Flemke - Is this your McLaren?

[Oakey]

-DeaDLocK- said:

I don't know where the fifth one is.

apparently owned by the guy I was trying to link to perhaps?

Link: www.google.co.uk/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.overclockers.co.uk%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D17403648%26page%3D14&hl=en&safe=off (Click Google Cache, then show cached text)

Here's what it says if it doesn't work:

[quote] I'm trying to borrow a car slightly more interesting than my Megane Coupe for Thursday->Sunday

Other half wants one fo the Aston Martins...Me on the other hand - I want the McLaren F1 LM...

I know the Aston is a long shot - needs a lot of engine work - not sure about the conditions of the McLarens apart from haven't been run in 9 months.

It's all up to Ikklefrannypoos *or Franchesco as his real name is* to get one roadworthy by Wednesday for me to pickup...


....I want the McLaren - it's far more sensible than the DB9 - smaller, lighter and with more luggage space *usefull - need to get the missus's suitcase in it...

...The chap who owns them *Ben* is currently recovering from stomach cancer in the US - went from 17-18stone to 7.5stone ish...

Franchesco is paid by him to look after his collection of road and race cars - he's a car nut as well..Ex Ferrari F1 team mechanic and owns 2 classic Ferrari's of his own.

I just drive them.

[/quote]

The fifth one perhaps?

[flemke]

m1spw said:

Flemke, I was thinking about something this morning while lying in bed. What happens if you break down? Companies like Aston Martin have their own recovery service, but who would you call if you had a problem (Ghostbusters? )? Would it just be the equivelent of the AA or RAC in whichever country you were in, or do Mclaren have their own recovery service? Or do you have a special supercar mechanics/car recovery service? I was just thinking as I doubt you'd want a roadside mechanic to be poking around in your engine bay!

At least for the UK, the guys at the factory give you their personal mobile #s, and encourage you to call whatever the problem and at any time. I've called them twice from the road.
The cars are pretty durable, so breakdowns are uncommon. If you had a puncture, however, it would be a hassle. You can only get the tyres from the factory. Even if you could get tyres elsewhere, in most garages you would not find the socket required to remove the centre-lock nuts.

[flemke]

minghis said:

I thought this too - isn't there a socket somewhere on the car that you can plug something into and it'll 'tell' the factory what's wrong so that they can come armed with the right tool/parts?

It is true that you can download some information via modem from a remote location. That would more typically be done from a regional McL. service centre back to Woking.
The data available are not the richest and most descriptive that you'll ever find. This is early '90s technology.

[360boy]

Poor old Flemke!
I just had a nose at the McLaren threads on a certain other car website, and it's like the CIA tracking down the world's most wanted man.
They want to know everything about every F1 owner and do finally succeed in naming Flemke.
These guys are serious stalkers and only now am I beginning to see why McLaren have taken such a hard stance against such stuff in the UK.
Your name is safe with me Flemke. I wouldn't want to change places with you for all the tea in China.
One thing that I must add though. Your car is certainly the most sorted F1 that I know of, and a true credit to you. You seem to use it as it was intended, instead of turning it into a "garage queen".
Well done mate!

[flemke]

si_j said:

flemke said: Unfortunately, the modern, multi-spoke designs that look busy and uninspired are the most efficient in strength-to-weight and in brake cooling. So, does one go for classic looks in keeping with the history of the car, or does one go for efficiency and effectiveness? "Function before Fashion"

Okay, but the problem with that is that you'd never be finished with the car. Formula One cars evolve literally from week to week, fashion always following function.
How the car looks matters to me. That's part of what owning a road car is about.
I would like a car that functions well enough for me to exploit it on the road but that also is appealing to my eye. I wouldn't want all of one quality to the exclusion of the other.
To me, life is not black and white, it's mostly shades of grey.

[flemke]

-DeaDLocK- said:

Flemke, just wondering - given the opportunity to procure an LM, would you do it? If not really to drive then just as a way of buying into the F1 legacy, perhaps (apart of course from the rather exclusive privilege of buying into the F1 legacy by actually owning an F1 road car!)? And if so, would it be as a replacement for your cookie monster (operative word here being "monster" or as a showpiece complement?

The one that changed hands in Dec., '04, was offered by the factory to at least some current F1 owners. I thought about going for it, but could not justify it.

