I described this particular car once
here in the past and it didn't really generate any interest or additional comments. My guess was that no one else had seen the car at the time. Up to that point, I had only managed to find these very small photos - the first of which I stumbled upon in March 2003.
I knew the car was in Japan based on the license plate, and it appeared to be on display, but I really couldn't tell where. It seemed like it might have been some kind of official display given the Formula 1 car parked beside it, but I really couldn't tell. A few months after finding that one, I also came across this one but I was still not able to determine where the photos had come from.
...until recently.
The display the car was in was at the 2001 British Motorsports Show held in Yokohama, Japan. There was also an XJ220 displayed next to the Jaguar F1 car - seemed to be a theme they were going for. I didn't manage to find any additional photos from inside the show even though I found several galleries and reports on the show. I was a little bummed, and then I stumbled upon these pictures someone had snapped outside the show. I emailed him using my very best 'Engrish' and got larger versions of the shots in his reply. Each one of these images is clickable for a larger version.
I really have no clue which car this is so the folder I have these in is simply labeled "Ueno-look". As I mentioned in the other thread, there are no road cars listed as being painted in the Ueno Grey so this car must have been refitted to look like this at some point which of course leaves a lot of possibilities for the chassis number.
I still think the "McLaren GTR" windshield banner is a little silly given this is a road car, but along with the paint scheme, it leads me to speculate that this car might be associated with Japanese business man, Motokazu Sayama. His company "Kokusai Kaihatsu" was the title sponsor for the 1995 LeMans winner. Given that McLaren kept GTR #01R for themselves after the win, it's possible that Motokazu Sayama wanted an F1 road car to commemorate the victory. Not too far fetched anyway...
I've been meaning to share this one here for a while just to get others opinions on it and see if anyone else who frequents the forum can tell us more. Now that these larger images came in it finally gave me a good reason.
Enjoy - and feel free to share your own impressions. I kind of like it, but without the windshield banner.
>8^)
ER