Flemke - Is this your McLaren? (Vol 5)
Discussion
flemke said:
ot sure whether, if I got one, I would mention it here. This thread is enjoyable (at least for me), and I have learned a lot through it, but its origins were unique (I hope).
In about 2000, there was a PHer calling himself 'Jon Dokic'. He came on here and said that he had an F1 and often he would talk about what the car was like, things he had done with it, dealing with the factory, et al. At that time there was not much else in the public domain about life with the cars; this was before we had accounts from people such as Jay Leno, Rowan Atkinson, Nick Mason, and Ralph Lauren, and pretty much the only magazine road tests or drives were one in Autocar and another in Road & Track.
After I had had my car for a while, I started to notice that what 'Jon Dokic' wrote about his experiences with the factory were quite different from my own experiences, although they conformed to media myths about the car and factory. I thought that slightly odd, but presumed that my experiences had simply been different from what was typical.
Then in I guess it was late 2003 some intrepid PH sleuths expressed their suspicion that 'Jon Dokic' was not only an invented user name but an invented life, and that the person behind the name could not possibly be the owner of an F1. In the ensuing months, the net began to tighten
This was followed by a sad posting from someone claiming to be Mrs Jon Dokic (IIRC) saying that Jon had recently passed away, but she wanted the PH community to know how much Pistonheads had meant to Jon and she wanted to thank everyone on it for giving Jon so much pleasure before his life was tragically cut short.
Now it was obvious that the cynics had been entirely right. Although I had been reading the forum for several years (because of that Cerbera), I was not a member/poster. After the Dokic sham, I felt offended on behalf of McLaren F1s, in the sense that a load of complete misinformation had been foisted upon the public. I contacted Dave (founder and then-boss and -owner of PH) and told him that, if he thought members would be interested, I would be happy to answer questions about what it was like to live with an F1, thus setting the record straight after 'Jon Dokic' had distorted it.
That being the history of these Flemke/McLaren F1 threads, I do not expect another imposter to come on here and pretend that he has a T.50 and then tell us all about it!
Very interesting, I didn't know any of that as only picked up the thread much more recently than its inception. I hope you enjoy your F1 for many years to come and at least keep this thread going as like many others it is my dream car but not something I could own without some sort of divine (i.e. Euromillions) intervention.In about 2000, there was a PHer calling himself 'Jon Dokic'. He came on here and said that he had an F1 and often he would talk about what the car was like, things he had done with it, dealing with the factory, et al. At that time there was not much else in the public domain about life with the cars; this was before we had accounts from people such as Jay Leno, Rowan Atkinson, Nick Mason, and Ralph Lauren, and pretty much the only magazine road tests or drives were one in Autocar and another in Road & Track.
After I had had my car for a while, I started to notice that what 'Jon Dokic' wrote about his experiences with the factory were quite different from my own experiences, although they conformed to media myths about the car and factory. I thought that slightly odd, but presumed that my experiences had simply been different from what was typical.
Then in I guess it was late 2003 some intrepid PH sleuths expressed their suspicion that 'Jon Dokic' was not only an invented user name but an invented life, and that the person behind the name could not possibly be the owner of an F1. In the ensuing months, the net began to tighten
This was followed by a sad posting from someone claiming to be Mrs Jon Dokic (IIRC) saying that Jon had recently passed away, but she wanted the PH community to know how much Pistonheads had meant to Jon and she wanted to thank everyone on it for giving Jon so much pleasure before his life was tragically cut short.
Now it was obvious that the cynics had been entirely right. Although I had been reading the forum for several years (because of that Cerbera), I was not a member/poster. After the Dokic sham, I felt offended on behalf of McLaren F1s, in the sense that a load of complete misinformation had been foisted upon the public. I contacted Dave (founder and then-boss and -owner of PH) and told him that, if he thought members would be interested, I would be happy to answer questions about what it was like to live with an F1, thus setting the record straight after 'Jon Dokic' had distorted it.
That being the history of these Flemke/McLaren F1 threads, I do not expect another imposter to come on here and pretend that he has a T.50 and then tell us all about it!
flemke said:
Saying that, the fact is that the vast majority of Valkyrie buyers will not be able to get anywhere remotely near the limits of what the Valkyrie is designed to do, whereas most T.50 owners will be able to access more of what the T.50 is designed to do.
