Flemke - Is this your McLaren? (Vol 5)
Discussion
E90_M3Ross said:
Love that when I find all other hyper-cars and upmarket retro/resto things a bit boring. Randy Winkman said:
E90_M3Ross said:
Love that when I find all other hyper-cars and upmarket retro/resto things a bit boring. E90_M3Ross said:
Indeed. A fantastic breath of fresh air. Truly remarkable engineering. It may, just may, have surpassed the F1 as my all time dream car. What a thing.
Was just thinking the same here. As an ownership experience being more modern and not needing the old laptop diagnostics etc should be an additional plus. It's not as pretty but I could live with that.flemke said:
I do not, because there is little that I can do with the cars I have now: cars that I love to drive under the right conditions, but sadly those conditions are very difficult to realise. That is partly because of my personal circumstances but also because of the driving environment that gets more hostile every day. Frustrating, but not much that I can do about it.
I fully agree that the current trend towards dropping speed limits that were perfectly safe for 50years from 30mph to 20mph probably isnt the best place to drive a fun car. And that's before we even recognise that todays tyres and brakes and ever intrusive active safety systems are 1000 times better than 50 years ago when the limits were introduced!I don't know where you live, but if its the UK, then there's plenty of other great roads across the continent that you may find fun to drive. Seems to be many a company that can transport your car somewhere for you, you arrive and drive for some days then you fly back and they bring the car back a few days later. There's always track days if that floats your boat.
Flemke - I’m very late to this thread again and confess to not having been through all 5 vol7mes to-date, but I have gone down a bit of a F1 rabbit hole over the festive break and discovered a lot of interesting stuff that’s passed me by over the years.
Still some great stories out there to be told about these amazing cars.
Can’t believe that chassis #007 sold for ‘only’ £350k in practically as-new condition once upon a time. Incredible. Fair play to Chris Palmer for using that car, and all his others over the years, but my goodness he must have wished he’d hung onto it if only for the fierce appreciation in value he could have enjoyed!
Would love to know the fate of chassis #004.
Likewise chassis #039 - the ‘Mexico’ car…
The saga of #069 was also unknown to me previously, including the infamous aborted mea-culpa article on here.
More mundane but what is the story with the ‘11’ registration here:
Is this a result of a recent race/road conversion and contemporary registration with DVLA?
Still some great stories out there to be told about these amazing cars.
Can’t believe that chassis #007 sold for ‘only’ £350k in practically as-new condition once upon a time. Incredible. Fair play to Chris Palmer for using that car, and all his others over the years, but my goodness he must have wished he’d hung onto it if only for the fierce appreciation in value he could have enjoyed!
Would love to know the fate of chassis #004.
Likewise chassis #039 - the ‘Mexico’ car…
The saga of #069 was also unknown to me previously, including the infamous aborted mea-culpa article on here.
More mundane but what is the story with the ‘11’ registration here:
Is this a result of a recent race/road conversion and contemporary registration with DVLA?
BunkMoreland said:
dscam said:
The saga of #069 was also unknown to me previously, including the infamous aborted mea-culpa article on here.
What saga? Adrian E said:
Google James Munroe and you'll find an extraordinary tale of a chap who managed to own both a road and race F1 BITD, whilst holding down a job paying circa £50k. It didn't end well (but that didn't stop him repeating the fraud which he committed to fund his hobby)
I knew the story of Munroe. I didn't know he was the original purchaser of 069. The "saga" seems to more related to getting the car registered in the USA by the 2nd owner. Obviously now it's residing in the UK with its relatively famous owner
BunkMoreland said:
Adrian E said:
Google James Munroe and you'll find an extraordinary tale of a chap who managed to own both a road and race F1 BITD, whilst holding down a job paying circa £50k. It didn't end well (but that didn't stop him repeating the fraud which he committed to fund his hobby)
I knew the story of Munroe. I didn't know he was the original purchaser of 069. The "saga" seems to more related to getting the car registered in the USA by the 2nd owner. Obviously now it's residing in the UK with its relatively famous owner
Good to see it’s finally in a good place back here in the UK.
thegreenhell said:
I believe that registration was photoshopped by EVO magazine so as not to give away the real registration number when they published their test drive.
Spot on. It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
flemke said:
thegreenhell said:
I believe that registration was photoshopped by EVO magazine so as not to give away the real registration number when they published their test drive.
Spot on. It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
Thanks both for the clarification.
flemke said:
Spot on.
It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
Just been wading through the whole "Flemke" thread that started a very long time ago!It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
I was going to ask if you've driven your F1 in the last 6 months. But given you've said previously you have other time commitments and its hard to get around to it. I'll ask if you have even seen it physically in the carbon and alloy in the last 6 months instead
BunkMoreland said:
flemke said:
Spot on.
It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
Just been wading through the whole "Flemke" thread that started a very long time ago!It amazes me that the DVLA are still willing to give out registered keeper's details to what must be thousands of third parties. The obvious thing to do would be for the DVLA instead to keep the address confidential and charge the enquiring third party a fee to contact the registered keeper on behalf of the third party. Then again, these are the same DVLA people who discontinued physical tax discs on the basis, as I recall, that doing so would save them £10m/yr, and the overall response was that their income from road tax dropped by something like £100m/yr.
