McLaren & F1 Mclaren Cars

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The McLaren F1 is a supercar engineered and produced by McLaren Cars, a subsidiary of the British McLaren Group that, among others, owns the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. The car features a 6.1-litre 60° V12 BMW V12 engine and it was conceived as an exercise in creating what its designers hoped would be considered the ultimate road car. Only 100 cars were manufactured, 64 of those were street versions, 5 were LMs, 3 were GTs and the rest were GTR models. Production began in 1994 and ended in 1998.

The McLaren F1 was the fastest production car ever built (having achieved a top speed of 240.14 mph, 386.5 km/h) until surpassed in 2005 by the Koenigsegg CCR, and then the Bugatti Veyron in 2006.

Chief engineer Gordon Murray’s design concept was a common one among designers of high-performance cars: low weight and high power. This was achieved through use of high-tech and expensive materials like carbon fiber, titanium, gold and magnesium. The F1 was the first production car to use a carbon-fiber monocoque.

A pair of Ultima MK3 kit cars, chassis numbers 12 and 13, the last two MK3s, were used as “mules” to test various components and concepts before the first cars were built. Number 12 was used to test the gearbox with a 7.4 litre Chevrolet V8 to mimic the torque of the BMW V12, plus various other components like the seats and the brakes. Number 13 was the test of the V12, plus exhaust and cooling system. When McLaren was done with the cars they destroyed both of them to keep away the specialist magazines and because they did not want the car to be associated with “kit cars”.

The car was first unveiled at a launch show on May 1992, the original prototype (XP1) remained the same as the production version except the wing mirror which was mounted at the top sill of the door which was deemed not road legal as there were no indicators at the front, McLaren was forced to make changes on the car as a result (some cars, including Ralph Lauren’s were sent back to McLaren and fitted with the prototype mirrors). The original wing mirrors also incorporated a pair of indicators which car manufacturers as well as an aftermarket company would adopt several years later. The car’s safety levels were first proved when during a testing in Namibia in April 1993, a test driver wearing just shorts and t-shirt hit a rock and rolled the first prototype car several times. The driver managed to escape unscathed. Later in the year, the second prototype (XP2) was especially built for crash-testing and passed with the front wheelwell untouched.

The engine:
Murray insisted that the engine for this car be normally-aspirated to increase reliability and driver control. Turbochargers and superchargers increase power but they increase complexity and can decrease reliability as well as the ability of the driver to maintain maximum control of the engine. BMW’s motorsport division BMW M custom-built a 6.1 L (6064 cc) 60-degree V12 BMW S70B56 engine with aluminium alloy block and head, 86 mm x 87 mm bore/stroke, quad overhead camshafts for maximum flexibility of control over the four valves/cylinder and chain drive for the camshafts for maximum reliability. The resulting engine was slightly heavier than Murray had originally specified but also considerably more powerful.

The McLaren F1′s engine compartment contains the mid-mounted BMW S70B56 engine and uses gold foil as a heat shield in the exhaust compartment. The carbon fibre body panels and monocoque required significant heat insulation in the engine compartment and so Murray’s solution was to coat the engine bay with the most efficient heat-reflector: gold foil. Approximately 25 g (0.8 ounce) of gold was used in each car.

The road version used a compression ratio of 11:1 to produce 627 PS at 7400 rpm. Torque output 480 ft•lbf (651 N•m) at 5600 rpm. Other, more highly tuned, incarnations of the F1 produced up to 680 hp. The engine has a redline and rev limiter at 7500 rpm.

From 1998 to 1999, the Le Mans winning BMW V12 sports car used a similar S70B56 engine.

Power:

There is some disagreement on the topic of power output. Most sources, including McLaren themselves, report output at “627 horsepower”. However, it is unclear whether this is metric horsepower (often represented as “PS” from the German Pferdestärke) or imperial horsepower. Since the McLaren’s engine was built by BMW, either unit could have been used – European carmakers tend to measure output in metric horsepower while their British counterparts tend to use Imperial horsepower. Therefore, the German company BMW may have used either measurement for an engine to be delivered to British company McLaren. The kilowatt (kW) is sometimes used as a reference, as it is unambiguous, but in the case of the McLaren, output in kilowatts has been given as both 461 kW (equivalent to 627 PS or 618 hp) and 468 kW (equivalent to 636 PS or 627 hp) – thus the various quotes of horsepower output given as 618, 627 or 636 horsepower.

Performance:

The car may have been relatively small, but its performance was not. With a 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) time of 3.1 seconds and an official top speed of 240.14 mph (386.4 km/h), although without catalytic converters fitted, the F1 remains one of the fastest “production” cars ever made, until the Bugatti Veyron proved that it could reach a speed of 252mph (407 km/h), albeit ten years later.

While most car manufacturers rate their cars in terms of raw engine power, in terms of overall performance (acceleration, braking, grip and handling) a car’s weight is a more important factor. The power:weight ratio is a better way to quantify performance than the power of the engine. By this measure, the F1 was one of the most powerful production cars ever made. The F1 achieves 550 hp/ton, or just 4 lb/hp, while the Enzo (even with its significantly higher raw output) lags behind the F1 at 481.75 hp/ton (4.6 lb/hp) due to its greater weight. The Caparo T1 (designed by former members of the McLaren team) is expected to reach 1000 hp/ton, however, it is not available as of September 2006.

