Car News Articles

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t feature too many supercars in this space; not because I don’t like them, but because they already receive enough attention as objects of automotive lust. As usual, though, I’m not particularly consistent on this point, and I’m making an exception for the McLaren F1.

The McLaren F1 gets special supercar dispensation because it was innovative, purposeful and, as a result, truly exciting. Most supercars are very fast, but their speed is secondary to the primary goal–to separate multi-millionaires from their money by making them feel 17 years old again. This was especially true when the F1 debuted in the mid-1990s. Doubt me? Take a look at the supercars of the time–the Dodge Viper, the Lamborghini Diablo, even the Bugatti EB110 were all luridly styled, all, in their own way, a rolling testosterone injection.

The McLaren F1 eschewed all such pretension in favor of a clear goal, executed with clinical precision–producing the fastest, quickest, most technologically advanced supercar the world had ever seen. And, of course, who better to execute such a goal than McLaren, one of the great Formula 1 racing teams of all time, and chief designer Gordon Murray, who had penned some of the most revolutionary Formula 1 cars in series history. The result? An instant classic.

A grown-up’s car, the F1’s purposefulness made other supercars look like ridiculous playthings of the wealthy. The F1 broke with convention by placing the driver in the exact center of the cockpit, on the centerline of the car, with two passengers flanking and slightly behind the driver’s seat. Normal? No. Better for the driver? Absolutely. Most supercars used stylish but drag-inducing wings to keep the car fully planted on the road, but the F1 eschewed such compromises in favor of fully-active movable wings and fans that maintained optimum downforce with a minimum of drag penalty.

  Power, ironically enough, came from BMW–ironic since in Formula 1 McLaren would later associate with BMW’s arch-rival Mercedes, while BMW would partner with longtime McLaren competitor Williams. Setting that aside, the 600-plus horsepower mill, combined with an incredibly lightweight 2,500-pound carbon-fiber body combined for record-breaking performance. The sprint to 60 mph took only 3.1 seconds, and the car topped out at more than 230 mph, making it the fastest production car ever at the time, and putting it on par in terms of absolute performance with purpose-built race cars.

The F1 was not designed for racing, but the car was just too capable to not hit the track. McLaren produced both short- and long-tailed version that dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans and was a force in the early stages of the FIA GT championship. It’s a measure of the original F1’s greatness that the street car’s ground-breaking active aerodynamics weren’t allowed on the racing version, and it was still dominant in top-level motorsports.

Because form so clearly followed function, the F1 was chillingly beautiful, achieving both aggression and elegance without having to work at either. The F1 was lovely and purposeful in street car trim; as a racer clad in the classic Gulf colors reminsicent of great Le Mans cars of the past, it nearly brings a tear to the eye.

–Chris H.