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McLaren F1 - the fastest production sports car in the world celebrates its 25th birthday

Name: McLaren F1 1992
Brand: McLaren

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Created on January 16, 2017

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

McLaren/Werk

McLaren Automotive Limited

BMW AG

McLaren / Werk

McLaren

McLaren Pressearchiv

Eric Fairchild - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Bruno von Rotz

Patrick Ernzen - Courtesy RM Sotheby's

Brian Henniker - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Mike Maez - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Archiv

McLaren/Werk

McLaren Automotive Limited

BMW AG

McLaren / Werk

McLaren

McLaren Pressearchiv

Eric Fairchild - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Bruno von Rotz

Patrick Ernzen - Courtesy RM Sotheby's

Brian Henniker - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Mike Maez - Courtesy Gooding & Company

Archiv

McLaren F1 (1993) - clearly a car from the nineties

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McLaren F1 (1992) - Presentation in Monte Carlo - the top-mounted mirrors of the prototype (XP1) did not make it into series production

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McLaren F1 (1993) - timeless form without frippery

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McLaren F1 (1993) - no spoilers visible when stationary

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McLaren F1 (1993) - the driver sits in the middle

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McLaren F1 (1993) - Steering wheel and dashboard

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McLaren F1 (1993) - Type designation on the rear

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McLaren F1 GTR (1995) - the winning car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

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McLaren F1 GTR Longtail (Fina) (1997) - Pass on the occasion of Nelsinho Piquet's birthday

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Two McLaren F1 GTR (1995): the yellow-green Harrods F1 GTR in front of the overall winner with number #59

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Overall winner 24 Hours of Le Mans 1995: the #59 McLaren F1 GTR with Yannick Dalmas - JJ Lehto - Masanori Sekyia

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McLaren F1 GTR (1995) #24 from the GTC Gulf Racing team at Le Mans 1995 - 4th place

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McLaren F1 GTR (1995) from the Giroix Racing Team with the Swiss racing driver Jean-Denis Délétraz and the two Frenchmen Fabien Giroix and Olivier Grouillard

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With the Le Mans race car McLaren F1 GTR (1996) the then McLaren mechanic Matthew Carter drove to Le Mans 1997, on normal roads!

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McLaren F1 GTR (1995) - Le Mans winner between the McLaren F1 GTR Longtail and the McLaren F1 LM road car

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McLaren F1 GTR (1995) from the Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing team - winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 17 and 18, 1995

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McLaren F1 GTR Longtail (1997) - at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1997

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24 Hours of Le Mans 1995: McLaren F1 GTR with BMW V12 6.1-liter engine with drivers Andy Wallace, Derek Bell and Justin Bell finished third overall

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4th place in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans: the #40 McLaren F1 GTR with Steve O'Rourke - Tim Sugden - Bill Auberlen

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8th place in the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans: the #39 McLaren F1 GTR from the Italian team Bigazzi with Danny Sullivan - Nelson Piquet - Johnny Cecotto

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24 Heures du Mans 1998: the #41 McLaren F1 GTR (Gulf Team Davidoff) with drivers Thomas Bscher - Rinaldo Capello - Emanuele Pirro

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24 Hours of Le Mans 1995: #42 McLaren F1 GTR (BBA Compétition) with French drivers Jean Luc Maury Laribiere - Marc Sourd - Hervé Poulain finished 13th

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Demonstration of BMW racing cars at the 2014 AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix - The Le Mans McLaren F1 GTR with BMW engine from 1998

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McLaren F1 (1992) - at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance 2013

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McLaren F1 LH - the long-tail version - at the Geneva Motor Show 2015

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McLaren XP1 LM (1995) - prototype for the small series of 5 F1 LMs

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McLaren F1 (1995) - offered at the Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach on August 16/17, 2014

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McLaren F1 'LM-Specification' (1998) - as lot 107 at the RM/Sotheby's auction of the Pinnacle Portfolio in Monterey on August 13 - 15, 2015

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McLaren F1 (1997) - offered as lot 51 by Gooding & Company in Pebble Beach 2013

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McLaren F1 (1997) - auctioned at the hammer price of 7.7 million USD by Gooding & Company in Pebble Beach 2013

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McLaren F1 GTR Longtail (1997) - sold as lot 137 at the Gooding & Company auction in Scottsdale on January 17/18, 2014

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Summary

When the McLaren F1 was first presented in 1992, it was considered the best and fastest production sports car. It was also the most expensive, with a price tag of almost one million USD. A maximum of 300 were to be built, but McLaren was unable to sell more than 106. As a result, they are rare today and expensive to buy. To mark the 25th anniversary of the McLaren F1, this report looks back two and a half decades and tries to find out what made the mid-engined sports car so special.

This article contains the following chapters

Uncompromising - the beginning in 1989
Launched in 1992
Self-supporting and from a single mold
New engine from BMW
Road tests 1993
Customer vehicles in 1994
Self-driving in 1995
Safe
106 units built
Le Mans triumph
Becoming valuable
Further information

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Gordon Murray, technical director of the McLaren F1 team at the end of the 1980s, had always wanted to build a super sports car. As early as 1969, he produced the first sketches of a three-seater sports car with the driver in the middle. But it would be another 20 years before Murray found a patron for his idea in the person of McLaren boss Ron Dennis. McLaren was at its peak at the time; in 1988 the team had won 15 of the 16 races, with Honda engines no less. It was therefore a logical step to venture into the construction of a road-legal super sports car with the assembled expertise. The demands were nothing less than ultimate. The McLaren sports car was to be the best and fastest road car ever. From McLaren's point of view, the automobile was to be completely reinvented; neither contemporary tastes and fashion were to influence the design, nor were compromises to be made because of bought-in components.

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