The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
I'd argue noone gets anywhere near the limits of most performance cars but that doesn't prevent enjoyment of them The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
regardless of whether it's childish or illogical I can imagine there's something special about having your Valkyrie sat in your garage and just knowing how insanely futuristic the performance and capability is - and it's probably a similar feeling the first wave of F1 owners had !
WCZ said:
flemke said:
Saying that, the fact is that the vast majority of Valkyrie buyers will not be able to get anywhere remotely near the limits of what the Valkyrie is designed to do, whereas most T.50 owners will be able to access more of what the T.50 is designed to do.
The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
I'd argue noone gets anywhere near the limits of most performance cars but that doesn't prevent enjoyment of them The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
regardless of whether it's childish or illogical I can imagine there's something special about having your Valkyrie sat in your garage and just knowing how insanely futuristic the performance and capability is - and it's probably a similar feeling the first wave of F1 owners had !
For the average driver who happens to be rich to own a Valkyrie is akin to the average recreational pilot who happens to be rich to own an F-35 Lightning. Okay, he possesses it, can fantasise about it, can look at it, et al, but at the same time it seems like a waste (of a lot of things).
Sway said:
Based on that response.
I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
Sway - Is this your T.50?I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
flemke said:
Like the F1 was, the T.50 is intended to be the ultimate road car. It is good looking as opposed to the Valyrie's being ugly, it's got a manual 'box for driver involvement, you can enter and leave the car fairly easily as opposed to with great difficulty, it's got pretty decent carrying capacity as opposed to the small amount in all other modern 'hypercars' and none in the Valkyrie, it's got relatively narrow tyres and a soft suspension.
The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
Sounds like you should get yourself one. The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
flemke said:
Sway said:
Based on that response.
I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
Sway - Is this your T.50?I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
Clever high voltage dynamo in it - gives more power to the steering so you can really stick it on the apex at will.
Hit 3g lateral on 130r the other day. Gordon wanted someone he knew could really work the car, so we chartered a flight to give the beast a little shakedown. Had to take it easy though - that engine takes 14.6k miles to properly run in.
Motegi is a great track.
flemke said:
S1KRR said:
TyrannosauRoss Lex said:
I think it's probably been answered but do we know if Flemke is getting one?
He is not. He was offered a build slot, but declined afaik.
Jules Sunley said:
Very interesting, I didn't know any of that as only picked up the thread much more recently than its inception. I hope you enjoy your F1 for many years to come and at least keep this thread going as like many others it is my dream car but not something I could own without some sort of divine (i.e. Euromillions) intervention.
More of a general question.How much more can we learn about the McLaren F1 nowadays? Even as a fan of the thing, and appreciative of the time Flemke has put into answering various sensible and not so sensible questions over the years. I think we're into the diminishing returns now. I think many, like myself, have a copy of Driving Ambition to flick through if we need a particular fact
Like you Jules, it's about 99.9999% unlikely I'll ever own one, drive one or even ride in one. (and that's 100% NOT a begging request to any owners reading
) But thanks to the threads I know a great deal about the cars. And I imagine our resident F1 experts Erik and Greg know even more than everyone outside the factory!How much longer can this thread realistically go?
For long time readers of the thread - there's plenty of life left in it...
We've had periods where the bulk of the discussion was relating to typefaces that have lasted weeks if not months.
50s stock car liveries.
A billon shades of blue (plus of course "squiggle-gate"...
Then - as has been alluded to recently, Flemke has projects that would last most people a few weeks at most instead take months /years. As I understand it, the F1 isn't finished!
Plus, there's a Healey that surely one day must get finished?
We've had periods where the bulk of the discussion was relating to typefaces that have lasted weeks if not months.
50s stock car liveries.
A billon shades of blue (plus of course "squiggle-gate"...
Then - as has been alluded to recently, Flemke has projects that would last most people a few weeks at most instead take months /years. As I understand it, the F1 isn't finished!
Plus, there's a Healey that surely one day must get finished?
