Flemke - Is this your McLaren?
Discussion
surely one of the best looking Macca F1s around. 
Flemke, as I am sure you will see this thread,, another Mclaren question if you don't mind.
I recently read an old road test from the mid '90's they mentioned that new buyers entered into a 42 page contract with Mclaren where one of the stipulations that they sell their car back to them should they wish to part with the car.
I have since seen Mclarens for sale at upmarket London mews garages for example, I wondered if Mclaren ever did exercise this part of the contract to buy the cars back from the initial owners or if there are any factory constraints still imposed upon current owners?
many thanks.
>> Edited by clubsport on Tuesday 6th December 17:36
I recently read an old road test from the mid '90's they mentioned that new buyers entered into a 42 page contract with Mclaren where one of the stipulations that they sell their car back to them should they wish to part with the car.
I have since seen Mclarens for sale at upmarket London mews garages for example, I wondered if Mclaren ever did exercise this part of the contract to buy the cars back from the initial owners or if there are any factory constraints still imposed upon current owners?
many thanks.
>> Edited by clubsport on Tuesday 6th December 17:36
BossCerbera/Tony - The first prototype, which they called the "Clinic Car", had mirrors on the A-pillar. When they took that car in for UK type-approval, the regulators rejected the mirrors because the rules as they were written at the time could not accomodate external mirrors at that particular position. (McL. after the fact said that they had never been sure how they would fit motors inside those mirror housings, which were small.) On the rest of the prototypes and production cars they took somebody else's mirror housings and mounted them atop rather ungainly stalks on the wings.
My car was produced in the middle of the production run. It was made for a very determined client who told McL. that because he was not planning on having the car in the UK, he saw no reason why the mirrors on his car could not be on the A-pillars. They agreed. As this discussion was going on, it happened that one of the technicians at McL. was thinking about buying a Z1. He realised that the Z1's mirrors might work on the F1, and in the event that's what they put on the car while it was in original production.
After that, I have been told, two clients-in-waiting became aware of this fellow's car and had the same mirrors put on their cars during their production. One of these is pictured in the F1 book. Two further cars have had the mirrors retro-fitted. All the rest of the road cars and race cars have them on the wings.
The mirrors work much better on the pillars than they do on the wings. I think the higher mirrors look better too.
rico/Batty/anniesdad - Yes, those are temporary wheels.
A substantial part of the handling, er, 'idiosyncrasies' stems from the F1's tyres. They are quite compliant, with that tall 45 aspect ratio and a surprisingly lightweight construction. That makes for a very comfortable ride but at the expense of stability. I wanted more of the latter.
I'll spare you some (but not all) of my verbosity, but for a better tyre we settled on the Bridgestones designed for the Enzo. They satisfied all of the many criteria that we had. Unfortunately they are 3kg each heavier than the originals. That's extra weight in nearly the worst possible place, but such is life.
The need for different tyres that fit on bigger wheels (19 v. 17) and which at the back are wider too created the need for different wheels. The F1 has centre-lock hubs with a bespoke diameter and pitch, so we needed to make new wheels from scratch.
BBS made up the two-piece wheels that are in the photo. We needed them to test the tyres. Now that we know that the tyres are right, and what we want the rim widths to be (you might choose different rim widths for a single tyre width), I'll have permanent wheels made. I will start with some 19" replicas of the originals and may later get a set in a very simple, classical design.
The originals are forged mag and very light. I have been informed that, because of the soundness of the original design, I can get 19" versions in forged mag, cast mag and 2021 aluminium that will weigh no more than the originals. Different wheel makers are recommending different materials. In each case, the material that they are recommending happens to be the same material in which they specialise - how amazing.
Their extra weight notwithstanding, the new tyres are a huge improvement on the old ones.
clubsport - Occasionally with an in-demand, low-production car manufacturers have stipulated that, perhaps for the first year of ownership, the owner could only sell the car back to the factory. With the Enzo the owner only leased the car for the first year, which amounted to the same thing.
I don't know if any such thing applied to the F1. I can tell you certainly that for a number of years nothing of the sort has applied. The factory sometimes will, for a fee, act as neutral agent between buyer and seller. The factory have no say whatsoever on to whom a car may be sold.
The London mews to which you refer is called "Taylor & Crawley". Its proprietor is the chap who for most of the F1 programme was its Marketing Manager. He knows most all the original owners and a number of the subsequent ones.
>> Edited by flemke on Tuesday 6th December 23:22
My car was produced in the middle of the production run. It was made for a very determined client who told McL. that because he was not planning on having the car in the UK, he saw no reason why the mirrors on his car could not be on the A-pillars. They agreed. As this discussion was going on, it happened that one of the technicians at McL. was thinking about buying a Z1. He realised that the Z1's mirrors might work on the F1, and in the event that's what they put on the car while it was in original production.
After that, I have been told, two clients-in-waiting became aware of this fellow's car and had the same mirrors put on their cars during their production. One of these is pictured in the F1 book. Two further cars have had the mirrors retro-fitted. All the rest of the road cars and race cars have them on the wings.
The mirrors work much better on the pillars than they do on the wings. I think the higher mirrors look better too.
rico/Batty/anniesdad - Yes, those are temporary wheels.
A substantial part of the handling, er, 'idiosyncrasies' stems from the F1's tyres. They are quite compliant, with that tall 45 aspect ratio and a surprisingly lightweight construction. That makes for a very comfortable ride but at the expense of stability. I wanted more of the latter.
I'll spare you some (but not all) of my verbosity, but for a better tyre we settled on the Bridgestones designed for the Enzo. They satisfied all of the many criteria that we had. Unfortunately they are 3kg each heavier than the originals. That's extra weight in nearly the worst possible place, but such is life.
The need for different tyres that fit on bigger wheels (19 v. 17) and which at the back are wider too created the need for different wheels. The F1 has centre-lock hubs with a bespoke diameter and pitch, so we needed to make new wheels from scratch.
BBS made up the two-piece wheels that are in the photo. We needed them to test the tyres. Now that we know that the tyres are right, and what we want the rim widths to be (you might choose different rim widths for a single tyre width), I'll have permanent wheels made. I will start with some 19" replicas of the originals and may later get a set in a very simple, classical design.
The originals are forged mag and very light. I have been informed that, because of the soundness of the original design, I can get 19" versions in forged mag, cast mag and 2021 aluminium that will weigh no more than the originals. Different wheel makers are recommending different materials. In each case, the material that they are recommending happens to be the same material in which they specialise - how amazing.
Their extra weight notwithstanding, the new tyres are a huge improvement on the old ones.
clubsport - Occasionally with an in-demand, low-production car manufacturers have stipulated that, perhaps for the first year of ownership, the owner could only sell the car back to the factory. With the Enzo the owner only leased the car for the first year, which amounted to the same thing.
I don't know if any such thing applied to the F1. I can tell you certainly that for a number of years nothing of the sort has applied. The factory sometimes will, for a fee, act as neutral agent between buyer and seller. The factory have no say whatsoever on to whom a car may be sold.
The London mews to which you refer is called "Taylor & Crawley". Its proprietor is the chap who for most of the F1 programme was its Marketing Manager. He knows most all the original owners and a number of the subsequent ones.
>> Edited by flemke on Tuesday 6th December 23:22
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