Mclaren F1 pics

When was this picture taken, the mid 90s? This car looks pretty darn unattractive.

 

Actually I was sitting in the chair next to TVRfreak when he snapped that photo during Gordon's keynote speech at the ArtCenter Car Classic in July 2005.

Gordon described this sketch as the initial design that McLaren Cars presented to Mercedes Benz as a proposal for their first combined supercar project. In the recent EVO magazine it is referred to as the 1998 McLaren P8 which despite initial appeal from McLaren bosses was ultimately not developed or produced.

At the same time Mercedes own designers had created the Vision SLR concept and showed that car at the 1999 Detroit auto show where it was met with great praise and lots of interest from potential clients. Ultimately Mercedes chose to proceed with their concept instead of the P8 and the Mercedes McLaren SLR was born from that.

Gordon was not entirely pleased with their decision nor the development struggle that followed and it was ultimately the reason he left McLaren Cars. During his speech he relayed that when they initially put the SLR in the wind tunnel that it was so aerodynamically unstable that the rear end of the car began to lift off the ground at high speeds. He also stated that he had to battle with Mercedes engineers at every step of the way, including something as simple as trying to get them to integrate the side exhaust on the SLR, allowing for a flat floor underneath for better aerodynamics. Mercedes said they didn't do side exhaust on their cars so Gordon said he was forced to remind them where the exhaust pipes were located on the original SLR. He said his trips to Frankfurt throughout the project were always a struggle because it would be him on one side of the table and 13 engineers from different groups inside Mercedes stationed on the other. Design by committee was not his forte.

So far he has yet to release any designs for a future supercar project that I have seen. If he does do another one it will probably be great (even the SLR ended up being a dynamically exceptional car if you can get over the looks) but today's regulations and perhaps a lack of near limitless funding might keep it from surpassing the F1 in some ways.

>8^)
ER

 

Nothing to do with "The" F1 but certainly a cool video about McLaren F1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tQCXE7DDuc&feature=player_embedded

 

Explains a lot about their disastrous "Mercedes Flying Club" years at LeMans a few years ago.

 

Very interesting and informative post, thanks for sharing!

 

One point of correction on what I wrote. The concept's designation was actually P5, not P8.

To make up for my error, here are some pics of GTR 24R at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

>8^)
ER
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^^ you should make more errors, i like how you make up for them.

 

The two mclaren F1's at this years Festival of speed.
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Never noticed the difference between the exhaust configurations on the GTR and Longtails... 2x2 tips on either side of the longtail to all four tips centered. Any idea or pic of a Longtail rear section sans bodywork?

 

Here are a few - world's longest tailpipes for a mid engined car (I think).

The last two images show the longtail that was at Goodwood which has been fitted with mufflers, likely to comply with noise restrictions that are enforced at most circuits during private track days.

>8^)
ER
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Nice pics!!!

 

Do you have this in higher-res?

 

The source was McLaren Automotive's Facebook page so that's as big as it is going to get I think.

This set of photos from Drew Phillips of Autoblog might be of interest:

Goodwood 2010: Le Mans-winning McLaren F1 GTR makes an appearance

>8^)
ER

 

WOW! Check out those guts! Love the way those rear upper and lower wishbones contrast against those Carbon Fiber plenums and duct work (Titanium correct?) Love pics like these, thanks again!

 

Could you inform us to what chassis numbers those are?

 

McLaren F1 hypercar successor to arrive early in 2012

http://www.worldcarfans.com/110070827249/mclaren-f1-hypercar-successor-to-arrive-early-in-2012

 

The Gulf car is 028R, the red one 024R

 

The first one is #28R. The last two are #24R.

I'm not certain of the third image as it was taken in period and there's nothing visible in the image that sets it apart from any of the other longtails which wore the Gulf livery.

>8^)
ER

 

Thanks guys! I've only recently started to rename my F1 pics by chassis numbers, so that helped out a bunch. So far I've only been working on GT, XP# and GTRs, I'm afraid to touch the road cars

 

I leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning, will stop by Bingo Sports and see what they have, probably on Wednesday.

Website shows the GTR still available.

http://www.wintel.co.jp/wintel/owa/pspe_stock_detail1?in_categorize=0&in_group_id=&in_shopno=632-2&in_carno=51&in_mode=stocklist&in_designno=&in_cssno=&in_shop_disp=1&in_ref_page=&in_winopen=NEW&in_spc_disp=0

 

[nerd]Best way to do it - currently have over 25gb / 26.5k pics, all in their relevant folders under the chassis # and VIN # [/nerd]

 

I'm sure I missed it in this thread but who owns a red one with Idaho/Montana (?) plates?

Edit: Is it Miles Collier? I did some searching on Google and I think that's it but I find a lot of broken links. The story is these pictures were taken within the past few days in California.
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That red F1 is chassis #042 and it is owned by a Northern California man whose name is not in the public domain. At one point he also owned chassis #016 as well.

Collier owns chassis #022 and while he did take it on a trip through Montana with his wife several years ago that was documented in a Sports Car Market Letter article he wrote, his car wears Florida plates and is green in color.

>8^)
ER

 

Interesting. Do you know where it is registered? I can't tell if that's an Idaho plate or not. It looks like it, but the numbering looks different, but it may be the angle.

 

It's a Montana plate.

Here's the same one on #016.

>8^)
ER
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