For one thing, the owner wanted to do an auction with sealed bids. I know a certain amount about how auctions tend to evolve, and I had the feeling that the vendor might play the old game of opening the sealed bids and then going back to the lower bidders and saying, "Okay, you lost, but I'll give you the chance to raise your bid." That of course would be followed by going back to the high bidder and saying, "I'm going back to the other guys, so you may want to raise your own bid."
I can't reveal any confidences, but suffice to say that I may have been right.

Then there is the question of price. Regardless of whether one can afford it, this is a whole lot of money to pay for anything. At times you need to have some discipline.
I have a strong aversion to paying for scarcity value. The F1s sell in the market - roughly - for what they cost to make (setting aside the issue of how to allocate fixed costs). The LMs cost little more to produce than the road cars did. At the time of production they sold for, I forget, maybe £150k more than the road cars.
Because there are only 6 LMs in the world, however, and there are more than 6 people who covet them, their market price has escalated vastly above the costs of production. I don't want to get into some bidding game with people who cannot control their lust for something - especially when I know that the likely competition is guys who
a.) cannot drive the car properly,
b.) would keep the car in a private bubble, and
c.) have a zillion times more money than I do.
Why should I get sucked into that scene - just so that I can have one?

Finally there is the question of whether one would actually enjoy such a car.
I've detailed before, I think a few pages earlier on this thread, many of the ways in which the LMs differ from the road cars. In almost every point of difference the LM is a less good road car than the F1 is.
Do you really want a road car that comes with ear defenders as standard because there is so much racket inside the cockpit? I don't.
If I wanted that sort of thing, I would get a GTR with provenance, for a quarter of the price and with a lot less preciousness.

[bobthemonkey]

Sorry, I just noticed this, and haven't introduced myself on this forum.

Flemke, you may want to take action to remove what appears to be your numberplate being published on the web.

www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38733

If this post is doing more harm than good, then mods, please delete it.

>> Edited by bobthemonkey on Monday 24th April 19:50

[flemke]

thekirbyfake said:

Flemke - have you been hassled much by people trying to discover your identity, address, inside leg measurement? (apart from on here of course )

I've not been hassled exactly.
First, my identity doesn't matter.
Second, the last I knew the guys on some forum thought that they had scoped out my name. The only problem was that they had inferred it by piecing together some information, and what they pieced together was incorrect. The name they thought was mine wsa actually the name of someone else whose place I was given at an event.
I'm perfectly happy for them to continue to think that my name is X, although I hope it doesn't cause the other chap any probs.

I do think that it is rather inconsiderate and rude to post on the 'net the names of private individuals who have not sought to be in the public eye.
If you're already a public figure, and especially if you have actively sought public visibility as a central part of your life, as J Leno, R Lauren, N Mason, R Atkinson and others have done, then a third party's revealing your taste in cars or holidays is fair game, even though it is also trivial and sometimes offensive.

If someone's not a public figure, however, it's inappropriate to publicise that person's identity just because you can.

[-DeaDLocK-]

flemke said:

...I would get a GTR with provenance, for a quarter of the price...

I was not aware the going rate for the LM is so high. Scarcity value seems to be key here.

Thanks again.

[-DeaDLocK-]

bobthemonkey said:

Sorry, I just noticed this, and haven't introduced myself on this forum. Flemke, you may want to take action to remove what appears to be your numberplate being published on the web. www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38733 If this post is doing more harm than good, then mods, please delete it.

The number plate on Flemke's car is pretty much public domain, not that it matters a smidgen of course. Might be worth a little bit of fun on Tesco's online insurance application to see how high premiums can go, but thats about as far as it can go.

The photos of the car on that site are the most attractive I've seen. Flemke, personally, and strictly in my own opinion, from what I've seen (which admittedly isn't in the carbon) I find the colour unattractive, but in the showroom shots linked in the thread above it looks particularly nice. Is that an accurate representation of the colour?

And would the black CGT in the photos happen to be yours?

[Oakey]

-DeaDLocK- said:

flemke said: ...I would get a GTR with provenance, for a quarter of the price... I was not aware the going rate for the LM is so high. Scarcity value seems to be key here. Thanks again.

Of course it is, that's how things have always worked. :P If 4 LM's were suddenly destroyed, how much do you think that last one would suddenly be worth?

