Mclaren F1 pics

Erik, could you post those Ameritech pictures when you receive them? I'm sure a lot of us here would like to see those

 

I like to joke around that my coverage area is only North America, as that is my primary interest - knowing which cars are here in the USA, where (approximately) they live, and also who might own them.

Of course I try to pay attention to wherever any F1s are in the world as they do move around more often than some might imagine and you never know when a car from Japan might appear here in the USA or vice versa.

Recently there was an F1 that had been in the USA, but showed in Macau on display in a casino in the new City of Dreams. An FChatter was headed there and brought back some great pictures for me which allowed me to confirm which chassis number it was, as up to that point it had been a small mystery. I had known the car was offered for sale a few years earlier, but didn't know whether it was still here or not. Once I could confirm that it was the Macau car, I was able to scratch another one off my list for the USA.

I would never say that there isn't a McLaren in Luxembourg, because we don't know the exact whereabouts of every single one. What I will say is that the question of Luxembourg has come up a couple of times over the years, and there's never been anyone who could identify an F1 living there or offer any details. Maybe we just weren't talking to the right people? If you have heard of one there, that would certainly be new information.

It will be up to Steve, but he seems to be agreeable to share, so not a problem from my perspective once I get the pics.

>8^)
ER

 

I only asked you because he said he was having a hard time uploading pics. Otherwise I would have asked him directly

 

Whatever happened to the one owned by the Gonzalez brothers? It was black and had a high downforce kit and was displayed at the Blackhawk Museum in California for a while. Anyone know?

 

I've been told that the family still has the car and that it is in longterm storage somewhere in the Western US.

It is chassis #072 - here's one image I have of it while displayed at the Blackhawk which might just be the worlds worst place to try and take pictures.

>8^)
ER
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Any more pictures of any of the longtail GT's for road use? And any idea where they are?

 

The F1 GT prototype was chassis 56XPGT, painted Silverstone Green and may still be in storage with McLaren, or it may have finally found a home somewhere as for a while it was for sale. In a lot of photos it appears black which can get confusing because one of the customer GTs was painted black. Some pictures of it are back in this post. And I'll add a few more below - all taken by photographer Colin Curwood for the F1 GT brochure I mentioned a few posts back.

Note how the car looks black in most of those photos - I promise it's green. It was also originally built with a red interior as you can see from one of the pictures, but not too long after that was replaced with the tan one you see in the last image.

I'll cover the customer GTs in the next post.

>8^)
ER
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The Blackhawk collection only displays a fifth of the cars it owns at a time. The rest are stored in Nevada somewhere. Perhaps the F1 is there...

I am just speculating but I do have some sources so maybe I will be able to get confirmation at some point. If so I will let you know.

 

54F1GT was the black one and it went to Brunei where it remains today. There is only one real image of it that I have ever seen completed, and it appears in this post along with a shot of the three F1 GTs being assembled at the factory.

58F1GT belongs to Yoshio Tsuzuki in Nagoya, Japan and is kept in the ZAZ Museum. It was originally painted Burgundy and had a tan interior, but was refitted by the factory for its owner and now wears a paint scheme that is quite similar to the McLaren/West Formula One cars from the Hakkinen era. The interior was redone as well, and in the limited photos I have seen of it, I think it is the best F1 interior yet.

Here are some images of 58F1GT in its two looks. The LM in the 4th and 7th shot is LM2, also with the same owner and kept in the ZAZ Museum.

>8^)
ER
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It would be great to get some more information on the car.

The last photos I have of it on display at the Blackhawk were taken in June 2002. I have another pair of images of the car outside a storage company in an unknown location that came to me about two years later. There are a few trucks in the background of those shots, but it isn't possible to see the license plate on any of them.

I don't believe this car was ever owned by the Blackhawk Collection though. If you don't know the story of why it was there, this snippet of an article from Feb 2003 will help explain it.

Shame for anyone to lose their life to cancer at such a young age - he was just 35.

>8^)
ER

 

How old/young was he?

 

Sorry, just realized the article snippet didn't include his age, so I edited it in as you were posting.

>8^)
ER

 

Interesting. So there are still a few missing Mcf1. Do you have any Mcf1 living in France ?

 

I don't know of any living in France. There is one F1 enthusiast named Phillipe from France who is always looking for a French F1.

Juan Barazi's silver #046 has been spotted there previously, but I don't know if it ever lives there and the registration it wears is from the UK.

His race team's website is written in French, but that may have more to do with his partner Michel Lecomte?

http://www.barazi-epsilon.fr/sport.html

>8^)
ER

 

Haha, Philippe is my friend and is crazy in love with the F1. He said there is one somewhere in Paris in an underground parking. I have seen Barazi's car in front of the crillon Hotel.

