The greatest car test ever?

I'm not even going to add anything.  If you  haven't already, watch it and see if you can.  

It's perfect.  EVO is still king,

Eargasm!

Photo:Mattijs Diepraam

6.1 liters of BMW power sound pretty awesome, as we well know but 8 liters of Chevy pushrod ain't bad either.

Photo: Jurrie Vanhalle

Is that a Mclaren F1 in your mirror?

I remember, as a very young boy, my father taking me to Monza to see the 1000Km and seeing the E9 Batmobiles flying down towards the Parabolica spitting flames out the sides. Such a distant memory but one I will never forget.

Very cool of BMW to take these priceless four wheeled treasures out and share them with the public who might not have seen them when they were "Just race cars".

I never saw a Mclaren F1 GTR in the heat of battle, the more reason to enjoy a ride in one driven by Mr BMW himself, Bill Auberlen (a.k.a. "best race driver ever" :)). At this year's Oktoberfest BMW track day at Barber Motorsports Park some lucky attendees got to sit in the right....and left seats!

That sound...wow. One day I'll get a ride in that monster. Kind of funny watching people giving point bys, like Bill would have waited around!



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McMess

Here IS the picture of Rowan Atkinson's Mclaren F1 post (latest) crash.



via Northampton Chronicle and Echo Thanks MrQuick for setting the record straight.

OK, it will cost a bit more than I originally thought but I bet the tub is still fine...maybe! .

The Adventures of Flipper.

A heady time in FIA GT racing, that moment when a production car derived series peaked, completely out of control.
How fabulous, Mercedes CLK-GTR vs Porsche GT1 vs Mclaren F1 GTR. Excess at its best.

Of those crazy machines, two famously flipped (one with Mark Webber), one never did. Which was your favorite?
Edit: Colin correctly points out it was not the MB CLK-gtr that flipped at LeMans but its successor, the CLR...




(GT4zone)

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Mclaren's Ferrari and Lambo fighter lands next week

MP4-12C does not quite roll of the tongue but if you are a fan of the Woking F1 team built by Ron Dennis you will immediately recognize the naming scheme.

Mclaren has a lot to live up to, over 10 years after its introduction, the Mclaren F1 is unsurpassed in it's uncompromised excellence while the Mercedes Mclaren SLR is driven by Donald Trump... Which way will the new car swing?

We won't have to wait too long to find out, The Times reports the car will be launched on Wednesday (ahead of the Ferrari 458 Italia launch) and gives a few details in advance: Carbon Fiber Chassis, V8, 7 speed gearbox, dihedral doors. The suspension will automatically adjust its stiffness according to speed which should make Jeremy Clarkson happy and the car will have wireless internet capabilities.

Design is by Frank Stephenson who penned icons such as the Mini when at BMW, the F430 and the new 500 when at the Fiat Group, "It has an iconic design, like the E-type Jaguar and, on all performance parameters and price, will be better than our competition,”

"It’s bound to disappoint,’ Mclaren F1's designer Gordon Murray has expressed some skepticism ’‘There’s no point in trying to outdo the F1, they’ll never do it. The world has moved on and anyone who thinks the market for Gallardo-type cars is going to bounce back to levels of two or three years ago is dreaming... ‘From what I’ve heard, McLaren has gone back to producing a big car with a heavy engine. People will inevitably see it as a successor to the F1 but I can’t see any way in which people aren’t going to be disappointed. They’ve just taken the wrong route for it. That’s a shame.’ (car)

Ron Dennis begs to differ and believes the market for high end supercars is healthy enough to warrant plans for two further models over the next few years: a Porsche 911 competitor at one end and an Enzo, Murcielago, Carrera GT alternative at the other. The production targets are of 1000 cars per year with the first model and 4000 when the other models are introduced.

(picture is an artist's impression -Meeson/hitandrunmedia.com)

Home

The Good the Bad and the....crazy lightweight grandma

Some pretty pictures to enjoy while we're on vacation:

Still the ultimate tracktard's car (with a Pink Floyd bank account). I notice the the GT-R does not have the tall 16" tires of the read car, bigger brakes?



This one from Porsche reminds me of those special edition Leica M cameras covered in lizard skin and favoured by dentists who never take them out of the box, lovely scenery though...



Finally, from the late 1960's, a car that was the reverse of the McLaren F1, a race car adapted for the road. The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale was an ergonomic disaster but one of the most amazing vehicles of the era. No hydraulic struts to hold the dihedral doors (later used on the McF1) open, 39 inches tall and pedals offsest way to the inside yet, 700kg with an all aluminum alloy body , 2.0 liter v8, 10000 rpm and 230 hp in road trim. Only 18 were made.




Home.

Jay Leno on Top Gear

Leno was on the season finale of Top Gear last night as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car".

His lap was not that great but, as usual, his stories were and for once Clarkson seemed to be genuinely starstruck. Here's an anecdote about an outing in Jay's Mclaren F1

And here is the rest of it.

One for the Freep

And here is the rest of it.

Mclaren F1 in luscious detail.

OK, so it's in Japanese but this is a great look at what is still, after sixteen years, as good as it got in the supercar game. You'll understand, trust me.

The program shows you all sorts of fascinating details you might not have seen, suspension, brakes, cooling. No Stiggy power slides heroics here, there is even an obviously balky shifter, with third gear seeming not so easy to find in at least two shots. But check out the dravings of the brake cooling system for example...great stuff to see.

There is a lot of buzz about the coming Ferrari Millechili concept, interesting that 1000 kg was precisely Gordon Murray's target 20 years ago when he first sketched out the F1 concept on a flight back from the Italian Grand Prix.