Flemke - Is this your McLaren? (Vol 5)

[flemke]

F1natic said:

Nice one piece design, not tempted to make it in carbon fibre?

Not at all. There are some things that don't need to be made of carbon fibre, and IMO something this small and complex is one of those things. In any case, I like CNC'd metal!

[S1KRR]

flemke said:

As far as other owners modifying their cars, there was one guy in Japan....

Thanks

Over to Erik/Greg for a pic of

flemke said:

...apart from the American chap who put some strange wheels on his car - they didn't last long!

Wasn't this one was it?

flemke said:

I had not told him that I was going to have them made up. After they were finished, I said that I was coming down to give him something; he had no idea what it was. When I handed it to him, it took him only a few seconds before he said, "The bracket on a bracket!"

I saw a while back that the current owner of 061 visited Gordon Murray Design.

I know you've said before you eschew the "owners club" events. And obviously you've owned the car a long time (more than many) But surely you aren't able to just "pop round for a natter" with GM at will. Little heads up Shirley?

[flemke]

S1KRR said:

flemke said:

As far as other owners modifying their cars, there was one guy in Japan....

Thanks

Over to Erik/Greg for a pic of

flemke said:

...apart from the American chap who put some strange wheels on his car - they didn't last long!

Wasn't this one was it?

flemke said:

I had not told him that I was going to have them made up. After they were finished, I said that I was coming down to give him something; he had no idea what it was. When I handed it to him, it took him only a few seconds before he said, "The bracket on a bracket!"

I saw a while back that the current owner of 061 visited Gordon Murray Design.

I know you've said before you eschew the "owners club" events. And obviously you've owned the car a long time (more than many) But surely you aren't able to just "pop round for a natter" with GM at will. Little heads up Shirley?

The car with the strange wheels was, IIRC, owned by Wyclef Jean. I don't have an image of it, but someone will do.

The car in your image looks like chassis #073, no relation to the WJ car.
Those wheels were a factory option. After the 1997 Le Mans, when the GTR long-tails first used similar multi-multi-spoke wheels, MSO had OZ make up ten sets in the road car sizes. They sold just the one set as seen on this car, one of the two cars to have the LM engine retrofitted to it.

Re Gordon, I called first to make sure he would be there. It would have been stupid to drive down there and find that he was away.

[Petrus1983]

I had no idea WJ had owned an F1 - I’ve found this video of it -

https://youtu.be/2fdb6BLxV2k

Not the most informative of videos unless you want a description on how doors open

[flemke]

Petrus1983 said:

I had no idea WJ had owned an F1 - I’ve found this video of it -

https://youtu.be/2fdb6BLxV2k

Not the most informative of videos unless you want a description on how doors open

The ownership was brief and, as I understood it, shared with another person.
I never knew much about his music, but I give the man credit for agreeing to be part of a witty advertisement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgocnaG4n0o

'Momma needs love!'

[Petrus1983]

That’s brilliant- I haven’t seen that in years!

More about the ex-WJ car here if anyone’s interested, one of the posters seems to know it’s history quite well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Autos/comments/ahd0z3/rar...

[flemke]

Petrus1983 said:

That’s brilliant- I haven’t seen that in years!

More about the ex-WJ car here if anyone’s interested, one of the posters seems to know it’s history quite well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Autos/comments/ahd0z3/rar...

The car that WJ briefly owned - #022 - I had looked at a few years before and probably would have bought but for a lucky coincidence that enabled me to see the car I did buy later the same day that I saw #022.

[Petrus1983]

flemke said:

The car that WJ briefly owned - #022 - I had looked at a few years before and probably would have bought but for a lucky coincidence that enabled me to see the car I did buy later the same day that I saw #022.

Yes - McLaren F1’s are certainly the buses of the automotive world

A poster on Reddit mentions a dr owned the car prior to WJ - does that seem correct?

[flemke]

Petrus1983 said:

flemke said:

The car that WJ briefly owned - #022 - I had looked at a few years before and probably would have bought but for a lucky coincidence that enabled me to see the car I did buy later the same day that I saw #022.

Yes - McLaren F1’s are certainly the buses of the automotive world

A poster on Reddit mentions a dr owned the car prior to WJ - does that seem correct?

It's public knowledge that the first owner of that car was Dr Thomas Bscher. (I don't know what sort of 'doctor' he was; in Germany it seems that you can become a 'doctor' by passing three A-levels.) Originally the car was a metallic dark blue on the outside and trimmed with...drum roll...green and yellow leather.

[Petrus1983]

Wow - classy

Turns out the Dr was a banker who ended up President of Bugatti Automobiles rather than a medical Dr. Perhaps the link to Bugatti was part of the reason for letting go of the F1?

