McLaren F1 GTR onboard: Time For Tea?

Nothing unexpected here, but then when you're expecting something close to perfection...

It could be longer. And it would be nice to have actual race footage. To be honest, we'd also be happy with just the onboard view. Other than that, how is it possible to grumble about an F1 GTR onboard?

There's no particular reason for featuring this video today, being as it is two and a half years old and the F1 still revered to the same deity-like level. Nothing has changed in our relationship with the car and its achievements, so perhaps see this instead as a reminder of just how fabulous the GTR is.

The particular F1 driven here is chassis #17R, Team Bigazzi's car for the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hours; driven by Nelson Piquet, Johnny Cecotto and Danny Sullivan, it finished 8th overall. That's not of any great importance here though; any F1 GTR would provide a similar experience on camera.

It's the divine combination of the fairly modern - the grip, the speed, the carbon fibre - with the traditional sportscar racer - big V12, manual gearbox, road car roots - that make the motorsport F1 so utterly compelling. It existed in a period of road car racers that are unlikely to exist again, making it all the more special. Just four years after the McLaren F1 won at Le Mans, the BMW V12 LMR took victory at La Sarthe; sure, the engine was related, but look at how different the end result was.

Anyway, enough eulogising - who hasn't heard it all before? Sit back, turn it up and enjoy one of the finest V12s ever created. Again.