Rowan Atkinson 'Mr. Bean' crashed his McLaren F1
Aug 5, 2011 | 11:02 PM
#31
Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 2,710
From: Austin, TX
One more point - McLaren patched this car back together in 2009/2010 for a US owner after a serious fire in the rear of the car without needing to build a new tub for it:
Many of the same items were damaged and one could even argue that the heat of the fire caused more damage with the delaminating layers of carbon fiber than this accident would have. The rebuild of this car (#067) was reported on in a story that was published in SCM in October 2010:
A McLaren F1’s Rise from the Ashes
An interesting read.
>8^)
ER
Many of the same items were damaged and one could even argue that the heat of the fire caused more damage with the delaminating layers of carbon fiber than this accident would have. The rebuild of this car (#067) was reported on in a story that was published in SCM in October 2010:
A McLaren F1’s Rise from the Ashes
An interesting read.
>8^)
ER
Aug 5, 2011 | 11:44 PM
#32
McLaren Fanatic
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,578
From: California, USA
Lots of F1s in the UK, Europe and Japan have them. I do think that is the only US F1 I've ever seen wearing one - at least a US plate anyway. There are at least three here that wear their former foreign plates in the front and their US plate in the rear. Don't ask me how that works. 
>8^)
ER
>8^)
ER
Aug 6, 2011 | 02:52 AM
#36
Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,691
That section is a luggage compartment and forward of that you will find the remote oil tank. The F1's body and chassis were made from something like 4,000 individual pieces of carbon, cut out and glued together before being baked in an autoclave to form the rigid structures. It is very feasible for McLaren to cut out damaged sections and glue in new ones in order to repair an F1 tub. McLaren are experts with carbon fiber having pioneered the technology in Formula One and certainly over the years they have needed to repair quite a few carbon chassis including many of the McLaren F1s. I don't doubt it will be difficult to repair this one, but I'd be quite surprised if they could not salvage this tub.
. 4000 pieces is certainly a lot, but once they're autoclaved, the rigidity of the structure can transmit kinetic energy to the opposite side of the tub. This is one reason why the cf tubs in modern supercars mainly comprise the passenger area with front and rear bulkheads made out of metal bolted on each end.Like you said, Mclaren are masters of cf, I guess we'll have to wait and see on this one. I'm curious how much it'll cost to put back together, 200? 300K? Maybe more...?
In this photo the entire aft section on the passenger side is missing behind the bulkhead, and obviously the engine was also torn free of the monocoque. I'm not too familiar with the criteria for repair/retub that Mclaren has, but if it was an Enzo or Carrera GT, there would be a new tub.
Aug 6, 2011 | 03:13 AM
#37
McLaren Fanatic
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,578
From: California, USA
This photo below shows chassis #009 which was crashed in 1999 in Australia by a mechanic at the BMW service facility who looked after the car. It resulted in what was reported to be Australia's largest insurance pay out for a motor car at nearly $1M AUD to get the car put back together for its owner.
I know I'm quoting myself, but I thought this was funny. I just realized both sides of the car are the passenger side. I meant the right side.
>8^)
ER
