Flemke - Is this your McLaren? (Vol 5)
Discussion
Petrus1983 said:
F1natic said:
I’ve seen this photo before and hadn’t noticed those front discs glowing before!! I believe it is Flemkes but perhaps not with him driving. Your project continues to impress F1natic 
Archie2050 said:
Petrus1983 said:
Does the F1 have cabin adjustable brake bias?The F1 road car [non HDF kitted ones] does have an 'adjustable' 'Brake Balance Foil' or BBF or more commonly 'spoiler' that you can adjust from within the cabin (utilising the top knob on the left hand side dash pod, with its 3 settings) as well as the car activating under braking)
and in addition, IIRC, the location of the recently added photo was an airfield (?) close to Manthey / used by Manthey Racing for testing (?)
and in addition, IIRC, the location of the recently added photo was an airfield (?) close to Manthey / used by Manthey Racing for testing (?)
Archie2050 said:
Does that adjust the brakes or just the spoiler though? Are you not allowed to have a hydraulic brake balance valve adjuster on a road car? I'm sure some road legal cars have this?
It just adjusts the BBF - so something to do with the braking can be adjusted within the cabin [bar pressing the foot harder / softer on the middle pedal] but there is no brake bias adjustment, apart from on the GTR's [which in turn don't have the cabin-adjustable BBF..]Archie2050 said:
Does that adjust the brakes or just the spoiler though? Are you not allowed to have a hydraulic brake balance valve adjuster on a road car? I'm sure some road legal cars have this?
My understanding is you're not allowed a balance valve adjuster in cabin on a road car. At least, when submitting for Type Approval/SVA.Post delivery fitment is entirely different - a MOT Tester isn't going to fail your car for having one.
Flemke, having recently confined my XJR to the scrap yard courtesy of losing a battle with a pothole, my desire to buy a supercar if/when I win the lottery is withering. I don't think I could reconcile the desire to drive it enthusiastically with worrying about what a pothole incident would result in. How do you endure your occasional road trips on our pseudo-rally stages that our roads now mimic?
F1natic said:
Yes, with a friend driving. Photo is from about 10 years ago IIRC.That is with carbon-carbon, not carbon-ceramic, discs.
With the special treatment they worked fine when new or newly resurfaced, but seemed eventually to oxidise, which worked against the CoF at low temps, which of course is the whole issue with carbon-carbon discs. We have had C-C discs from another manufacturer made using a different process, not sure when I'll try them out. The car has iron discs at the moment; with my LMP calipers they work really well.
hurstg01]The F1 road car [non HDF kitted ones said:
does have an 'adjustable' 'Brake Balance Foil' or BBF or more commonly 'spoiler' that you can adjust from within the cabin (utilising the top knob on the left hand side dash pod, with its 3 settings) as well as the car activating under braking)
and in addition, IIRC, the location of the recently added photo was an airfield (?) close to Manthey / used by Manthey Racing for testing (?)
Correct. I drove the car from Manthey to the airfield (maybe 30 miles) and back again on those carbon-carbon discs. They were perfectly fine, no problems at all.and in addition, IIRC, the location of the recently added photo was an airfield (?) close to Manthey / used by Manthey Racing for testing (?)
robinessex said:
Flemke, having recently confined my XJR to the scrap yard courtesy of losing a battle with a pothole, my desire to buy a supercar if/when I win the lottery is withering. I don't think I could reconcile the desire to drive it enthusiastically with worrying about what a pothole incident would result in. How do you endure your occasional road trips on our pseudo-rally stages that our roads now mimic?
Sorry to hear about your car. 
Truth to tell, I don't drive the car that much anymore. Having put something like 37,000 mi on it myself, I have got my money's worth.
I would think that hitting potholes in dry weather during the day is much less likely than at night or in the rain, and usually I would not be driving it that much in those conditions (although of course over the years I have done many times).
