Worlds worst McLaren F1 photos....

[Peloton25]

I just saw this car tonight - there is a very long story surrounding how I knew it was nearby, but I won't bore everyone with it.

Surprisingly for a guy who knows nearly everything there is to know about the McLaren F1 - this was my first time ever seeing an F1 roadcar. I had seen the long-tailed race versions at Laguna Seca in 1997, but never a standard F1. There are about 20 of them in the US now and I can ID nearly every car and every owner. Even with my gobs of info, seeing one in person had just never materialized for me.







I could tell who the owner was because I have seen him in photos before with the car. His name is Elon Musk. He's a dot com millionaire who made most of his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal. He has since left the company when Ebay purchased them and is trying to start a privateer effort to explore and colonize the planet Mars. Some hobby! Tonight he was at a fundraiser for Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign to be governor. I guess that makes him a Republican.

Anyway - I'm more excited about seeing this car than I have ever been about anything else. Nothing else compares at all. As he braked for the 90-degree right to get on the freeway, the rear diffuser, which comes up to aid in downforce and direct air to the rear brakes, popped up exposing it's gold foil covered underside. That sent a chill up my spine - go ahead - laugh all you want. When he decided he'd had enough of me tagging along beside them (he was with a moderately attractive female) he practically disappeared down the FWY. Considering he's got about 5x the power of my car, I just let him go.

BTW: Sorry the pics are so crappy - that's not usually my style, but I was trying to drive and take long exposures without the flash and that just doesn't work.

>8^)
ER

[cche2052]

Hey. I think those pics are kinda sweet. Its got an avant-garde look to them. Did you take any more? I'm interested

Never knew dot-commers were rich enough to drive Mclarens...
*sigh*

[diablo roadster]

yay for pelton!!!!

where do you live?

[McLaren Mike]

at least you have seen one in real life, that must have bin the best experience of your life, what camera did you have? were you just cruzing and saw it pop out, or were you stalking it, you should have kept going, you might regret it? Finally was the female recognisable?

-Mike

[maartenvanthek]

the third foto is definately one of the best i've seen, it's so nice, i love it, it's absolutely gorgeous.
don't you have any email's of McLaren owners, i mean since you know so much, just ask them if you can see their cars...

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by cche2052

Never knew dot-commers were rich enough to drive Mclarens...
*sigh*

This guy sold his first company, Zip2.com, for $305 Million to Compaq's AltaVista. At the time, it was an unprecedented cash transaction for an Internet company. I think he took home about $45 Million of that which he split with his brother. That was when he bought the McLaren. The second company he started was X.com, which attempted to be one of the first online banks. That company probably would have folded if not for a merger with the upstart PayPal.com. Musk really helped to shape PayPal into what it is today. PayPal was eventually purchased by EBAY for 1.5 billion dollars - yes, that 'b' was not a typo. These deals have left him with a net worth of somewhere around 200 million. There aren't many dot-commers that have achieved such wealth - most of the others are more well known like AOL's Steve Case.

>8^)
ER

[MclarenF1LM]

Great pictures Peloton25. The thing that makes
these shots so interesting is not the quality of
the photo, but that it is a great moment captured
in a photo. The motion blur has a neet effect
actually it makes you feel like you were actualy
there, it sort of captures the feeling of the moment.

I wouldn't lough at you, I understand fully
the thrill of actualy seeing one of these splended
cars in real life.

[Peloton25]

diablo roadster - see my location

Originally Posted by McLaren Mike

at least you have seen one in real life, that must have bin the best experience of your life, what camera did you have? were you just cruzing and saw it pop out, or were you stalking it, you should have kept going, you might regret it? Finally was the female recognisable?

-Mike

Yeah - experience of a lifetime for sure. As I said at the top, it's kind of a long boring story as to how I got to see it. The 'Cliff Notes' version is that my friends saw it in the middle of the day when they were out driving. He was lost and trying to find that fund raiser party. They called me and I told them where it was (I know the area better than they do) and then I raced over to where he was headed, but by the time I got there they had already led him there and he was inside the gate. The house and parking area were about 500 yards from the gate and the car was not visible from the street. The guy at the gate was friendly, but could not let me in to see the car. He mentioned that the event was probably going to run for a few more hours, but that there was no telling how long any guest might stay. I had dinner plans which I couldn't break - plus sitting outside that gate for potentially several hours was not something I was prepared to do. After dinner though, I headed back over there and when I was halfway to the house the F1 passed me going the other way. Then the chase was on so to speak. It was truly awesome!!

As for my camera - I have a 5.0MP Sony F707 that I usually shoot with, but it's not very car friendly so I wasn't using it. These pics were taken with my older Sony DSC-S50, it's just a 2.0MP camera and the shutter controls aren't very sophisticated but the LCD on the back flips up and twists around which allows you to take a picture to the side while still looking at the road in front of you. It has some basic shutter and aperature controls but it's no where near as controllable as the F707. I switched the shutter speed to almost a full second and tried to hold the camera as steady as possible. In that first shot, the camera was actually set to macro focus when I turned it on, otherwise it wouldn't have been so blurry. If I'd had someone else in the car with me it would have been a lot better. I even could have gotten some video of the car with my F707 as I had both with me.

>8^)
ER

[maartenvanthek]

the foto's are beautiful, the first one is ok, the second one is cool, but the third one is definately my new background pic, 4 sure, it's, so to say DA BOMB

[mini magic]

hey, peloton, congrats on the sighting. Do u have the 3rd pic in higher res? prehaps you may want to drop me an email ( [email protected]) and we could organise a "trade" your pic for say, 3 of my blue f1 pix

[McLaren F1 Guy]

Congratulations Peloton! It must have been awesome to see that thing in motion. Those pictures really show it. I'll bet it was a really exciting experience!

[Stratoraptor]

that last pic is sweet

[Peloton25]

For all the fans of the 3rd photo, I made a high res (1024x768) version for you. Copy the URL of this image below and add '.orig.jpg' to the end of it.



mini_magic - just post your damn pictures already, will ya!!

>8^)
ER

[diablo roadster]

i may have to use that photo as my wallpaper (it would be the first time ive used a pic other than one ive taken in almost 8 months) :

[TCC]

...but did you get a chance to listen to the engine? How did it sound? How does it compare with a 12 cylinder Ferrari?