When mclaren ruled the world – the f1 gtr

Got most of the logos in place. Have to quit to go cook dinner and the like, but I'll pick it back up tomorrow morning and start painting on it. Here's the WIP:

 

one of AC's best cars, a beast )

wish there were more multiplayer servers featuring it

 

Finished product. I used number 8 because that's the number he had when he won his first World Title for McLaren.

 

A great car indeed and one that's very close to my heart, as for a few months in '96/'97 in my gap year (a year off between high school and Uni) I worked on the production line building these beauties. I was only 18 and it was a temp job, believe it or not. I forget what our department was called, but our job was to mark out and cut the raw carbon fibre sheet from templates before it was sent downstairs to be moulded and cured into parts. I was working there at the end of the production run of the road car and while the GTR was racing. I remember that many a Monday morning, after a race weekend I'd be cutting templates for mirrors that they'd inevitably have knocked off or damaged on the track. One thing that always made me smile was knowing that the seats were custom made for each driver/customer and that somewhere locked away in the bowels of the factory was an impression of comedy (and all-round) legend, Rowan Atkinson's butt.

I'm new to AC, only recently having learnt how to heal and toe and trail brake but am absolutely loving it! They say you should never meet your heroes, as they'll never live up to your expectations. I've tried the F1 GTR a couple of times but it was a bit too much of a handful for me (I struggled with traction), I'll give it another go though, I think I just need more practice and to understand car setup better (any tips welcomed).

Fingers crossed for Kunos adding the F1 road car!

 

Looks great, is it at Racedepartment?

 

GT3/E fronts range from 32-37 and rears are 40 (some are 35 due to 19" rims), LMP1 tires used to be 32 (now 35 to slow the cars down - width reduced significantly)...They're all rather low profile....The only reason F1 isn't low profile is because the FIA doesn't like change (Michelin has already developed and tested low profile tires for FR3.5 and F1).

 

So I gave the GTR another go last night, at Monza this time (was at Spa before). It was so much more manageable– though that V12 is one ferocious beast, it demands proper respect. I managed a 1:50.3 which according to RSR isn't too bad, so I guess my skills have improved. Although I must be doing something very wrong in sector 1 as I'm really off the pace there (though I was matching the AIs' pace throughout). Very odd. Did the sector marker move or something?

Anyhoo, I just unearthed this wobbly old video of the factory, which I thought might be of interest to some. Unlike the big shiny headquarters at Woking it was a very unassuming, nondescript little place, that is until you made it through the front doors to be greeted by the front half of a full-sized, bright orange GTR hanging from the wall.



Takes me back… I think that's my old line manager on the right at 1:53.

 

If anyone's got a few quid kicking about, a super-rare, road-going version with the LM spec engine and other GTR-sourced parts has just gone up for auction:

https://rmsothebys.com/en/home/private-sales/r0001-1998-mclaren-f1-lm-specification/694079



/me checks wallet for spare £20m

 

About Tokyo Ueno Clinic
There’s nothing outwardly strange about the 1995 Le Mans winning McLaren F1. That main sponsor though – ‘Tokyo Ueno Clinic’ – what is that? Well, it turns out it’s a Japanese plastic surgery clinic with a speciality in…how do we put this…’gentlemen sausages’. Presumably winning the worlds most famous endurance race was great publicity for them, and hey, at least they didn’t make complete cocks of themselves…or maybe they did?