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All articles filed under mclaren

Fancy a Brand New McLaren F1?

This is a good option: a 1997 McLaren F1 in Dandelion Yellow that’s clocked just 239km (149mi) and still wears its factory-applied sheath of plastic over the Alcantara interior. This is as close to buying the car brand new from McLaren in the ‘90s as you’re going to get, and if you’re the kind of person who geeks out deeply over OEM accessories, prepare to have this car stuck in your head for a while.

As beautiful as it is, it’s criminal that F1 #060 has not been driven and enjoyed.

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The story behind the McLaren F1 and its record-breaking 240.1mph top speed

391km/h back in 1998.

The hairs on my neck are standing on end.

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My Daily is a McLaren P1

A masterpiece profile of a McLaren-owner of the best kind.

In Tokyo we meet Go Hiramatsu, a lawyer who uses his McLaren P1 for the daily commute - and also takes it into the mountain passes at the weekend.

My hero.

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Driving Ambition: The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1

Increasingly hard to find and getting expensive on the secondary market, this 272-page historical tome tells the inside and official tale of the genesis of the supercar of supercars, the McLaren F1.

This history of the McLaren F1 explains how the McLaren Cars’ team pursued their quest for perfection to create the fastest road car in the world - setting the record at 240.1mph in 1998. The book has been created with the full support and involvement of McLaren Cars.

Authors Doug Nye, Ron Dennis, and Gordon Murray provide a most intimate account of McLaren’s immense effort to produce the F1, including never seen before design sketches, stories and interviews, patent applications, plus photos of early prototypes and models used during the F1’s intense development program.

Available in hardcover via Amazon.

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BMW x McLaren Supercar for 2019?

CAR Magazine has the scoop on early talks of a collaboration between BMW and McLaren to develop a proper supercar for the Munich marque.

BMW is developing a mid-engined supercar with a V8 engine – and is in talks with McLaren to put the car into production. CAR can reveal that the top secret flagship is scheduled for a Frankfurt show unveiling in exactly two years’ time, if talks with Britain’s supercar specialists are successfully concluded.

Last time these two got together, they made McLaren F1 babies. Good times ahead if this story holds any water.

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The GT3 Class of 2016

dailysportscar.com preview next years crop of new and revised GT3 sportscars.

Looks like 2016 is going to be another banner year for the ever expanding category.

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BAC Mono vc McLaren P1 Track Battle

Lightweight sportscar (Mono) vs a Mack Daddy modern hypercar (P1) at a track day around the Silverstone International Circuit.

Both drivers seem to to be giving it everything, so fascinating to see the difference in straight line speed, entry/corner/exit speeds between these two very different though both very rapid cars.

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Peter Stevens Reflects on the 1995 Le Mans Race with McLaren

Designer Peter Stevens reflects on turning the McLaren F1 into the GTR and taking it to Le Mans back in 1995:

It has often been repeated that the car was not designed to be a racecar, but I always thought that, with the GT regulations of that time, it was clearly well suited to become a competitive racer. The road version had gone from early sketch ideas to a finished design that was expensive, but with a wonderful engine from BMW it was well received by the press, public and customers. Two of those customers, Thomas Bscher and Ray Bellm suggested to McLaren that the F1 would make a good racecar for the BPR. McLaren quickly developed a race version, which, by the company’s own admission, was little changed from the road car

Don’t miss this article for early design sketches of what would become the iconic supercar.

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Drawn from Memory: The Story Behind the McLaren F1 Owner's Handbook

As his first job at McLaren Automotive Mark Roberts, now Design Operations Manager, was given the task of illustrating the owner’s handbook for their forthcoming McLaren F1 supercar.

Hardly anyone’s ever seen it. It’s only a few lucky owners of the car who’s ever seen these things and I’m sure those owners would just go and put it on their bookshelf. It’s not the sort of thing they’d have onboard in their car. I like to think of it as an art book; it’s like a nice coffee table book that you can look through that happens to be very informative for the owner as well.

I knew it was going to be something special but, just like the car, we had no idea how legendary the whole program was going to be.

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Chris Harris drives the new McLaren 675LT

An all too brief jaunt around Silverstone behind the wheel of the new McLaren 675LT, LT for ‘Longtail’.

