McLaren F1: A Look Back

The History

The name tells it all: McLaren F1. McLaren has always been synonymous to Formula One racing, winning no less than ten driver’s championships and eight constructor’s championships. McLaren has always been a competitive team on the track…now for the road as well? Conceptualized ten years ago by then technical director Gordon Murray, the McLaren F1 had only one goal: to redefine the word ‘super car’.

The story began not from the McLaren factory, but from the childhood imagination of Gordon Murray, the chief designer of the McLaren F1. His vision was to create a 3-seater sports car with a center driving position to give maximum visibility all throughout, the most ideal for a car, actually. His passion in building this automobile carried with him until his high school and college years. It was only when McLaren managing director Ron Dennis and TAG Group President Mansour Ojjeh gave him the green light in 1988 to create his dream.

In 1990, Murray started calling old friends and colleagues for a meeting regarding the road car project. Murray’s original concept was later given flesh and finishing touches by Peter Stevens who worked with Murray until the final shape has been completed. With the car design underway, Murray had to look for a suitable engine manufacturer to fill in the roll of engine designing and manufacturing for this new super car. He wanted an engine that would be as light as possible and would push out the most horsepower per liter of displacement. He first approached Honda, who was collaborating with McLaren at that time in Formula One, Honda denied the idea, stating that they did not have time to create such an engine. Murray once again had to look for old friends to help him. He came knocking on the front door of BMW Motorsport–the same company who designed and built engines for Murray’s Brabham Formula One car. BMW Motorsport took the job and started to design the engine.

After a few years, BMW Motorsport came up with an all-original 6.1-liter 48-valve V12 engine. Although it did not reach Murray’s target weight, BMW Motorsport pushed the horsepower rating from the agreed 580 bhp to a staggering 627 bhp, the most powerful engine to be placed in a production automobile (according to the Guinness Book of World Records). With the engine in place, Murray also found acceptable partners in Good Year and Kenwood, who designed tires and a CD-changer respectively and exclusively for the needs of the McLaren F1.

During the testing phase, the F1 immediately broke the production car record set by Bugatti’s EB 110 at 341 km/h. The record to beat now was the McLaren’s 372 km/h. The first car was completed in the Christmas eve of 1993 and delivered to its owner on January 25, 1994. There were 100 McLaren F1s built during its entire production run.

The Car

What should I start with? It’s hard when you could talk about a lot of things with this car. Probably I should start with the obvious: the body design. The first thing people notice with the McLaren F1 is its lack of front and rear spoilers, air dams and so forth. Murray design the F1 not to make the air travel on the car, as most sports cars do, but he designed it so that air would travel inside the car, this creating this effect of down force with the help of vacuum sucker fans and small channels. The result is a clean looking super car whose only spoiler pops out during braking to help in the stability and cooling of the cross-drilled Brembo disc brakes.

The body is molded from carbon fiber, the same material used in modern Formula One cars. What comes out is a lightweight durable frame weighing at only 1140 kg. (that’s 100 kg. lighter than the stripped down Ferrari F50). The McLaren F1’s body casts a shadow no bigger than a BMW 3-series, but offers more than four times the power. The insulation material comes from the best: gold. Yes, that’s right, gold sheets are used as insulation material for the engine and several other parts.

The power plant, which was designed by BMW’s Motorsport division is a normally aspirated 6.1-liter 48-valve V12 engine which delivers 627 bhp at 7,500 rpm and 662 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. The body and engine combination results in a power-to-weight ratio of 550 bhp per ton and a specific output of 103 bhp per liter. Connected to a lightweight titanium 6-speed gearbox, the McLaren goes from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds (that’s the fastest so far in any production super car) and a factory recommended top speed of 372 km/h. In fact, several test drivers noted how the McLaren F1 would treat braking the 200-mph (321 km/h) barrier as if it were something normal for the car; it takes less than 30 seconds to do so. The Lamborghini Diablo, the former speed king would take forever, they say, to reach 200-mph mark. To cement the F1’s record, Gordon Murray and his crew set off to the Nardo Test Track in Italy where an unmodified F1 broke the timing beams at 388 km/h (241 mph).

There is no power steering or traction control or ABS in the McLaren F1, and yet it handles and brakes as easily as a car with these electronic devices. McLaren Cars designed the F1’s brake, steering and chassis configuration for maximum grip and handling. The chassis for example is a double wishbone layout with inboard coils actuated by pushrods and rockers, the same technology used in modern Formula One cars.

The interior is an uncompromised 3-seater, center driven layout. The leather / carbon fiber Nardi steering wheel complements well with the motive of carbon fiber, aluminum, titanium and leather interior of the McLaren F1. Several details are extraordinary like the pedals, which are hand-crafted from six different piece of titanium! The radio and aircon controls (yes, it has these features) are machined individually at the McLaren plant. The hidden push-button starter and the 6-speed shifter with reverse lock lie by the driver’s side.

With a price tag of a cool 1 million US dollars, owning a McLaren F1 is an experience never to forget. First is a free three-year software and hardware upgrade (as in, if they were able to find better ways to make your F1 perform better, they would upgrade parts free of charge). Second, are the fitted leather luggage and a complete set of titanium tools for your car and garage that come with each McLaren F1. Third, the McLaren F1 is fitted exactly to your liking with personalized steering, petal and seat designs. Exterior and interior color schemes can be created and matched you your liking as well. The F1 also comes with a free Tag Heuer chronograph watch with the chassis number engraved on its face as well.

The Legacy

Gordon Murrary and his team designed the McLaren F1 to be the ultimate road car, and they were able to succeed. The performance numbers cannot be matched by anything on the road today. Even the build quality of the McLaren F1 feels like it came from another planet, with absolutely no flaws or unnecessary panel gaps.

However, with a powerful engine and capable chassis, several customers wanted race-dedicated McLaren F1s, and for this McLaren launched the McLaren F1 GTR in 1995. The McLaren F1 GTR is only slightly modified (made lighter than its road cousin) but the engine has been de-tuned to create more low-end torque and less power (only 612 bhp for the racing version). In the end, the McLaren F1 GTR was able to show its feat. It won the grueling Le Mans 24 endurance race in 1995 in its first time. It made the Le Mans circuit its personal playground by placing an incredible first and third on the podium with four other McLarens in the top 10. In the same year, the McLaren F1 GTR swept the BPR endurance racing series (now the FIA GT championship), beating out cars like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 911.

It did not stop there, in the long run, the McLaren F1 GTR (modified in 1997) won first and second in the GT1 (second and third overall) in the 1997 LeMans 24 race. It also won the FIA GT championship in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, the final participation of the McLaren F1 GTR resulted in a commendable fourth place finish (behind newer and more race worthy competitors), the first ever privately entered car to finish the 24-hour race.

The McLaren F1 is certainly the best car in the whole world at this moment. In this millennium, I doubt if anyone would comes even close to beating the McLaren in performance, workmanship and customer satisfaction. We only hope that the 150,000 US dollar McLaren F2 (which will battle head to head with Ferrari road cars) would have the same amount of detail and performance like its bigger brother.

By Ulysses Ang | Photos Courtesy of McLaren Cars Ltd.
Originally Published in the January 1999 Issue