RE: McLaren F1 GTR goes to auction
Discussion
rubystone said:
AlexS said:
Cost.
It is massively expensive to make a pure race car that can also be homologated for road use, especially in the low numbers involved.
Except...as Gordon told me over a bowl of pasta in '95 in a wet cold place in France....'we don't want to race it really...it's first and foremost a road car, but our customers want to, which is why we are here'It is massively expensive to make a pure race car that can also be homologated for road use, especially in the low numbers involved.
Hence the rules were changed to reduce the cost of GT1 and slow them down relative to the prototypes.
lauda said:
I'm guessing that being a longtail, and not of road-going spec, this particular car will fetch a fair bit less than a standard F1. Wasn't there a dealer in London that had a longtail knocking around for quite a few years that they were struggling to sell?
Yup. CarsInternational in South Ken had a Papaya longtail for years.http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
As you can se its CIA 4. Which IIRC was the James Munroe car (dodgy accountant that embezzled his clients)
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=986...
Cars International renamed as Hexagon Classics http://www.hexagonclassics.com
AlexS said:
The Nissan R390 GT1, Toyota GT-One and Mercedes CLK-GTR were basically pure race cars which could just about be eased through road homologation but that requirement massively increased the costs compared to if they had been prototypes.
Hence the rules were changed to reduce the cost of GT1 and slow them down relative to the prototypes.
Yep and the Porsche GT 1-98 tooHence the rules were changed to reduce the cost of GT1 and slow them down relative to the prototypes.
Can you imagine the costs, manpower and issues surrounding the running of this car as a track day toy!!! To return it to a road going concern would be close to £400,000 without paying McLaren tax!!! Wonderful but only for the very wealthy collector. Am sure it will sell for upwards of £5,000,000.
The Leaper said:
chevronb37,
I was also at Donnington in 1997, in the grandstand above the pits. I agree all you say about the Mercedes pit crew. It was a great day, although the weather was rather bleak and foggy at the start as I recall.
R.
What a coincidence! I have no recollection of the weather from Donington. Of course the terrible rain at Silverstone wasn't so easily forgotten. I was also at Donnington in 1997, in the grandstand above the pits. I agree all you say about the Mercedes pit crew. It was a great day, although the weather was rather bleak and foggy at the start as I recall.
R.
We were above the pitlane again in 1998 and actually appeared on the podium TV footage - Mark Webber ended up spraying champagne all over us. 1997 was the beginning of the end for GT racing, of course. The R390, GT-One and CLK-GTR all ruined a wonderful era of racing.
I cannot really understand the fascination with converting racing cars to road specification. This is a slice of racing history and doesn't really need to become a road car. I realise I'm way out of step with the majority of opinions on Pistonheads though.
RosscoPCole said:
Both road legal I believe.
It now looks like this. It's original racing livery from 1997 when it was run by Parabolica Motorsport.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antsphoto/5938999617/ - credit to antsphoto/Anthony Fosh
The bottom one is road legal though, it's actually a GT version, the homologation car for the longtail GTR's. That chassis should be #XP56GT and is still owned by McLaren.
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