Think of it as McLaren’s 458 Speciale to the 458 version of their 650S; only 500 made, all sold; more aero; wider track, lower suspension; upwards of 100kg weight savings (down to a dry-weight of just 1,230kg) thanks to plastic rear window, titanium exhaust, lightweight suspension components and more; faster steering ratio; trick Pirelli P Zero Trofeo tyres; plus that extra 25bhp from an engine that shares only 50% of the components from its 650S brethren.

What does he think?

Dare I say it, it just feels like a slightly baby P1.

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McLaren F1 — The details

Gold foil this, titanium that, Lotus Elan indicators, tail lights from a bus, and Gordon Murray’s favourite bracket. evo’s Henry Catchpole sweats the details of the McLaren F1.

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McLaren F1 vs McLaren P1

evo’s Henry Catchpole pitches the classic McLaren F1 against its modern P1 iteration along the mighty D2 in the Var region of southeastern France.

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McLaren F1 — Le Mans Memories

An interview with Ray Bellm covering the creation and early success of the McLaren F1 GTR.

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Rowan Atkinson has decided to sell his McLaren F1

After 17 years, 41,000 miles and two big offs, Rowan Atkinson has decided the time is right to part with his unique dark burgundy red McLaren F1.

Why?

I bought it for the quality of the thinking behind it. Now it has become a thing of value, it is time for someone else to enjoy it.

Read on for some great insights into owning the supercar of supercars, as told by a true enthusiast.

Located somewhere in the UK; to be sold through Taylor & Crawley.

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Why full-scale clay models still best digital modelling

Peter Stevens, designer of the McLaren F1, on why hand-formed models still have a place in today’s automotive design studio:

It is important to remember that the computer, whilst being a useful tool, is just a box filled with wires, plastic and sand; there are no ideas inside that enclosure. They are in the designer’s head and in the sculptor’s hands.

Worth a view for the included clay model photos alone.

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McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 Spyder. Which is fastest?

evo’s Jethro Bovingdon gets behind the wheel of two of the latest breed of hybrid-hypercars and has a thrash around the Anglesey Ciruit in Wales to find out which is the faster of the two.

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The McLaren P1 GTR Programme

McLaren introduces their trackday programme for extremely well-heeled customers.

Sounds similar to the Ferrari FXX programme, though McLaren contend that they’re not following trends and they don’t mimic.

If only there were a GT1-style race series for cars like this, kind of a shame to see the hallowed GTR plate attached to a car that won’t get a chance to compete at Le Mans.

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McLaren F1: The Inside Story

The September 2014 issue of CAR magazine features an in-depth interview with two key designers of the iconic McLaren F1: Peter Stephens and Gordon Murray.

Gordon Murray on getting commitment from suppliers for the project:

“We’re going to build the best engineered car in the world and the best driver’s car in the world, can’t tell you a thing about it at all, but if you want to come on board I need all this stuff for free”.

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Orange and Silver: The Colour of all McLaren's GTR 'Number Ones'

Great little back story of the colour scheme used for McLaren’s recently shown P1 GTR concept.

Speaks volumes about the quality of the McLaren F1 chassis that they took a road-car, modified it to GTR-spec, used it as a development hack to test the GTR concept, took it to Le Mans and won first time out.

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McLaren F1 vs analogue rivals

evo magazine pits the iconic McLaren F1 against its contemporary and more modern ‘analogue’ supercar rivals.

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The McLaren P1 Photo Thread

A good number of the 375 P1’s delivered thus far appear to be represented.

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McLaren P1 Test. Director’s Commentary

The full version of Chris Harris’s interview with McLaren Chief Test Driver, Chris Goodwin.

All 28 minutes of it, snippets of which you would have heard in Harris’s earlier review of said P1 XP7.

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The McLaren P1 Test. On Road and Track

Yes it’s another Chris Harris video. Yes, we’ve been posting lots of these. How could we possibly go past one of the first drives of the much anticipated McLaren P1 (XP7 in this case), especially with Harris behind the wheel, let loose on the roads of Abu Dhabi, and off the leash around the Yas Marina GP circuit.

Includes some fantastic insight into the development and capabilities of this new breed of supercar from McLaren Chief Test Driver, Chris Goodwin.

A whole new thing.

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evo vs. Porsche 911 GT3

evo’s comprehensive video review of Porsche’s new 991-generation 911 GT3.

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Jay Leno extracts the engine from his McLaren F1

To replace a leaking VANOS unit. In his shop.

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McLaren F1 Omnibus

Everything you ever wanted to know about the McLaren F1 and then some. Split over at least four volumes, this latest one is up to 425 pages…

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