McLaren F1 crashed on the Autobahn

I'm sure Peloton will be along shortly to tell us all about the car, but if what I've learned from reading his posts is correct, the high wing mirrors make this a rare F1.

Such a shame but it can likely be fixed.

 

Good thing is it sounds like noone hurt - the car can and no doubt will be fixed!!

 

That is a special order F1 with BMW Z1 mirrors. IIRC It has specially made wheels in 19-inch size

 

Oh dear... that's a shame. At least it doesn't look like the crash was severe enough to injure anyone.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

That'll be quite the repair bill. Does McLaren still have spare parts lying around?

 

According to a german online newspaper, the driver is a 61 year old from New York.
No one was injured.

 

yes. And if they don't they make them. The F1 program is still alive and well.


From my understanding (which is limited) they produced 2 with high mirrors...

One was Rons first car... then Rons 2nd car. Rons first car was brown... so I am pretty sure it has been repainted... but thats just guess

 

Peleton25, is this Flemke's car?

 

It does look like that particular F1, doesn't it...
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Yes, here is his post about the incident on pistonheads

 

Thanks for that update Speedy! Sad that the car was damaged, but great that it was being used!!

 

I blame those wheels, it is an interesting color though.

Glad to hear everyone was ok.

 

Good to hear the car can be repaired and no injuries

Lovely car IMHO

 

Nice to see he's taking it in his stride. I hope he's back on the road in his McLaren soon.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

A few years ago this f1 was parked at a garage near nurburgring Germany, they told me that the mirrors cost 50.000GPB to change, because they have to stay on the car at topspeed.

 

I think Flemke retro fitted the mirrors himself because he preferred the position, they were not originial on that car. IIRC the mirrors are taken from a US production car and modified to fit. The car has been to the 'ring on a few occassions and there is some Youtube footage IIRC.

The Gold wheels were a temporary solution I believe the wheels are different now (black), the different wheels allowed the owner to use Enzo sized tyres on the F1.

The F1 is due back at Woking for repair in August 2010 I believe

 

Sorry to be late to the party here.

First thing to address - the high mirrors are original to this blue car. In fact this was the very first F1 fitted with them based on a request by the car's first owner who preferred the look they gave the original styling model of the F1. If not for his insistence there probably wouldn't be any cars with them.

As confirmed above, unfortunately this is Flemke's car and the chassis number for those who care is 040. The high mirrors were based on the component borrowed from the BMW Z1 Roadster as BlueBiturbo identified. The color on this car was originally Magnesium Silver, but flemke chose to have it resprayed in the blue you see after his purchase. He's been openly considering another respray of the car for several years but had yet to choose a color he felt would be better than the blue it currently wears. This incident may push that process forward.

There are a total of 5 McLaren F1s that were fitted with high mirrors. The other chassis numbers are #050 in silver which is Ron Dennis' personal F1, #055 & #074 both silver which belong to Ralph Lauren, and finally #071 which was the only papaya orange McLaren F1 road car that was built. That car is still with its original owner in Germany.

According to flemke, three cars were originally fitted with high mirrors and the other two cars had a new set of doors built so that the high mirrors could be retro-fitted. The cars that definitely wore them from the original build were #040 and #071, and I believe the third was #074. There is a slight chance that #050 was originally built with the high mirrors and not #074, but I had heard that Ralph Lauren only had one new set of doors made.

Here are images of the 5 high-mirrored F1s I've pieced together.

McLaren F1 #040

McLaren F1 #050

McLaren F1 #055

McLaren F1 #071

McLaren F1 #074

To clear up the confusion on Ron's cars - #039 was the first car he had built in the color of brown similar to a UPS freight truck. He decided very shortly after it was completed that it was not to his liking and decided to pass it on. That car is believed to be in Mexico now with #050 built as the replacement. Ron was also credited as the early owner of #003 in several publications, but for whatever reason he doesn't count that one as ever being his?

If I left anything out or created additional questions, let me know.

>8^)
ER

 

Erik,

Thanks again for your input on everything McLaren. Ron Dennis and Ralph Lauren's cars are just amazing. But that Papaya Orange is just stunning. Sorry to hear about Flemke's car.

 

kudos for driving it! you know what? If you drive with any brio at all something will eventually happen and we all at most rent even our most prized possessions. Better a wound than to sit gathering dust and with all moving parts slowly petrifying.

 

are there more papaya orange cars now? it seems like there are 2 or maybe 3 of them... maybe they are McClaraen orange?

 

There was a F1 McLaren written off in Australia or New Zealand that was repaired under insurance ... this is very minor compared to that car.

That McLaren became the centre piece of the insurance companies ads for a while in magazines, ie. they paid for the repairs which were over the million dollars ...
Pete

 

Glad to hear noone was hurt.

Such a shame, glad it can be fixed.

 

As far as standard F1 road cars go, #071 remains the only one painted in papaya orange. In relation to the F1 the color is also termed "Historic Orange" and with the new MP4-12C they've named the color "McLaren Orange".

There are three other road cars which are 'orange', one with the High Downforce Kit, but the color on each of those is a bold metallic more towards the red end of the color spectrum. Pictured below is one of those three with McLaren's new car. The F1s color is called Yquem, named after a French dessert wine, and the color of the 12C is "Volcano Orange"

4 out of the 6 F1 LMs were painted papaya orange and there are currently 5 F1 GTRs which have been converted for road use and resprayed in the color to give them the look of an LM.

Last but not least there was one longtail F1 GTR that was resprayed in papaya orange and raced in the British GT series in 1999. In the past year it was sold and the rumor is that it's in the process of being restored to its original Yellow/Blue livery.

>8^)
ER
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And it still looks better than a MP4.