famous race cars into the mix and it might feel, if you're an F1 fan, like you're on the verge of a spiritual experience.

Just like a church, it feels rude to break the tranquillity -- and that's just how McLaren chairman, Ron Dennis, likes it.

Or should we say "used to like it" as, since our visit, he's been ousted following a boardroom coup.

Until his enforced "gardening leave", Dennis ruled McLaren with the simple principle: noise, clutter and uncleanliness were barriers to creativity and, therefore, success in a sport that lives or dies on innovation.

Dennis' cold, calculated, unsentimental approach has, over the decades, seen him and his team reap the rewards of the one of the world's richest sports, but it would be foolish to think -- in a place that you can eat your dinner off the floor -- that McLaren lacks either heart or passion.

Passion is evident in every aspect of the 53-year-old race team and the road cars it produces. It's the hidden driving force behind its endless desire to succeed.

As for heart, look no further than Amanda McLaren -- daughter of Kiwi legend Bruce, who began the race team back in 1963.

Today the former nurse, who was born in the UK but lived most of her life in New Zealand, is beaming with pride as she gives us a tour through McLaren's private race car collection.

Knowledgeable, passionate and enthusiastic, she talks movingly of the father she lost as a young child and the joy she feels today from seeing his dreams become reality.

Now a brand ambassador for the company that bears her name, McLaren only returned to the UK three years ago after the firm's 50th celebration at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Like most great decisions, McLaren's daughter came to be employed by her dad's race team over a pint at a hotel bar with CEO Mike Flewitt, who convinced her and her husband Stephen to leave the Southern hemisphere and come to work at the car-maker.

Since then, McLaren says it has been a dream to be back in the UK with the car-maker inspired by her father.

Surprisingly, Amanda McLaren's love of F1 didn't begin in the womb but began after a chance meeting with McLaren driver and F1 pin-up, James Hunt.

Won over by the charming floppy-haired Brit, the small school girl was so in awe by the encounter she vowed to investigate the team her dad founded.

What she found stunned her and triggered her enthusiasm and love for the sport for decades to come.

Within just a few years of starting work at Woking, she's become an integral part of the operation, working with the current driver line-up and race team, as well as assisting the recent McLaren P1 GTR rollout, welcoming wealthy owners into the rigorous driver program that treats buyers as if they were real F1 drivers.

She's also become an impromptu works driver too, driving her father's original M6GT at the Goodwood revival — not an easy task without modern power steering and brake servos.

In her words, the launch of the road car brand "finally realises her father's dream" while the continuation of McLaren's participation in the sport her father Bruce loved so much "is a fabulous legacy" and a "fitting tribute".

In the end the silence in the reception is broken by laughter as McLaren chats about both the British car-maker's exciting future and her race team's colourful past, which includes 20 F1 titles, 56 CanAm race wins and victories at the Indianapolis 500, Sebring 12 Hour and Le Mans 24 Hour.

But even grumpy old Ron would've made an exception for the daughter of the Kiwi racer, designer, engineer and inventor that founded the company, wouldn't he?

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Images: Supplied thanks to Amanda and the McLaren family