Black McLaren F1 LM Picture Request

You'll have to call the Sultan of Brunei. He owns the two black ones and I don't think there are any public photos known.

 

What you are asking for is akin to asking us to find you the Holy Grail.

The photos you are looking for simply don't exist, unfortunately. Some people don't even believe that the Black LMs exist. With no photos to prove it, the skepticism is ripe with some people. There has been conflicting info released by McLaren stating that "all 5 customer LMs were painted Historic Papaya Orange." You can find it on their own website even.

The poster included with "Driving Ambition - The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1" tells a different story though - stating that two were finished in "Black + graphics". (see below)

Sadly, the only photo I have seen from Brunei showing evidence of any F1s at all was an extremely grainy shot taken from a magazine article on the collections in Brunei which just happened to capture the side of their replica of the '95 LeMans winner. At least I believe that the Sultan has the replica, built off of the GTR #09R chassis, but some have speculated that McLaren sold the Sultan the real car and kept the replica for themselves.

I'll post that grainy shot I described of the Sultan's #59 Ueno Clinic (replica) LeMans winner, along with a shot of the real car from a similar angle for those not familar with it's livery.

I'll also attach an image of the section of the Driving Ambition Chassis History poster that shows all 5 customer LMs (the LM prototype 'XP1 LM' was built at the end of 1995 and is just outside the range on this image) The Green boxes are for the '96 F1 GTRs and the white boxes are F1 road cars, since it is probably not clear. Also the row of numbers above simply shows the order/sequence that the road car chassis were completed. That's why they are blank over the GTR's and LMs.

>8^)
ER
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I've seen very few good quality ones.
best I could do:

http://img393.imageshack.us/full.php?image=f136nv.jpg
http://img393.imageshack.us/full.php?image=f1street069yw.jpg
http://img393.imageshack.us/full.php?image=f142lu.jpg

 

The first is navy and the second green.

 

Your 1st and 3rd photos are chassis #003 - originally Ron Dennis' car, now in Japan I believe - which was painted Carbon (very dark gray). The middle picture is #051 which is painted green though.

The best representation of what an all black LM would look like come from in the photos below showing chassis #072. There are a few others that come close to fitting the description - #020 now, mid-life photos of #011, and shots of #069 - but #072 is the only car with the High Downforce Kit fitted that was truly painted black.

Actually though, the black LMs weren't solid black from what I have been told. They actually had a paint scheme quite similar to the #59 LeMans winner, where the top half of the car was almost black and the lower sections of the car were dark grey.

There is an F1 road car in Japan that is painted this way as well - the chassis number is unconfirmed at this point, but I believe it may be #043. The owner is believed to be Motakazu Sayama - the man behind "Ueno Clinic". I'll attach a photo of that car as well.

>8^)
ER
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