McLaren F1
0-60 mph 3.2 s
0-100 mph 6.3 s
0-200 mph 28 s

The Mclaren F1 has a top speed of 231 mph, restricted by the rev limiter at 7500 rpm. The true top speed of the Mclaren F1 was reached on the 31th of March, 1998 by the five-year-old XP5 prototype. Andy Wallace piloted it down the 9 km straight at Volkswagen’s Ehra test track in Wolfsburg, Germany, setting a new world record of 391.1 km/h (243 mph) (refer video clip below) at 7800 rpm. As Mario Andretti noted in a comparison test, the F1 is fully capable of pulling a seventh gear, thus with a higher gear ratio or a seventh gear the Mclaren F1 would probably be able to reach an even greater top speed (something which can also be observed by noticing that the top speed was reached at 7800 RPM while the peak power is reached at 7400 RPM).

Record claims
Callaway’s Sledgehammer Corvette, the road going version of the Dauer-Porsche 962 (winner of the 1994 24 hours of Le Mans as a GT) and most recently a version of the 911 Turbo produced by German tuner 9FF have all proven in testing that they’re capable of top speeds matching or in excess of 240 mph, although none of them are considered production cars, and hence cannot displace the McLaren’s record. More recently, the Koenigsegg CCR recorded a speed of 388 km/h (241 mph), a record which has in turn been shattered by the Bugatti Veyron, with a top speed of 407 km/h (253 mph), although Koenigsegg hit back with the CCX, apparently capable of 250 mph (Bugatti Veyron is still faster). Both of these are considered to be production cars, and have therefore each beaten the McLaren’s record.

As a sidenote, the 962 as well as the turbocharged version of Saleen’s S7 and RUF’s Rt 12 can hit 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds or less, meaning that even where certain cars (the Saleen and RUF) can’t break the McLaren’s top speed, they are capable of matching or beating its 0-60 time.

Gordon Murray wants the car to be remembered as the ultimate driver’s car. An evidence of it being the ultimate driver’s car is it’s light weight. It weighs only 1138kg while the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 weighs a portly 1888kg. Gordon Murray’s target for the McLaren F1 was a kerbweight of 1000kg (note that his primary target was weight, not speed records.), but ended up being 1138kg, an additional 138kg.

Owners:
Famous owners include:
* Jay Leno
* Wyclef Jean
* Paul Stewart (driver) – Purchased the F1 from Liam Howlett
* Elon Musk
* Ralph Lauren – Owns chassis #074, #N/A and LM3. The LM was purchased from Frank Selldorff with minor damage.
* Nick Mason
* Hassanal Bolkiah – the current Sultan of Brunei, is rumored to own 7 McLarens, including both black LMs
* Thomas Bscher – the current Bugatti president (and former FIA GT champion McLaren driver regularly used his F1 to commute from his home in Germany to Bugatti’s headquarters in France. Bscher no longer has his road car but he still has 2 GTR’s
* Michael Schumacher has a Mclaren F1. It is kept in his private garage; he always says that he doesn’t have an F1 supercar.
* Ron Dennis
* Juan Barazi
* Frank Selldorff – Owns chassis #007, the black one in the picture.
* Rowan Atkinson – Owns a burgundy F1 which he crashed in the late 90s; recent rumors have speculated he also owns a ’97 GTR [citation needed]
* Boston-area car merchant Herb Chambers owns a silver F1

Ex-Owners:
* Frank Selldorff – Owned chassis #068 and LM3. The LM3 was sold to Ralph Lauren with minor damage.
* Liam Howlett – Of electronic music group The Prodigy
* Bernd Pischetsrieder – the former BMW chairman and current CEO of Volkswagen, destroyed a silver F1
* Christopher Dawes – Former owner of Micromuse, Dawes and two passengers were killed in a burgundy F1, the only fatality of the car.
* Michael Andretti
* George Harrison (deceased)
* Bruce Weiner former owner of Dubble Bubble Gum, his McLaren has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of add ons and is supposedly the only one to pass CA emissions standards. It is currently for sale in Atlanta, GA
* Sir Roger Bhatnagar New Zealand based entrepeneur who owned chassis XP4. Sold to new American owner.

The cost
Though not officially announced, the price of the McLaren F1 road cars has generally been pegged at $1 million. Premiums of more than $100,000 over sticker price were reportedly charged, thus making the average prices of a Mclaren F1 around $1,250,000. Used McLaren F1s are seldom publicly available. In December 2005, however, a yellow 1994 model was advertised by Silicon Valley Auto Group in Los Gatos, California, on the eBay auction site. Bidding escalated to $1,750,000 before the auction ended; the car did not sell as the auction listing noted: “Reserve Not Met”. It was re-listed, but the seller ended the auction early, claiming an error in the listing – a common technique when an item is sold off-auction instead.

F1 Rumors:

Bill Gates never owned an F1
The McLaren that went 240mph was a prototype so it is quicker than the regular production cars – While XP5 is a prototype, it was “Road Car Spec” when it did the top speed run. The only changes to the car were that the underbody was polished, the rev limiter raised/removed, the headlights taped over, and the license plate replaced with a stick on item. All modifications were “road legal” and the car had no performance enhancing modifications.