Edited by Petrus1983 on Thursday 5th March 01:56

[stevesingo]

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

[Petrus1983]

stevesingo said:

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

[flemke]

Petrus1983 said:

Wow - classy

Turns out the Dr was a banker who ended up President of Bugatti Automobiles rather than a medical Dr. Perhaps the link to Bugatti was part of the reason for letting go of the F1?

Not related. There was a gap of at least a couple of years between when he sold the F1 (road car, he also had a GTR which he kept for longer) and when he joined Bugatti. He actually did a good job at Bugatti. Before he joined them the Veyron project was in trouble.

[flemke]

stevesingo said:

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

That was the story, started I think by Car magazine.
The reality was that the ECU recorded the top speed measured, not the entire history of one's speed. The magazine also mis-reported that he commuted daily in his F1. The reality was that he commuted via the A3 autobahn one day a week from his home in Köln to his office in Frankfurt, and he did not normally drive the F1. The 200+mph 'commute' was just his top speed one outing in the car.
In fairness, he did drive the car a reasonable amount. When I saw it in early 2001 it had 18,000 km on the clock.

[stevesingo]

flemke said:

stevesingo said:

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

That was the story, started I think by Car magazine.
The reality was that the ECU recorded the top speed measured, not the entire history of one's speed. The magazine also mis-reported that he commuted daily in his F1. The reality was that he commuted via the A3 autobahn one day a week from his home in Köln to his office in Frankfurt, and he did not normally drive the F1. The 200+mph 'commute' was just his top speed one outing in the car.
In fairness, he did drive the car a reasonable amount. When I saw it in early 2001 it had 18,000 km on the clock.

Something of an urban myth then.

[flemke]

stevesingo said:

flemke said:

stevesingo said:

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

That was the story, started I think by Car magazine.
The reality was that the ECU recorded the top speed measured, not the entire history of one's speed. The magazine also mis-reported that he commuted daily in his F1. The reality was that he commuted via the A3 autobahn one day a week from his home in Köln to his office in Frankfurt, and he did not normally drive the F1. The 200+mph 'commute' was just his top speed one outing in the car.
In fairness, he did drive the car a reasonable amount. When I saw it in early 2001 it had 18,000 km on the clock.

Something of an urban myth then.

It had a core of truth but became exaggerated by the media and developed into an urban myth.

[F1natic]

Hi Flemke,

I am curious about the progressive throttle linkage, has yours ever needed any maintenance? It looks like a very simple and reliable system, especially the chain at the end, is that sourced from a bicycle?

Thanks to EVO for sticking a camera in the engine bay while comparing the F1 to the P1, great place for them to place a microphone too;

[flemke]

F1natic said:

Hi Flemke,

I am curious about the progressive throttle linkage, has yours ever needed any maintenance? It looks like a very simple and reliable system, especially the chain at the end, is that sourced from a bicycle?

Thanks to EVO for sticking a camera in the engine bay while comparing the F1 to the P1, great place for them to place a microphone too;

I don't think I have ever heard anyone at McLaren mention it. It must be as low-maintenance as it is possible for a moving part to be.

[bolidemichael]

flemke said:

stevesingo said:

flemke said:

stevesingo said:

Is that the same Dr chap who when McLaren interrogated the ECU was informed of a fault. Until he explained that he regularly exceeded 300kph on his way to and from work.

That was the story, started I think by Car magazine.
The reality was that the ECU recorded the top speed measured, not the entire history of one's speed. The magazine also mis-reported that he commuted daily in his F1. The reality was that he commuted via the A3 autobahn one day a week from his home in Köln to his office in Frankfurt, and he did not normally drive the F1. The 200+mph 'commute' was just his top speed one outing in the car.
In fairness, he did drive the car a reasonable amount. When I saw it in early 2001 it had 18,000 km on the clock.

Something of an urban myth then.

It had a core of truth but became exaggerated by the media and developed into an urban myth.

On the Collecting Cars Podcast - Episode 2 with David Clark from 26:50 he refers to an owner (Dr Ferdinand Piech, I think) that was very demanding and made continual performance metric feedback notes to the McLaren team - he doesn't confirm, but doesn't deny Ed Lovett's interjection that he would regularly max the car on the autobahn and complain of noise at 230mph.

[flemke]

bolidemichael said:

On the Collecting Cars Podcast - Episode 2 with David Clark from 26:50 he refers to an owner (Dr Ferdinand Piech, I think) that was very demanding and made continual performance metric feedback notes to the McLaren team - he doesn't confirm, but doesn't deny Ed Lovett's interjection that he would regularly max the car on the autobahn and complain of noise at 230mph.

Clark may have said or implied that, but it would be incorrect. With the factory rev-limiter (which they will not alter for a customer), on fresh tyres (that is to say, with the biggest possible diameter), the car's Vmax is 223 or 224.
AFAIK, Piech never owned a car. He would have been talking about Dr Thomas Bscher.