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Automotive Technology
AUTOS: McLaren Marks 20th Year Of F1
Renowned British supercar remains the fastest normally aspirated production road car ever built.
McLaren Automotive lined up an unprecedented 21 of its F1 supercars at its headquarters in Woking, England, during a 20th anniversary celebration. (Photo: McLaren Automotive)
In 20 years since inception, the McLaren F1 is considered by most people to be one of the greatest cars of all time. Its exclusivity, technical innovation, racing provenance, revolutionary packaging and extraordinary driving experience have made it an icon.
The F1 is still the fastest normally aspirated production road car in the world, and the McLaren F1 GTR secured McLaren’s position as the only car manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours
This year, McLaren celebrates the 20th anniversary of the F1 from March 1990, when the team that was to create the F1 came together for the first time. Just two years later, the McLaren F1 road car was launched to the world May 28, 1992, in Monaco, with the first production car delivered to its owner in December 1993.
By 1990, McLaren was already a carbon pioneer. The McLaren Formula 1 team was the first team in Formula 1 to use a carbon-fiber chassis in 1981. Nine years later, these Formula 1 techniques were developed to create the carbon monocoque for the McLaren F1: the resulting structure weighed just 220 pounds while offering the highest levels of strength and safety. The bare carbon-fiber passenger doors weigh just 17 pounds each (which included the weight of the side intrusion beam).
The F1 defined the McLaren road car DNA: low weight, low polar moment of inertia, clever packaging, superb quality and innovative design, resulting in an outstanding driving experience.
The F1 bristles with innovative design: the central driving position, which ensures superb visibility and no compromise on control positions for the driver; the pannier side lockers providing unprecedented levels of luggage capacity in a car of this type; the patented suspension system to provide both control and ride quality.
The F1 was launched at a price of nearly $1 million in 1994, and over the course of the next four years, 64 F1, 5 F1 LM and 3 F1 GT road cars were produced, together with 28 F1 GTR race cars. An additional six prototypes were produced. In October 2008, a delivery-mileage F1 was sold at auction for about $4 million, underlining the F1’s status as one of the great motoring icons.
In 1994, after pressure from owners, McLaren developed a racing version of the F1 road car to run in the FIA GT1 category in the 1995 season. Despite a design and development period of just three months, the F1 GTR swept all before it, winning not only the 1995 GT1 Championship but the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its debut. McLaren not only won but dominated the rain-soaked endurance race, finishing in first, third, fourth, fifth and 13th places.
Thus the F1 GTR secured for McLaren a unique position in motor racing history as the only manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
McLaren decided to celebrate the extraordinary result at Le Mans by creating 5 F1 LM road cars, one for each F1 that finished this most grueling of races. Launched in McLaren Orange, as used on Bruce McLaren’s race cars the 1960s and 70s, and with a derestricted race engine, the LM is not only the most powerful of all F1 variants, but also the most valuable. Formula 1 fans will recognize this as the car which Lewis Hamilton has set his heart on owning.
In 1997, the final iteration of the F1 road car project was built. The F1 GT was built solely to fulfill the new homologation rules for the 1997 GTR race car, of which 10 examples were produced in the same year. Both the GT road car and the 1997 GTR race cars became known as the “Longtails” because of the longer front and rear overhangs for improved downforce when racing. Although McLaren only had to build one car for homologation purposes, two more were built following requests from existing F1 owners.
In 1998, with a total of 106 of all variants built and its production run complete, the McLaren F1 went on to achieve its greatest feat outside competitive motorsport. McLaren development and race driver Andy Wallace took XP5, the fifth and final prototype F1 with some 45,000 hard test miles on the clock, to the Ehra-Lessien proving ground in Germany. It was here on March 31, 1998 that the howling V12 propelled him to an amazing 240.1 mph. More than 12 years later, this remains a world record for a naturally aspirated production car.
On April 27, 2010, McLaren Automotive celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the start of the F1 program by inviting F1 owners past and present to a celebration dinner at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. During the event, the owners were treated to a display of 21 McLaren F1 road and race cars, the largest number of F1 cars ever assembled.
Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive executive chairman, said the automaker is looking ahead to a new lineup of advanced sports cars.
“With the launch of McLaren Automotive as a new car company announced in March 2010, the company begins production planning for an entire range of high performance sports, designed and built in-house by McLaren,” Dennis said. “The first in this range will be the MP4-12C.”
The 12C shares much of the design philosophy that was applied to the McLaren F1. Starting with the new car’s MonoCell – a one-piece carbon-fiber chassis that is stiff, light and ensures occupant safety – every component has been designed to ensure that the car is lightweight, nimble and able to deliver ultimate performance.
When the 12C launches in 2011, it will be the first in the “core” sports-car sector to offer a carbon chassis, and the first road car ever with a one-piece, molded carbon chassis. The car will be sold initially through 35 retailers in 19 different countries around the world from Spring 2011.
