!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Xp3 Lives!!!!!!!!

Hello,

I hop to have an answer to my precedent question :)

Here my pics of #06R : http://carpics.free.fr/ then clik on the big ban and "McLaren"
please do this to increase my site audience thanks ;)

Ciao
Phil

Hello,

I hope you enjoy the pics :) Someone know more about this F1 "MAC IP" at Le Mans ? Will it be at Le Mans this week-end ?

Thank you
Phil

I checked back on the Alfred Dunhill website and they have a report from the event, which was officially called the "Alfred Dunhill Motorities Tour 2005: London to Paris"

http://www.dunhill.com/atdunhill/at_tour2005.php

There's a few new photos and a report from the Tour that is worth reading.

There's also a REALLY awesome video, but unfortunately it's done in Flash. You can watch it here:

http://www.dunhill.com/atdunhill/video_dunhill_tour448.swf

>8^)
ER

........There's also a REALLY awesome video...

ER


Darn, that is a pretty nifty video. Love the shots where the 3 F1's in a row take the roundabouts and the countryroads, albeit very fast and pixely. :D

Those little farmer boys will be Mac fans forever.

The video could only be better if you could hear the sound from the cars, instead of an audio track layed over it like they did.

>8^)
ER

indeed a cool movie!

Wonder if this event will be done next year also.

If so I'll be there :iceslolan

XP3 should be close to full production spec now since it received a complete refit before it was given to Murray. The one outward feature that is immediately noticeable to me as being different are the front turn indicators. XP3 was the first F1 to get those sunken lights as XP1 had nothing, and XP2 had what could be considered a hackjob, with amber lenses simply screwed onto those places on the nose. Both XP4 and XP5 shared this indicator design for a short time, but have since been updated to the production spec indicators found on all other F1s. Depending on what has really happened to XP2 (still an unknown) XP3 may be the sole remaining car to have those now.

I expected that XP3 would also still have the early style wing mirrors - not the ones mounted on the a-pillar like the Clinic Model had, but just an earlier mirror design shared with the Lotus Esprit and Jag XJ220, mounted in the same location on the door. It had them originally, but as you can see it now has the later mirrors sourced from the VW Corrado. XP4 still has the original mirrors fitted as of the last time it was seen. I also know they were fitted to XP5 and chassis' #001-003. XP5 has since been updated. The last shots of #003 show it still wears them. I can't be sure whether the other two early production F1s still have them or not as there aren't any recent photographs, but I do know that by the time #007 was built, they had switched over to the final mirror.

Also, the original lower nose piece originally fitted to XP3 included the driving lamps in the center that were seen on the Clinic Model and XP1. That was swapped out with at least one other design during the development process that simply had a sinlge large opening, and then where the black trim piece is now, there was a mesh filled vent in its place. The lower nose piece on the car now appears to match the one fitted production F1, with one subtle difference - it lacks the cross bar in the larger vent opening. You have to look rather close to see that it is missing though as I nearly missed it myself.

In the rear, XP3 originally had one single taillamp on each side that was bisected with a one inch high amber stripe. XP2 and XP4 had this design from the start as well, though the Clinic Model and XP1 had been fitted with the same lamps in pairs on each side. XP5 finally returned to the paired lamp setup, but used a solid amber and solid red as is now seen on production F1s.

Also in the rear, the original rear engine cover didn't have the forward most vent fitted at the base of the main engine cover backbone - it simply had four rows of 3 inch wide vents cut into it running sideways, with about 10 in each row. XP1 and XP2 had this engine cover as well, but XP4 finally had the production piece fitted.

Lastly, from the Clinic Model through XP4, all originally had just two sets of paired horizontal vents above the exhaust outlets. The ones at to the outsides of those that now house reflectors, the rear foglight and the reverse light weren't included until XP5 came along. XP3 and XP4 both have them now though.

I've explained all of this because it shows a real effort has been made here to bring XP3 up to near production spec in the same way that XP5 has been. I'd imagine that most of what was different about XP3 that I don't know about from it's original build has also been changed. Swapping in those new indicators would have required an entire new nose piece to be fitted and I'm sure that doesn't come cheap which is probably the reason they were left alone. Maybe Gordon prefers this design though, or maybe he just preferred being unique which certainly fits with his character.

As for the engine/power questions, I don't really have a great answer so I will defer to anyone else who cares to take a crack at it. I know that Gordon Murray had made that comment about XP3 in one magazine interview but he didn't really expand on the 'why'.

>8^)
ER

don't forget, different bodywork treatment around the door button

don't forget, different bodywork treatment around the door button

Hard to forget something that I didn't know already. ;)

Thanks for the tip though - I just went through the shots of XP3 and I can see the slight difference you mention. I had never noticed that before, so thanks! :cool:

>8^)
ER

sorry, thought it was a known thing. Do you remember what car the later indicators come from. I seem to remember it was a Mazda, but cant think what

If you are referring to these:

http://a6.cpimg.com/image/8A/3E/54926986-3954-02580182-.jpg

...I only know that the same piece can be found on the Lotus Esprit and Elan. Given Lotus Cars tendency for borrowing acceptable parts to keep development costs low, they were probably not the original source though. Maybe someone else here knows the truth.

>8^)
ER

...I only know that the same piece can be found on the Lotus Esprit and Elan. Given Lotus Cars tendency for borrowing acceptable parts to keep development costs low, they were probably not the original source though. Maybe someone else here knows the truth

These indicator/side light units were made by Rubberlite. General Motors spent a lot of money on development for bespoke parts for the Elan. They have been fitted to several other cars since, like the Lister Storm, Nissan R390 GT1 and Jaguar XJR 15.

Talking of parts, Do any of you guys, know the source of the light switches, hazard warning and rear fog switches mounted each side of the instrument cluster come from?

Shared these photos on another forum in the midst of telling a story and figured I would include them here as well. If they look familiar, that's because they came from Driving Ambition, but I hadn't seen them in digital form before.

The first shot shows a rather young Mika Hakkinen along with Gordon Murray and other members of the F1 development team. The other driver suited up is Dr Jonathan Palmer who was the lead test driver for McLaren on the F1 program.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Peloton25/McLaren%20F1%20B/DSC05373.jpg

Here are two others showing Mika with the car in Nardo, Italy where they performed the early high speed tests on the F1 road car.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Peloton25/McLaren%20F1%20B/DSC05370.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Peloton25/McLaren%20F1%20B/DSC05368.jpg

Not too sure about the dude in the short-shorts in that last one. I guess it was '93 so he has an excuse. :lol2:

>8^)
ER