I was going to ask if you've driven your F1 in the last 6 months. But given you've said previously you have other time commitments and its hard to get around to it. I'll ask if you have even seen it physically in the carbon and alloy in the last 6 months instead
I drove it during the summer (I think); if not then, I'm pretty sure I drove it earlier in the year..
barchetta_boy said:
Flemke I'm sure you've been asked this a million times, but quick thoughts on the P1? I'm thinking of taking the plunge
Well...in some ways it's a really nice car. The interior is laid out and works beautifully, the controls are nicely weighted, there is plenty of feel to the steering and brakes.
I'd say that the basic car looks good (obvs dependent on the spec and original owner's decisions) too.
My main reservation relates to the battery. AIUI, the 'fix' has been essentially to make the battery smaller, not to make it more robust. I would worry about that (as I would about the batteries in the 918 and LaFerrari).
There was also a big problem with the battery chargers, many of which became defective in short order and the cost of replacement was ludicrous (although there was an independent who claimed to be able to fix the chargers for quite reasonable money).
The car's engine note is fairly uninspiring. In addition, the car has a 'Whoosh!' sound which is artificially piped from the turbos into the cabin and just sounds stupid.
Also, on the outside the car is pretty big - the doors are almost unbelievably thick - and I don't care for big cars.
So you might love it, but be sure you have done your homework about the battery and charger (on which I may not be current).
Oh, one other thing: it's fast.
flemke said:
Well...
in some ways it's a really nice car. The interior is laid out and works beautifully, the controls are nicely weighted, there is plenty of feel to the steering and brakes.
I'd say that the basic car looks good (obvs dependent on the spec and original owner's decisions) too.
My main reservation relates to the battery. AIUI, the 'fix' has been essentially to make the battery smaller, not to make it more robust. I would worry about that (as I would about the batteries in the 918 and LaFerrari).
There was also a big problem with the battery chargers, many of which became defective in short order and the cost of replacement was ludicrous (although there was an independent who claimed to be able to fix the chargers for quite reasonable money).
The car's engine note is fairly uninspiring. In addition, the car has a 'Whoosh!' sound which is artificially piped from the turbos into the cabin and just sounds stupid.
Also, on the outside the car is pretty big - the doors are almost unbelievably thick - and I don't care for big cars.
So you might love it, but be sure you have done your homework about the battery and charger (on which I may not be current).
Oh, one other thing: it's fast.
I see what you did there.in some ways it's a really nice car. The interior is laid out and works beautifully, the controls are nicely weighted, there is plenty of feel to the steering and brakes.
I'd say that the basic car looks good (obvs dependent on the spec and original owner's decisions) too.
My main reservation relates to the battery. AIUI, the 'fix' has been essentially to make the battery smaller, not to make it more robust. I would worry about that (as I would about the batteries in the 918 and LaFerrari).
There was also a big problem with the battery chargers, many of which became defective in short order and the cost of replacement was ludicrous (although there was an independent who claimed to be able to fix the chargers for quite reasonable money).
The car's engine note is fairly uninspiring. In addition, the car has a 'Whoosh!' sound which is artificially piped from the turbos into the cabin and just sounds stupid.
Also, on the outside the car is pretty big - the doors are almost unbelievably thick - and I don't care for big cars.
So you might love it, but be sure you have done your homework about the battery and charger (on which I may not be current).
Oh, one other thing: it's fast.
stevesingo said:
flemke said:
Well...
in some ways it's a really nice car. The interior is laid out and works beautifully, the controls are nicely weighted, there is plenty of feel to the steering and brakes.
I'd say that the basic car looks good (obvs dependent on the spec and original owner's decisions) too.
My main reservation relates to the battery. AIUI, the 'fix' has been essentially to make the battery smaller, not to make it more robust. I would worry about that (as I would about the batteries in the 918 and LaFerrari).
There was also a big problem with the battery chargers, many of which became defective in short order and the cost of replacement was ludicrous (although there was an independent who claimed to be able to fix the chargers for quite reasonable money).
The car's engine note is fairly uninspiring. In addition, the car has a 'Whoosh!' sound which is artificially piped from the turbos into the cabin and just sounds stupid.
Also, on the outside the car is pretty big - the doors are almost unbelievably thick - and I don't care for big cars.
So you might love it, but be sure you have done your homework about the battery and charger (on which I may not be current).
Oh, one other thing: it's fast.
I see what you did there.in some ways it's a really nice car. The interior is laid out and works beautifully, the controls are nicely weighted, there is plenty of feel to the steering and brakes.
I'd say that the basic car looks good (obvs dependent on the spec and original owner's decisions) too.
My main reservation relates to the battery. AIUI, the 'fix' has been essentially to make the battery smaller, not to make it more robust. I would worry about that (as I would about the batteries in the 918 and LaFerrari).
There was also a big problem with the battery chargers, many of which became defective in short order and the cost of replacement was ludicrous (although there was an independent who claimed to be able to fix the chargers for quite reasonable money).
The car's engine note is fairly uninspiring. In addition, the car has a 'Whoosh!' sound which is artificially piped from the turbos into the cabin and just sounds stupid.
Also, on the outside the car is pretty big - the doors are almost unbelievably thick - and I don't care for big cars.
So you might love it, but be sure you have done your homework about the battery and charger (on which I may not be current).
Oh, one other thing: it's fast.
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