I think what you are seeing in your photo is just a reflection from the camera flash on the metallic paint. I poked around looking for another photo taken from a similar angle using a flash (no small challenge) and found this one of the London showroom car which gives a similar impression. I think the metallic blue paint on the car in your photo (chassis #022) adds to the effect.

<-- click to enlarge

The original F1 styling model had fog lights in that position and they were also carried over to the three earliest F1 prototypes. At some point in the development process McLaren determined they needed that area to allow more cooling and from that point forward they were removed. If you look up inside that recessed area you'll find a cut out which feeds air to the front brakes so it would probably be a bad idea to install foglights there.



BTW: I loved the filenames on your photos.

>8^)
ER

 

Bump needed

 

I hope I get a chance to see another Macca F1 in the flesh soon. I can still vividly remember the first time I ever saw one.

 

 

McLaren F1 GTR

 

670-SV,

Thanks for the latest pic posted of the Mclaren GTR Art Car.
This car, Chassis #5, was scheduled to go thru auction during the Le Mans Classic last July.
Any idea if it sold and for how much? Was expected to fetch around $3m.
Thanks.

 

It failed to meet the Reserve price with a high bid of €1.8M. Using a currency conversion tool and referencing values on that date that figure equates to $2,279,880.

The first presale estimate was €2.5m but I actually think they expected it would go higher initially. They later revised the estimate to a more reasonable €2.0m-2.5m. I called a 'No Sale' in advance of the auction after seeing their first estimate, primarily because GTRs have a limited base of potential customers and typically sell for less than the road cars do. €2.5m would have been the equivalent of $3,166,500 on the same date.

I think Artcurial certainly did their job marketing it well and presenting it at the LeMans Classic was an ideal venue for the car. I feel the high bid was very good money for the car considering its condition was not perfect and the fact that the car doesn't wear its original artwork that it had when it raced at LeMans (it was a repaint) which was really their primary selling point.

Apparently the auction house tried to come to terms on the car with the seller and high bidder after the auction ended but were still not able to complete the sale.

>8^)
ER

 

I cannot conceive painting over LeMans-worn paint.

 

Well the car continued racing for the remainder of the 1995 season, did several races in 1996 and 1997 and was also on the grid a few times in 1998. During that time it wore 2 other liveries associated with new sponsors. Perhaps if the car had won Le Mans there would have been good reason to preserve the original livery, but they finished a 13th overall - respectable given the team's budget but hardly history-making.

Another awkward fact about the paintwork - the artist the design is credited to, a French sculptor named César Baldaccini, never actually painted the real car. He painted a model of the car with his design and then another French artist named Filip Godet (who goes by the name "FILIP O") painted it onto the car ahead of the LeMans event. Then when it was time to restore the livery sometime between 1998 and 2001, I am told Filip repainted it. What's unfortunate is the paintwork is not identical when you compare the original to its current state.

While doing some earlier research on the artists I stumbled on these period photos of the car:



I had that first image for a very long time, but never at such a large resolution. Of the people in the second shot the man on the left is #05R's original owner, Jean Luc Maury-Laribiere, and the one in the middle next to the lady is Hervé Poulain. He was the brainchild of the BMW Art Car program in the 1970s and a former racer. He was also one of the men that competed in the car at LeMans '95. I don't recognize anyone else but assume one of the other men would be Filip. A pretty cool period photo I think.

If you can get this page to load from their website, there's a video where Poulain talks about the car with subtitles in English. Their host is slow on my end so give it some time to buffer after hitting Play.

Cookie Not Accepted | Artcurial | Briest - Poulain - F. Tajan

Poulain also acted as the auctioneer for Artcurial at their LeMans Classic event.

>8^)
ER

 

Thank you!!! I am, yet again, thoroughly impressed by you.

May I ask how you know so much about the F1?