+1! Stick around for awhile, Erik!

 

wow peloton! I love to read all the info, keep it coming

 

I'll stick around, but you will all have to learn to spell my name correctly. It's Erik. That includes the guy I've known for 15 years.

F1 LMs were also the most powerful of all the F1s produced originally. They had 680hp to the standard road car's 627hp. Couple that with their reduced curb weight by employing a lack of almost all creature comforts (1,062kg vs 1,140kg for a road car) and you end up with an incredibly quick car for those blasts from 80 to 200mph. With the addition of the GTRs aerodynamic package, top speed was reduced compared to the standard car, but top speed is not something you often have the opportunity to experience anyway, especially at the speed an F1 is capable of.

We can keep this going as long as anyone likes, but I do a whole lot better with questions or requests for info.

>8^)
ER

 

Hey Erik I have a Q for you. After the introduction of the F1 road car the first year, later cars were made with the aero package for greater downforce. Was the aero package an option on the regular car or just limited to the LM????

Also for our viewing pleasure I found this old video of Japans Best Motoring show.

YouTube - Mclaren F1 on Best Motoring how fast is the legend

This vid has great shots and I wish I knew japaneese but well...

Now I have another Q, what is that red button along the shifter??? It is @4:57

Now I have another observation, I see the tendency that the F1 has under heavy acceleration to lift its nose. Have to admit a 1:04.62 is fast on the Tsakuba circuit but I thought it should have been a lot faster.

Anyways I don't care I still love this car.

 

I'll try to answer a bit of your last question. If you watch the time attack video, you quite easily see that he lost a lot of time just with shifting from second to third taking very long. There seems to be something wrong with the syncros as the shifting in the F1 is normally quite slick. Besides that, the brakes seem to be weak on the lap; the driver's braking points are very early. Maybe the pads were worn by the time they did the time attack.
Then of course there's the tires that aren't comparable to the rubber on a Nissan GTR or a GT3 RS. I don't know whether there are modern tires available for the F1, but if so, the track performance would be greatly improved just by adding those. Also, even Gordon Murray himself said that the setup of the F1 is too soft for the track, having low spring rates and no rear anti-roll bar.
Considering all that, the lap time is very impressive indeed, as it is no slower than a mk1 997 GT3 RS or an R8 V10.
EVO track-tested an F1 that had 18-inch rims and modern tires and brakes added (it's the blue one seen in some pics in that thread). It clocked a lap time marginally faster than the Ferrari Enzo.

I've got a question for the McLaren experts myself: In a Fifth Gear video it was said that McLaren has performed some transformations on the F1 road cars themselves, including satnav and bluetooth phone recognition as well as modern brakes etc. Does anyone know of more work like that done by McLaren or even know the cars that were worked on?

 

this one was adverstised at £1.75m last week. looks like they have taken the price off now.

CAR MOVERS : McLaren F1

 

^ too bad it's not stateside, we need to talk Jamie into getting one.

Also, sorry about the misspelling, Erik.

 

No worries on the name - I just figured I'd mention it before it started to spread.

The 'High Downforce Kit' as it is called, or "LM Kit" as some refer to it as, has been fitted to at least 10 F1 road cars over the years as an upgrade. To my knowledge, no F1 road car was fitted with it originally - I believe that every single one was done as a refit. Two of those 10 - chassis #018 and #073 - were also upgraded by fitting an LM spec engine to the car as well, creating the most unique and rare variant of the F1. Chassis #018 is now in New Zealand and the other one is here in the USA, perhaps in Northern California now.

That's a great video. I had a friend from high school who was big into everything Japanese and he would drive into LA to Little Tokyo about once a month and rent the Best Motoring videos. I recall watching that one when it came out, and being equally frustrated with the inability to understand most of what they were saying. It was definitely one of those videos that fueled my passion for the car and I actually managed to locate an original copy of the VHS tape and have it in my collection now.

That's the ejection seat button - he's telling his passenger that if he doesn't stop asking annoying questions, he'll use it.

Actually that's the engine start button. You put the key in and turn it on - the ECU does a diagnostics check, and then after a few second you can flip up the cover and hold that button while the engine fires up.

Rage did an excellent job with the explanation. Definitely tires play a big role as the F1 in that video would have been wearing fairly old tire technology in the form of the Goodyear Eagle F1s that the F1s initially came with. I'm not sure exactly when, but eventually McLaren worked with Michelin to develop a special version of the Pilot Sport for the F1 as well, and that seems to be the tire of choice now for most owners.

The brakes on the F1, while state of the art from a components perspective for 1992, are no match for some of the newer braking technologies available. Murray wanted to use carbon brakes on the F1, primarily for the weight savings they would offer, but also to be the first road car to have them, but at the time they hadn't been able to find a suitable solution for them operating effectively at cold temperatures, so he had to let that one go. I'm fairly surprised that McLaren have never seemed to have an interest in developing a brake upgrade for the cars, but it would be a fairly massive undertaking to sort through all the testing and safety items once more and ensure that everything worked together in harmony. The brakes on the F1 are also unassisted requiring a firm and confident right foot to slow the car down.

Another thing to keep in mind is we don't know how many laps the driver was given to familiarize himself with the car. The idea of pushing a car worth $50,000 to its limits on the track also comes a little easier than when the car is worth 20 times that or more.

>8^)
ER

 

There are many cars that have unique or personalized options done at the request of an owner. Some cars have radios with a retractable aerial antenna, plenty of them have satellite navigation, though I can not guarantee that all of those units are factory installed. There are built in Valentine 1 radar detectors, HID headlamps, an upgraded radiator set, upgrade air conditioner, a few different exhaust options, and all sorts of personal touches that can be applied by the factory for an appropriate fee. It's gotten to the point where there are really very few bone stock, standard F1 road cars out there anymore.

I think we'd see a lot less of that if the cars were not still supported by the factory, but it is kind of suprising that whatever change a new owner seems to make to the car, the values aren't impacted because the next owner can also send the car back and have their own desires met, at least for now.

>8^)
ER

 

Thanks Erik. Another one, for the owners of the F1 in the US, for every check up and maintenance , the car has to be sent to UK or does McLaren send a certified mechanic, or maybe both????