F1 car naming letters?
Discussion
SamHH said:
Are you sure? As mentioned above, Doug Nye's book and one or two others say it was "Marlboro Project 4".
Although it is also entirely conceivable that Doug Nye and the one or two others are wrong. I have certainly seen it in print referred to a "McLaren Project Four", altough I forget the publication I saw it in as it was at lease two decades ago. Short of asking Ron Dennis himself it would appear that it will remain open to interpretation. As stated above though, Having the 'M' stand for Marlboro or McLaren works either way, but does seem out of place considering that the partnership with Marlboro ended 14 years ago.Teppic said:
Although it is also entirely conceivable that Doug Nye and the one or two others are wrong. I have certainly seen it in print referred to a "McLaren Project Four", altough I forget the publication I saw it in as it was at lease two decades ago. Short of asking Ron Dennis himself it would appear that it will remain open to interpretation. As stated above though, Having the 'M' stand for Marlboro or McLaren works either way, but does seem out of place considering that the partnership with Marlboro ended 14 years ago.
Yes, I agree, they could be wrong. It could also be that it stood for both "McLaren" and "Marlboro" in 1980. I was just interested why you were so sure that it definitely never stood for "Marlboro". 
MP4 is McLaren Project 4.
Calling it Marlboro Project 4 would have been a media tagline used at the time.
Much like Lotus 74s being "Texaco Stars" and the Lotus 76, 77 and 78 being called the JPS1, JPS2 and JPS3 respectively. It didn't work and was dropped by Lotus.
The McLaren deal would have been much the same. ie drop Marlboro in the literature to get them some more exposure.
As far as I am aware, Marlboro never held shares in McLaren, they were just a sponsor.
Calling it Marlboro Project 4 would have been a media tagline used at the time.
Much like Lotus 74s being "Texaco Stars" and the Lotus 76, 77 and 78 being called the JPS1, JPS2 and JPS3 respectively. It didn't work and was dropped by Lotus.
The McLaren deal would have been much the same. ie drop Marlboro in the literature to get them some more exposure.
As far as I am aware, Marlboro never held shares in McLaren, they were just a sponsor.
nsmith1180 said:
Could the T126 be one of the new models, which ever they decided on first? One would assume the Esprit. Or the Indycar?
AFAIK IndyCars are all Dallara chassis. Lotus & Cosworth were supposed to be doing some engine work, but the KVRT team which Lotus sponsors seems to run Honda engines.( http://kvracingtechnology.homestead.com/ )
The Esprit that Bahar announced looks too unlike a Kimberley-era Lotus, IMHO, to have the T126 number. I'd put it further up the range - if they are even using the old numbering scheme at Hethel these days.
Anyway - this is getting us way off the topic of this thread - do the letters have to stand for anything at all ?
marshalla said:
nsmith1180 said:
Could the T126 be one of the new models, which ever they decided on first? One would assume the Esprit. Or the Indycar?
AFAIK IndyCars are all Dallara chassis. Lotus & Cosworth were supposed to be doing some engine work, but the KVRT team which Lotus sponsors seems to run Honda engines.( http://kvracingtechnology.homestead.com/ )
The Esprit that Bahar announced looks too unlike a Kimberley-era Lotus, IMHO, to have the T126 number. I'd put it further up the range - if they are even using the old numbering scheme at Hethel these days.
Anyway - this is getting us way off the topic of this thread - do the letters have to stand for anything at all ?
marshalla said:
It still does for Fernandes's Team Lotus - they were allowed to use T127 last year to indicate that their car was officially a Lotus. This year they've gone with T128.
(ETA Evora endurance racer is T124, Exos track-day car is T125 and I'm not sure if anyone knows what T126 is ? )
Type 126 I think is the Tesla Roadster, Electric vehicle losely based around the Elise.(ETA Evora endurance racer is T124, Exos track-day car is T125 and I'm not sure if anyone knows what T126 is ? )
Edited by marshalla on Friday 4th February 10:08
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