At the end of the 1980s, the fashion for making and marketing supercars with colossal performance was short-lived. At a time when rich men had money to splash around, supercars were very popular, but as recession followed, the market for expensive fast cars collapsed. All the cars in this class, such as the Bugatti EB110 and the Jaguar XJ220, could easily beat 200 mph, but few owners ever found a place to exercise that top speed. The McLaren F1 was probably the best of this exclusive breed – not only did it have a top speed of 230 mph and more, but it was stylish rather than brutally sexy, beautifully engineered and built with a unique layout.
McLaren, already famous for its Grand Prix cars, invited ex-Brabham F1 designer Gordon Murray to join them at Woking, where he concentrated on the new road-car product, which they decided, confusingly, to call ‘F1’. Predictably enough, he laid out a mid-engined coupé, but there were important differences. Not only did McLaren persuade BMW to develop a unique alloy 627 bhp/6.1-litre V12 engine to power the car, but Murray laid out the interior as a three-seater, where the driver sat in the middle, ahead of his two passengers.
To keep the weight down, every possible high-tech. aerospace standard material was used: this was the world’s first carbon-fibre chassised road car, and similar materials cropped up in detail all round the car – and the performance was stupendous. No British source, not even McLaren, could test the 230 mph-plus top speed in the UK, so a trip to the enormous circular test track at Nardo in southern Italy was made to prove the point. As expected, though, the acceleration figures were outstanding (and, as the climate for motoring has changed, may never be surpassed). |
 |
The F1 could sprint from rest to 100 mph in 6.3 seconds, and to 200 mph in a mere 28 seconds. All this was accompanied by average fuel consumption of better than 15 mpg, the driver achieving it all in air-conditioned comfort.
Although the F1 was not meant to be a car for everyday use (significantly, it lacked features such as ABS braking, and power-assisted steering), it was small enough (only 71.6 in/1,820 mm wide) and light enough at 2,510 lb/1,138 kg, to be used in heavy traffic, or in normal conditions, but this was to waste the potential of a magnificent machine.
Even McLaren would now admit that it arrived on the market too late, for at the huge price of £540,000, it was never likely to sell in significant numbers. Although thousands of enthusiasts were impressed by it, very few (all multi-millionaires) bought an F1. After less than four years, in which only 100 cars (including a large proportion of special racing versions) were built, McLaren brought this loss-making project to a close. For sheer performance, such a car, it is thought, will never be beaten.
The world’s first carbon-fibre chassis road car. A three-seater, the driver sat in the middle ahead of his two passengers. Capable of 100 mph in 6.3 seconds from rest.
|