McLaren’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the F1 will continue throughout the year. McLaren enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see both the F1 and 12C together at this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes place at the famous English motorsport venue from July 2-4, 2010.
The F1 is still the fastest normally aspirated production road car in the world, and the McLaren F1 GTR secured McLaren’s position as the only car manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours
This year, McLaren celebrates the 20th anniversary of the F1 from March 1990, when the team that was to create the F1 came together for the first time. Just two years later, the McLaren F1 road car was launched to the world May 28, 1992, in Monaco, with the first production car delivered to its owner in December 1993.
By 1990, McLaren was already a carbon pioneer. The McLaren Formula 1 team was the first team in Formula 1 to use a carbon-fiber chassis in 1981. Nine years later, these Formula 1 techniques were developed to create the carbon monocoque for the McLaren F1: the resulting structure weighed just 220 pounds while offering the highest levels of strength and safety. The bare carbon-fiber passenger doors weigh just 17 pounds each (which included the weight of the side intrusion beam).
The F1 defined the McLaren road car DNA: low weight, low polar moment of inertia, clever packaging, superb quality and innovative design, resulting in an outstanding driving experience.
The F1 bristles with innovative design: the central driving position, which ensures superb visibility and no compromise on control positions for the driver; the pannier side lockers providing unprecedented levels of luggage capacity in a car of this type; the patented suspension system to provide both control and ride quality.
The F1 was launched at a price of nearly $1 million in 1994, and over the course of the next four years, 64 F1, 5 F1 LM and 3 F1 GT road cars were produced, together with 28 F1 GTR race cars. An additional six prototypes were produced. In October 2008, a delivery-mileage F1 was sold at auction for about $4 million, underlining the F1’s status as one of the great motoring icons.
In 1994, after pressure from owners, McLaren developed a racing version of the F1 road car to run in the FIA GT1 category in the 1995 season. Despite a design and development period of just three months, the F1 GTR swept all before it, winning not only the 1995 GT1 Championship but the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its debut. McLaren not only won but dominated the rain-soaked endurance race, finishing in first, third, fourth, fifth and 13th places.
Thus the F1 GTR secured for McLaren a unique position in motor racing history as the only manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
McLaren decided to celebrate the extraordinary result at Le Mans by creating 5 F1 LM road cars, one for each F1 that finished this most grueling of races. Launched in McLaren Orange, as used on Bruce McLaren’s race cars the 1960s and 70s, and with a derestricted race engine, the LM is not only the most powerful of all F1 variants, but also the most valuable. Formula 1 fans will recognize this as the car which Lewis Hamilton has set his heart on owning.
In 1997, the final iteration of the F1 road car project was built. The F1 GT was built solely to fulfill the new homologation rules for the 1997 GTR race car, of which 10 examples were produced in the same year. Both the GT road car and the 1997 GTR race cars became known as the “Longtails” because of the longer front and rear overhangs for improved downforce when racing. Although McLaren only had to build one car for homologation purposes, two more were built following requests from existing F1 owners.
In 1998, with a total of 106 of all variants built and its production run complete, the McLaren F1 went on to achieve its greatest feat outside competitive motorsport. McLaren development and race driver Andy Wallace took XP5, the fifth and final prototype F1 with some 45,000 hard test miles on the clock, to the Ehra-Lessien proving ground in Germany. It was here on March 31, 1998 that the howling V12 propelled him to an amazing 240.1 mph. More than 12 years later, this remains a world record for a naturally aspirated production car.
On April 27, 2010, McLaren Automotive celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the start of the F1 program by inviting F1 owners past and present to a celebration dinner at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. During the event, the owners were treated to a display of 21 McLaren F1 road and race cars, the largest number of F1 cars ever assembled.
Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive executive chairman, said the automaker is looking ahead to a new lineup of advanced sports cars.
“With the launch of McLaren Automotive as a new car company announced in March 2010, the company begins production planning for an entire range of high performance sports, designed and built in-house by McLaren,” Dennis said. “The first in this range will be the MP4-12C.”
The 12C shares much of the design philosophy that was applied to the McLaren F1. Starting with the new car’s MonoCell – a one-piece carbon-fiber chassis that is stiff, light and ensures occupant safety – every component has been designed to ensure that the car is lightweight, nimble and able to deliver ultimate performance.
When the 12C launches in 2011, it will be the first in the “core” sports-car sector to offer a carbon chassis, and the first road car ever with a one-piece, molded carbon chassis. The car will be sold initially through 35 retailers in 19 different countries around the world from Spring 2011.
McLaren’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the F1 will continue throughout the year. McLaren enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see both the F1 and 12C together at this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes place at the famous English motorsport venue from July 2-4, 2010.
The Lyonheart K
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