We can have different definitions of 'enthusiastically'. I dealt with my attraction to that largely by getting into racing. These days, on public roads, if I am able to do a nice gearshift or steer the car exactly as I am trying to do through a bend, I am satisfied, at least for that moment.
flemke said:
Truth to tell, I don't drive the car that much anymore. Having put something like 37,000 mi on it myself, I have got my money's worth.
Do you ever think about selling the F1, particularly with where current values are? Or has it become one of those objects that it's just nice to know that you own it, even if you rarely use it?flemke said:
F1natic said:
Yes, with a friend driving. Photo is from about 10 years ago IIRC.That is with carbon-carbon, not carbon-ceramic, discs.
With the special treatment they worked fine when new or newly resurfaced, but seemed eventually to oxidise, which worked against the CoF at low temps, which of course is the whole issue with carbon-carbon discs. We have had C-C discs from another manufacturer made using a different process, not sure when I'll try them out. The car has iron discs at the moment; with my LMP calipers they work really well.
flemke said:
The car has iron discs at the moment; with my LMP calipers they work really well.
Oh, interesting! Would you happen to know the weight of the calipers, or at least the model? Also, would you say that the stock calipers were part of the problem with the braking feel/performance? What I happened to overhear somewhere was that the early design monobloc calipers weren't stiff enough and that caused some issues.thegreenhell said:
flemke said:
Truth to tell, I don't drive the car that much anymore. Having put something like 37,000 mi on it myself, I have got my money's worth.
Do you ever think about selling the F1, particularly with where current values are? Or has it become one of those objects that it's just nice to know that you own it, even if you rarely use it?Caddyshack said:
flemke said:
F1natic said:
Yes, with a friend driving. Photo is from about 10 years ago IIRC.That is with carbon-carbon, not carbon-ceramic, discs.
With the special treatment they worked fine when new or newly resurfaced, but seemed eventually to oxidise, which worked against the CoF at low temps, which of course is the whole issue with carbon-carbon discs. We have had C-C discs from another manufacturer made using a different process, not sure when I'll try them out. The car has iron discs at the moment; with my LMP calipers they work really well.
Isebac said:
flemke said:
The car has iron discs at the moment; with my LMP calipers they work really well.
Oh, interesting! Would you happen to know the weight of the calipers, or at least the model? Also, would you say that the stock calipers were part of the problem with the braking feel/performance? What I happened to overhear somewhere was that the early design monobloc calipers weren't stiff enough and that caused some issues.
Which weigh 2.25kg each without pads.
Yes, stock calipers definitely part of the problem, which I brought to the attention of McLaren after speaking to a metallurgist who explained to me that, over a series of high heat cycles, aluminium will lose its stiffness.
flemke said:
They are these:
Which weigh 2.25kg each without pads.
Yes, stock calipers definitely part of the problem, which I brought to the attention of McLaren after speaking to a metallurgist who explained to me that, over a series of high heat cycles, aluminium will lose its stiffness.
Oh nice!Which weigh 2.25kg each without pads.
Yes, stock calipers definitely part of the problem, which I brought to the attention of McLaren after speaking to a metallurgist who explained to me that, over a series of high heat cycles, aluminium will lose its stiffness.
The use of racing calipers on road cars is an interesting subject. If you look at weights of normal supercar calipers, it's substantially more. For example, the Mclaren 720S front calipers - 3.74kg, the Porsche 991.2 GT3/RS - 4.09kg. So why aren't more supercars making use of these much lighter racing calipers? One reason I've heard is that the racing calipers don't have the same environmental protection against corrosion, salts, whatever. And that's I guess true given that they don't usually come with things like piston rubber seals, but surely if that really was a big problem that could be remedied while still keeping the superior structural shape of the caliper.
Interestingly, the T.50 also comes with nice racing calipers from AP, so it appears like they can be made road worthy:
Yours are probably still a bit lighter, though.
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