Flemke - Is this your McLaren? (Vol 5)

[flemke]

shirt said:

disagree. bac mono is tubular chassis with fancy components, essentially a high end atom. f3 car is carbon monocoque with the engine/gearbox as a stressed member. power delivery, suspension compliance and cornering ability are on different continents.

i think a rocket would be more fun on the road than a mono. more compliant, skinnier tyres, easier to place on the road. a sports car not a racer for the road.

iirc the blurb out of GMA at the time of the initial PR release was for a sub 100k car. now i can't afford a 100k car, but i could stretch myself to one if it meant having a GM designed 2 seat sports car to drive for the rest of my days. i do hope they build such a thing, lively 4 cyl, manual, FR layout, 2 seats. cmon gordon get it done!

I agree with your disagreement. The two cars are very different. For starters, the Mono weighs almost 50% more than the Rocket.

[ArgonautX]

flemke said:

I agree with your disagreement. The two cars are very different. For starters, the Mono weighs almost 50% more than the Rocket.

Would you feel safe enough in a Rocket on today's roads? I think I would be hesitant... most cars today dwarf it and weigh 1.5+ tons. BAC Mono is better in that regard, at least it earns some points there.

[E90_M3Ross]

ArgonautX said:

flemke said:

I agree with your disagreement. The two cars are very different. For starters, the Mono weighs almost 50% more than the Rocket.

Would you feel safe enough in a Rocket on today's roads? I think I would be hesitant... most cars today dwarf it and weigh 1.5+ tons. BAC Mono is better in that regard, at least it earns some points there.

No worse than a motorbike, surely?

[Caddyshack]

E90_M3Ross said:

ArgonautX said:

flemke said:

I agree with your disagreement. The two cars are very different. For starters, the Mono weighs almost 50% more than the Rocket.

Would you feel safe enough in a Rocket on today's roads? I think I would be hesitant... most cars today dwarf it and weigh 1.5+ tons. BAC Mono is better in that regard, at least it earns some points there.

No worse than a motorbike, surely?

You are a lot higher up on a bike so hopefully you can see a lot more and have a bit of room to move but I doubt either do well being hit.

[flemke]

ArgonautX said:

Would you feel safe enough in a Rocket on today's roads? I think I would be hesitant... most cars today dwarf it and weigh 1.5+ tons. BAC Mono is better in that regard, at least it earns some points there.

I have driven the car several thousand miles on all kinds of roads, including to the ‘Ring and back, and never once felt unsafe (looking up at the tyre of a coach or artic is a slightly odd feeling at first).
Of course one would not want to be hit in a Rocket, but the other side is that the car’s stopping distance is so short that the likelihood of an impact is reduced in the first place.
There is a separate issue with all these low, small cars of the risk of being unseen when another car is pulling out of a side road or changing lanes, which unfortunately I know from experience.

[Antony Moxey]

flemke said:

ArgonautX said:

Would you feel safe enough in a Rocket on today's roads? I think I would be hesitant... most cars today dwarf it and weigh 1.5+ tons. BAC Mono is better in that regard, at least it earns some points there.

I have driven the car several thousand miles on all kinds of roads, including to the ‘Ring and back, and never once felt unsafe (looking up at the tyre of a coach or artic is a slightly odd feeling at first).
Of course one would not want to be hit in a Rocket, but the other side is that the car’s stopping distance is so short that the likelihood of an impact is reduced in the first place.
There is a separate issue with all these low, small cars of the risk of being unseen when another car is pulling out of a side road or changing lanes, which unfortunately I know from experience.

Yep, having driven a Tiger (poor man’s Caterham) for a good few thousand miles over the years it is, as you say, ‘odd’ looking up at big stuff’s wheels. However once, when driving out in the sticks, I was, for the only time, forced to exit the car and stand by the road. As I was driving along I rounded a corner to find a bunch of farmers herding cows down the road towards me. When your face is at a cow’s knee level, and there’s about 50 of them heading towards you, an open cockpit of a low slung car isn’t where you want to be!

[TurboTerrific9]

Some thorough research and well articulated comment here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT51QIQxbYU

[hurstg01]

TurboTerrific9 said:

Some thorough research and well articulated comment here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT51QIQxbYU

[epom]

TurboTerrific9 said:

Some thorough research and well articulated comment here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT51QIQxbYU

Still have yours TT ??

[TurboTerrific9]

epom said:

TurboTerrific9 said:

Some thorough research and well articulated comment here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT51QIQxbYU

Still have yours TT ??