What about the GTR that shows up every now and then at the Paul Ricard for track days ?

 

As for 'unknown F1s' they fall into a two categories for me.

There are a couple of chassis numbers we really know nothing about. Those would be #049, #052 (we do have build photos), #057, #066. Three of those cars are silver, so we could have seen them and just not known. Most of the unidentified F1 pics I have are silver.

Then there are some cars that have been seen at one point in their lives (in certain cases - rather well known) and then have kind of fallen off the map. Chassis #072 of Thomas Gonzales which we were just discussing is one of those cars. The others I would put into this category are #012 which we believe is the 'TagHeuer' F1 used in the BestMotoring videos; #033 if it was truly rebuilt after its crash; #039, believed to be the brown F1 in Mexico; #048, in build photos and spotted once in Cannes; and finally the other yellow F1, chassis #060, probably still in plastic in Japan.

For GTRs - #02R, #03R, #04R, and #22R have not been seen in quite a long time. Chassis #02R is supposed to be in storage in the UK. #04R may still exist - perhaps I will know something new on it soon. Thomas Bscher owned #03R and #22R last we knew.

The Brunei F1s could all qualify for the second list too, but at least we know where they're at and reports are that they won't be going anywhere soon. We did find out in the past year that other than a few flat tires on GTR #09R, that the F1s are being well kept over there which put to rest some fears that they might all be in very sad shape.

>8^)
ER

 

Very nice to know.

Barazi is one of those owners that is not afraid to use his F1, so he gets big kudos from me on that. I'm not so sure I could live with that car's BLUE interior, but if it suits him, then that is great.

If I am being totally honest, I'd live with that brown one in Mexico if someone would let me have it.

That is GTR #05R. I have been told the owner is Patrick Caternet, and he was one of the drivers of that GTR when they were still competing, but I would consider that info to be unconfirmed at this point.

Not sure exactly where that car is kept, but when it comes out it is often in a transporter with Noel Del Bello racing on the side. Google says they are located in Jujurieux, Ain - so perhaps that should be noted as an F1 in France too.

>8^)
ER

 

Dude, it doesn't look that bad! You should post up the pics (I don't have anymore on my computer with me here ). It looks pretty good in my opinion! I think we should all go down to Mexico and take it and make sure it lives a better life. I mean, sure, drug lords may put us on their hit list and US Customs might have an issue with it, but we got to save it!

 

Okay - here they are.

I do think a license plate frame that reads "What can Brown do for you?" would be a fitting addition.

As for going in on a rescue mission - Ummm... you go first okay?

>8^)
ER
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^^that looks pretty cool...can't tell if it's metallic or not (I hope it is). Okay, off to Mexico, brb.

 

Bscher still owns them ?

I cant believe that Brunei still has so many cars. Those will be amazing "barn find' whenever they will let these cars out.

 

I can't remember the Fchat user, I think "wesper" or something like that. He has a bunny as his avatar I think. Anyway, he says more cars have left Brunei than most think and that the good stuff has already left (including F1s or something like that). Again, those aren't his exact quotes, but I remember him saying something like that and me not believing it entirely since I haven't seen those other Brunei F1s popup anywhere. Maybe one of the longtail GTs is in the UK (not the McLaren prototype).

 

He told me he still had them both when I spoke with him in the Bugatti booth at the LA Auto Show in 2006. Not sure if that remains true today.

Al - there was a user here on FChat and at SC.net that confirmed the McLarens were still there as of June of last year. His quote from SC.net while listing other cars he saw:

"F1 Mclaren LM1,LM4,LM5,GT-BLACK, GTR-#09R & 2 standard models"

The '2 standard models' were later identified by color as being grey and blue, so #002 and #008. That leaves chassis #004 and #005 MIA, and of course we know where #014 ended up.

>8^)
ER

 

Yes, familiar with the story, thanks anyway. I wasn't implying that it was part of the Blackhawk collection...but if the family has left it in limbo while they figure out what to do with it or if they are simply unable to get around to dealing with it because of other concerns, it is possible that it is still sitting in a corner somewhere under someone else's stewardship. These things happen, and if you are dealing with the loss of a loved one, attending to or disposing of a car (no matter what kind of car it is) can sometimes take a backseat for years. I agree that it's a long shot, as chances are that even if it has not been sold, it's sitting in a garage/warehouse/hangar somewhere that belongs to the family, not Blackhawk's owner. But stranger things have been known to happen (*cough* Mexico F1*cough*).

 

Yes - all that could be true. They may be holding onto it for sentimental value as well.

Many years ago, I contacted the Blackhawk to inquire about the car in hopes of seeing it and their only answer was that it had been gone for several years. Of course I was a 'nobody' asking, so maybe a 'somebody' could get more detail.

>8^)
ER