[bobthemonkey]

deadlock said:

The number plate on Flemke's car is pretty much public domain, not that it matters a smidgen of course. Might be worth a little bit of fun on Tesco's online insurance application to see how high premiums can go, but thats about as far as it can go.

Thanks, just wanted to be sure, as I know how protective some people are about such things. I quite agree with you about the photos,they are stunning.


>> Edited by bobthemonkey on Monday 24th April 20:29

[flemke]

Oakey said:

Of course it is, that's how things have always worked. :P If 4 LM's were suddenly destroyed, how much do you think that last one would suddenly be worth?

I know what DeaDLock is saying; the price of the LMs has gone up by much more than the price of F1s has done, even though there are still 6 LMs, but the number of F1s is smaller than it used to be.

There are only three long-tail road cars, and they're not exactly the most valuable things on earth.

[flemke]

-DeaDLocK- said:

The photos of the car on that site are the most attractive I've seen. Flemke, personally, and strictly in my own opinion, from what I've seen (which admittedly isn't in the carbon) I find the colour unattractive, but in the showroom shots linked in the thread above it looks particularly nice. Is that an accurate representation of the colour? And would the black CGT in the photos happen to be yours?

The blue in those photos is lighter than the real thing, although the real thing - despite being a normal solid colour - changes quite a bit depending on the intensity of the light.
The colour in the image on the opening post of this thread is close to the real thing under a cloudy sky. Under a bright sky the real thing is a bit darker than the images in the linked website.

I may be associated with other cars in those images.

[Oakey]

Flemke, any advice to those of us who aspire to be like yourself?

Career tips, financial advice, etc, etc

[Dr JonboyG]

Oakey said:

Flemke, any advice to those of us who aspire to be like yourself? Career tips, financial advice, etc, etc

Be good enough at whatever it is you do to be able to afford an F1?

[Oakey]

Dr JonboyG said:

Oakey said: Flemke, any advice to those of us who aspire to be like yourself? Career tips, financial advice, etc, etc Be good enough at whatever it is you do to be able to afford an F1?

I think it's a little more complicated than that. You're saying if you're a good burger flipper at McD's, or a great shelf stacker at ASDA, then you'll eventually be able to afford an F1?

[Nick J]

Hi Flemke

Regarding the suspension work that you have done on the car, have you got any evidence of the effectiveness of the changes? As in lap times of the Ring or other circuits, with lap times before and after? Did you ever have a goal as in the improvement in lap time or was it more a case of the way the car feels to drive rather than how much quicker you can make it?

(Please ignore if this question has been asked before)

Kind regards Nick

[Dr JonboyG]

Oakey said:

Dr JonboyG said: Oakey said: Flemke, any advice to those of us who aspire to be like yourself? Career tips, financial advice, etc, etc Be good enough at whatever it is you do to be able to afford an F1? I think it's a little more complicated than that. You're saying if you're a good burger flipper at McD's, or a great shelf stacker at ASDA, then you'll eventually be able to afford an F1?

Sure. If that's all you could do and you found some way to make it work for you. Say you're a burger flipper - perhaps you might, through excelling at flipping burgers, work out a way to flip them faster and cheaper than anyone else. Surely you could translate that to a few extra quid. Do it well enough, with enough motivation, and you could persuade McD's to buy your technique for the price of one of Woking's finest. But if all you can do is flip burgers, you might want to consider broadening your horizons.

[Oakey]

Dr JonboyG said:

Oakey said: Dr JonboyG said: Oakey said: Flemke, any advice to those of us who aspire to be like yourself? Career tips, financial advice, etc, etc Be good enough at whatever it is you do to be able to afford an F1? I think it's a little more complicated than that. You're saying if you're a good burger flipper at McD's, or a great shelf stacker at ASDA, then you'll eventually be able to afford an F1? Sure. If that's all you could do and you found some way to make it work for you. Say you're a burger flipper - perhaps you might, through excelling at flipping burgers, work out a way to flip them faster and cheaper than anyone else. Surely you could translate that to a few extra quid. Do it well enough, with enough motivation, and you could persuade McD's to buy your technique for the price of one of Woking's finest. But if all you can do is flip burgers, you might want to consider broadening your horizons.

Thankfully no, I'm a Graphic Designer, however I'm always interested in the advice and knowledge of my peers.