I do

[epom]

TurboTerrific9 said:

epom said:

TurboTerrific9 said:

Some thorough research and well articulated comment here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT51QIQxbYU

Still have yours TT ??

I do

Lovely, enjoy.

[Megaflow]

flemke said:

I have driven the car several thousand miles on all kinds of roads, including to the ‘Ring and back, and never once felt unsafe (looking up at the tyre of a coach or artic is a slightly odd feeling at first).
Of course one would not want to be hit in a Rocket, but the other side is that the car’s stopping distance is so short that the likelihood of an impact is reduced in the first place.
There is a separate issue with all these low, small cars of the risk of being unseen when another car is pulling out of a side road or changing lanes, which unfortunately I know from experience.

As an ex Westfield owner I can very much sympathise with the last line, the amount of people that just pulled out on me is unbelievable. The first line is an interesting point I had never considered before though, the ability for it to stop quickly saved me at least twice. On one of those occasions a horsebox pulled out onto a roundabout just as I had pasted the previous exit, so I had nowhere to go, to this day I still do not know how I avoided it.

[F1GTRUeno]

https://www.theoctanecollection.com/cars/mclaren-6...

Would you ever by a car back Flemke?

I still think the 675LT is my favourite modern McLaren.

[Church of Noise]

Not sure if anyone else read it yet, but it seems that Flemke of this parish sent a 'letter' to Octane to set the record straight on a couple of points after the Octane article of McLaren F1's.
Had to giggle as I saw the name

[SydneyBridge]

Have not properly read my copy, but yes have seen now...

[Pflanzgarten]

Can anyone post an image?

[lauda]

[dobbo_]

What a great message from Flemke, absolutely destroyed them.

I'm sure that PH will enforce rule 16 here as they do consistently throughout the forum

[E90_M3Ross]

dobbo_ said:

What a great message from Flemke, absolutely destroyed them.

I'm sure that PH will enforce rule 16 here as they do consistently throughout the forum

Nice that they published it though.

[flemke]

dobbo_ said:

What a great message from Flemke, absolutely destroyed them.

I'm sure that PH will enforce rule 16 here as they do consistently throughout the forum

No probs. Here is the original letter, which Octane edited for publication:


Having owned and driven a McLaren F1 for 20+ years and 35,000+ miles, I was interested to read your articles about the car in the June issue. Although the articles are largely accurate, I would like to offer a few comments:

The articles contained a couple of errors. The trivial one is that the rear crash structure/silencer is made from titanium. It is actually made from Inconel.
The more serious one is Rob Kauffman's assertion that the car has a 'short wheelbase'. For comparison:
Ferrari F40 wheelbase - 2450 mm.
Porsche 992 wheelbase - 2450 mm.
Honda (classic) NSX wheelbase - 2530 mm.
Ferrari 296 GTB wheelbase - 2600 mm.
Lamborghini Huracan wheelbase - 2620 mm.
Honda (modern) NSX wheelbase - 2630 mm.
McLaren Artura wheelbase - 2640 mm.
McLaren P1 wheelbase - 2670 mm.
Lamborghini Aventador wheelbase - 2700 mm.
Aston Martin Vantage wheelbase - 2704 mm.
Bugatti Veyron wheelbase - 2710 mm.
McLaren F1 wheelbase - 2718mm.
Even the wheelbase of the Porsche Carrera GT - a massive car relative to the F1 - is 2720 mm, a minuscule 2 mm longer than the F1's.
Obviously, amongst sports cars the F1's wheelbase is not short but, to the contrary, rather long.

The challenge of driving an F1 is not because of the length of the wheelbase. The challenge derives from a combination of the nature of the standard tyres, the car's low polar moment of inertia, and the location of the driver - far forward within the wheelbase and low relative to the height of the centre of mass.

John Barker opines that the steering is too heavy. At low speeds it is heavy, but not at medium or high speeds. Insofar as one would probably spend more time driving an F1 properly on open roads than doing parallel parking, it's not really a problem. If one wants lighter steering, the factory have always offered a larger diameter steering wheel. You might recall that, for any car, Ayrton Senna recommended the largest practicable steering wheel for maximum precision. I have a larger wheel on my car and, at medium speeds, I doubt that even a little old lady would struggle with the steering. Would I prefer that it have power steering? Never.

I entirely agree with the tenor of Jay Leno's article. Driving an F1 is extraordinarily involving - far more so than any other road car I have driven.

Yours truly,

Paul Flemke