1988 McLaren MP4/4 Reference Material Help

[dr_gn]

Guys,

Can anyone recommend a book, or other source of reference material for the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 F1 car?

I'm looking for clear, highly detailed colour photographs of all mechanical aspects of the car.

Of course, taking a few pics for myself would be ideal, but not sure if this would be possible.

Thanks.

[Simes205]

Regarding pictures, an mp4/4 is normally at the FOS.

[dr_gn]

Simes205 said:

Regarding pictures, an mp4/4 is normally at the FOS.

Thanks for that - might well be my only chance. I think there are chassis at Donington and Beaulieu, but I expect the bodywork will be in place on both of them.

[williamp]

This is a good book which might help:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/McLaren-Honda-Turbo-Techni...

There is one at the Donington collection in the Mclaren hall. You might get a good look if you ask in advance, out of hours etc

From wikipedia:

An MP4/4, designed by Gordon Murray carrying chassis number 3 and being the only example of said model to not win a Grand Prix

[RJames]

williamp said:

There is one at the Donington collection in the Mclaren hall. You might get a good look if you ask in advance, out of hours etc

Not currently, i visited about a month back and there was no MP4-4 only a MP4-5 on view which was a shame. It was one of the car's i was looking forward to seeing. Might be worth phoning in advance to check if its back.

[bolle2]

Won't help you much, but saw a great Japanese book in Tokyo last year on the MP4/4.... Any many other great cars. After looking at street view, it's Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara.

[bolle2]

Might have been this one: http://www.hlj.com/product/sae61504

[Red Firecracker]

Ah, excellent, you're going to start it!

Here's some;

http://www.f1m.com/content/gallery/mclaren-mp44-re...

some more here, although I suspect duplicating above;

http://www.gurneyflap.com/mclarenmp44.html

[chevronb37]

I'd recommend speaking to William Taylor at the Coterie Press. I write for a magazine in the States which Coterie publishes. William wrote and took the photographs for a McLaren book recently which was ensorsed by the works. He may have photos you can use or the ear of someone at the factory who could help. Good luck.

Link: http://www.coteriepress.com/Book/McLaren-The-Cars?...

[FeelingLucky]

williamp said:

From wikipedia:

An MP4/4, designed by Gordon Murray carrying chassis number 3 and being the only example of said model to not win a Grand Prix

The MP4/4 was NOT designed by Gordon Murray, it was largely a Steve Nichols design, with input from Murray.

[dr_gn]

Thanks very much for all the useful info guys - some nice pics there RF.

Main issue if figuring out what finish of fibre the chassis has; the area around the cockpit opening looks like black unidirectional carbon (maybe with a plastic or alloy scuff cover on it), and the areas to the front and rear of this look like a woven amber kevlar type of fibre. The nose section looks like woven carbon. I've got a few pics I took at the '88 BGP in the McLaren pit, but they aren't great. Any decent pictures I've found make the materials look inconsistent. Carbon / Kevlar is notoriously difficult to judge in terms of colour, since it changes with lighting and age.

I need the info to finally make a start on this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I'd like to model it as raced at Silverstone '88. IIRC I think the snorkel turbo intakes were removed at some point during that race weekend, but replaced for the race on at least one car due to Senna complaining that the modification had disrupted balance. They were eventually removed permanently during the season.

Then again I'm undecided whether the car looks better with Marlboro decals, or the Silverstone spec. barcode logo...

[Red Firecracker]

These Youtube videos might be handy as well;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z0hjQryQGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxV1NwfT3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meo5TkWkbL4

ETA:

These 'biggify' nicely when clicked;

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/08/13/lewis-hamilt...

Edited by Red Firecracker on Monday 18th March 12:02

[Eric Mc]

Is there one in the McLaren collection at Woking?

[Red Firecracker]

And more;


http://www.flickr.com/photos/antsphoto/8119864500/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grumit/6871186830/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgtagawa/7929493604/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgtagawa/7929501238/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kartingnord/677483230...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106702965/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106705835/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106705137/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106702697/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106704783/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106702425/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keroyon_/8106706149/

[dr_gn]

Thanks RF & everyone else.

TBH I think I've got what I need now.

RF, I want to stick with Scale Motorsport carbon decals. Any ideas which in their range would be the best matches?

[Red Firecracker]

I'd have to do some research on that but Modelworks have some good detail on their product description pages;

http://www.modelworks.co.uk/index.php?route=produc...

as do Scale Motorsport themselves of course;

http://store.scalemotorsport.com/merchant2/merchan...

One thing that a lot of people do is to downscale the fiber decals, so for a 1:20th scale model, use 1:24th scale decals. Obviously not to much choice if you're building 1:43rd! Scale Motorpsort also do 'clear fiber' which you apply to the colour of your choice, so paint the base colour, and then apply the weave decal and then you have fiber effect. I think you'll be doing a lot of toning down though.

I've just had some Scale Motorsport fiber delivered today and also some BBR which is mucho cheaper and from first glance is identical.

[dr_gn]

Red Firecracker said:

I'd have to do some research on that but Modelworks have some good detail on their product description pages;

http://www.modelworks.co.uk/index.php?route=produc...

as do Scale Motorsport themselves of course;

http://store.scalemotorsport.com/merchant2/merchan...

One thing that a lot of people do is to downscale the fiber decals, so for a 1:20th scale model, use 1:24th scale decals. Obviously not to much choice if you're building 1:43rd! Scale Motorpsort also do 'clear fiber' which you apply to the colour of your choice, so paint the base colour, and then apply the weave decal and then you have fiber effect. I think you'll be doing a lot of toning down though.

I've just had some Scale Motorsport fiber delivered today and also some BBR which is mucho cheaper and from first glance is identical.

Thanks, I'll have a browse. For the XJR9 I used twill weave black/pewter 1:24 (it was a 1:24 model), and it looked OK. Effectively I had no option to downscale it. I also used overscale 1:20 F1 seatbelts and they looked fine too...

[Red Firecracker]

You might find this interesting. It contains a good description of getting a colour match on a Hercules produced monocoque (MP4/6 rather than MP4/4, but);

http://members.shaw.ca/bil_attridge/Gallery/Formul...

comes from this interesting thread on F1M;

http://www.f1m.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=...

[dr_gn]

Red Firecracker said:

You might find this interesting. It contains a good description of getting a colour match on a Hercules produced monocoque (MP4/6 rather than MP4/4, but);

http://members.shaw.ca/bil_attridge/Gallery/Formul...

comes from this interesting thread on F1M;

http://www.f1m.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=...

Thanks RF - very useful info there.

I'm glad it's not just me who sees different colour fibre depending on how or where I see it!