AlmostUseful said:
flemke said:
Like the F1 was, the T.50 is intended to be the ultimate road car. It is good looking as opposed to the Valyrie's being ugly, it's got a manual 'box for driver involvement, you can enter and leave the car fairly easily as opposed to with great difficulty, it's got pretty decent carrying capacity as opposed to the small amount in all other modern 'hypercars' and none in the Valkyrie, it's got relatively narrow tyres and a soft suspension.
The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
Sounds like you should get yourself one. The T.50 is a car intended for grown-ups. The Valkyrie....
Sway said:
flemke said:
Sway said:
Based on that response.
I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
Sway - Is this your T.50?I can confirm in a PH exclusive I have an order in for a T.50, and will gladly regale everyone about everything I can invent relating to it.
If "someone" wishes to call me out, and correct the record, then that's up to them...
Clever high voltage dynamo in it - gives more power to the steering so you can really stick it on the apex at will.
Hit 3g lateral on 130r the other day. Gordon wanted someone he knew could really work the car, so we chartered a flight to give the beast a little shakedown. Had to take it easy though - that engine takes 14.6k miles to properly run in.
Motegi is a great track.
S1KRR said:
More of a general question.
How much more can we learn about the McLaren F1 nowadays? Even as a fan of the thing, and appreciative of the time Flemke has put into answering various sensible and not so sensible questions over the years. I think we're into the diminishing returns now. I think many, like myself, have a copy of Driving Ambition to flick through if we need a particular fact
Like you Jules, it's about 99.9999% unlikely I'll ever own one, drive one or even ride in one. (and that's 100% NOT a begging request to any owners reading ) But thanks to the threads I know a great deal about the cars. And I imagine our resident F1 experts Erik and Greg know even more than everyone outside the factory!
How much longer can this thread realistically go?
Depends on the subject. For me, the most interesting parts have related to such non-F1 topics as lettering, art, paint jobs, the ethics of racing, and other road cars.How much more can we learn about the McLaren F1 nowadays? Even as a fan of the thing, and appreciative of the time Flemke has put into answering various sensible and not so sensible questions over the years. I think we're into the diminishing returns now. I think many, like myself, have a copy of Driving Ambition to flick through if we need a particular fact
Like you Jules, it's about 99.9999% unlikely I'll ever own one, drive one or even ride in one. (and that's 100% NOT a begging request to any owners reading
) But thanks to the threads I know a great deal about the cars. And I imagine our resident F1 experts Erik and Greg know even more than everyone outside the factory!How much longer can this thread realistically go?
Swampy1982 said:
flemke said:
post about origin of thread
I love these threads and get to learn lots about cars, blues and handwriting... but what keeps you coming back year after year?flemke said:
What keeps me coming back? I enjoy the topics, I often learn stuff, and the F1 is a favourite subject to discuss with my virtual friends (and critics).
Your ongoing participation is appreciated my many, myself included...this is one of the few threads I regularly check on PH nowadays although my eyes do glaze over a bit when you're talking pushbikes 
Powderpuff said:
flemke said:
What keeps me coming back? I enjoy the topics, I often learn stuff, and the F1 is a favourite subject to discuss with my virtual friends (and critics).
Your ongoing participation is appreciated my many, myself included...this is one of the few threads I regularly check on PH nowadays flemke said:
What keeps me coming back? I enjoy the topics, I often learn stuff, and the F1 is a favourite subject to discuss with my virtual friends (and critics).
What about your non virtual friends? Do they want to discuss the F1 at length from time to time or do they "quite frankly my dear .. don't give a damn" h0b0 said:
flemke said:
Tempting, tempting...but there are issues.
I suspect you feel more comfortable pointing out issues on a McLaren than the T50 out of respect for Gordon. I can appreciate that. I simplistically thought that Mr F had the usual problem of collectors in that he doesn't get that much time to drive the cars he already owns, much less add more to the fleet!
Which begs another question. How long has it been since Flemke bought or sold a car? Some of these collectors are constantly changing, some buy the cars they want and virtually never change what's in the garage.
Has Flemke ever posted a pic from inside his Ironman style toy cave?
(Picture is not Flemke)
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff