[murraydeschot]

I could simply say "Because I don't tolerate compromise".

My fixation on the F1 stems from a long term interest in supercars and F1 - attending my first Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1979 and witnessing the Williams’ team’s first ever Grand Prix win at the hands of the late Clay Regazonni in a FW06.

I recall, as a child, marvelling at the likes of the Aston Martin Lagonda being launched, the Panther Six appearing, and many other exotica coming and going. I too, like many I’m sure, had a few pubescent masturbatory dreams over the ubiquitous Fire Engine Red Lamborghini Countach that’d grace almost every advert of the time; promoting probably everything from Alpine stereos to shampoo and hair care products – the latter category remains and shall remain a long-defunct necessity in my life, however!

As I reached my late 20’s, Formula One had metamorphosed from being a friends and family collection of teams utilising Ford’s DFV engines against the Ferrari and Renault-powered ‘factory’teams into a leading edge, aerodynamic-obsessed, MEGA buck sponsor ‘friendly’, aerospace-like industry.

I started hearing about Gordon Murray working on a street car project … this is interesting was my initial thought. What’s going to appear? What started to appear in the press REALLY sparked my interest. Peter Stevens design was sublime. The car was hot, Hot, HOT!

Anyway, in the two or three years following the F1’s launch and the Le Mans victories of 1995, I got to know a car collector/connoisseur in my native Scotland that was shipping in a Jaguar XJR15 (another sublime Stevens’ design, but pretty much undriveable) from a private Japanese collection, a ‘factory fresh’ TWR XJS from Bathurst in Australia, etc. to add to his “toy box”. I kept saying to him, “When are you going to get an F1?”

One day he appeared and said “Meet me at Knockhill Circuit next Saturday”. En route to Knockhill, I noticed at a petrol station in Dundee a Mercedes van with a trailer parked and on the trailer, a glorious looking Papaya and Silver McLaren F1GTR (07R) sitting on it. The memories of driving around Knockhill in 07R and hanging out with Dario Franchetti and his brother, Marino on a sunny and hot (Yes! Scotland occassionally is blessed with warmth!) Saturday afternoon in the pits will follow me to the grave!

Along the way of my interest of the F1 I’ve furnished my home with approximately 100 precision scale models of F1’s – from 1/84th scale to 1/12th scale – and countless other ephemora surrounding this ‘cult classic’.

And why? "Because I don't tolerate compromise".

MdS