F1 GTR racing team transporters

[F1 GTR modeler]

I have been trying to find photographs of F1 GTR related racing transporters for over 8 years.....without much success!

These hauled our favorite racing machines between championship venues, Le Mans and the team' base facilities. A couple of McLaren Cars Ltd. units also carried the company's F1, F1 LM, F1 GT and F1 GTR's to various events and racing festivals.

Most of the very scarce shots available over the Internet are low-res or partial shots of such transporters. To be able to tackle a few conversion projects based on scale model trucks, I would need photographs taken from several angles to cover all sides of the transporters involved. Any angle you have would help, even if you do not have an all-around series of pics of a given truck/van or if only part of the vehicle is visible.

If you search through your scans, photographs, books or magazines, have a quick glance in the background of the F1 GTR's in case you notice partial or complete views of some transporters.

Any other accompanying utilitary vehicles painted and dressed up in matched colors/sponsors would interest me too (smaller support trucks, mini-vans, buses, motorhomes, etc.).

Hope some of you can help me in finding a few more shots!

"F1 GTR modeler"

[F1 monster]

Great thread topic. Can't wait to see some of the pics!

[Noddy]

Several of the transporters appear in the Michael Cotton GTR book. Not great shots and certainly not from all angles but probably about all you are going to find.

[F1 GTR modeler]

Thanks Noddy! I kind of guessed there were useful shots in this book. Too bad it has been out of print for quite a while. Does it show transporters shots from pretty much all 1995 and 1996 teams?

[Noddy]

Originally Posted by F1 GTR modeler

Thanks Noddy! I kind of guessed there were useful shots in this book. Too bad it has been out of print for quite a while. Does it show transporters shots from pretty much all 1995 and 1996 teams?

No - only 3 or 4 that I remember.


Just went through the book:
McLaren Cars - rear 3/4 shot, small.
Yellow transporter, blue stripe, side view of yellow F1, no name visible.
West - white transporter with side view of West car.
McLaren Cars - tight shot of side view of car painted on transporter.
West - larger tight shot side view with car painted on.
Harrods - tight shot of side view with crew in front.
In none of these is the entire truck visible, not even a portion of the cab, no indication of the make of the truck, etc. They are very tightly cropped and several are quite small pictures. I'll try to scan them if I have time but no promises.

[F1 GTR modeler]

Noddy's last post once again underlines some of the frustation I have experienced over many years with this type of modeling projects. Most photographs related to these majestic F1 GTR transporters are tight shots or have been cropped to focus on the colorful graphics displayed on the sides of the trailer vans. I practically never found shots allowing me to identify the trucks' cabs, something essential to determine the specific scale model truck required for the accurate rendition of a given team transporter.

I hope that some forum members attended some Le Mans or championship races back when the F1 GTR was active in GT/endurance racing. However, even the tight or partial shots will help some of my projects. For example, I have about 30% of the "West McLaren Mercedes Adrenaline Programme" transporter covered, thanks to very partial scans gathered over the last 5 years. I found 1/3 of my "Adrenaline" jpegs through various threads and leads provided by this forum. If I persevere, I might manage to find what I need by 2010! After all, I started these projects back in 1997 when longtail GTR's had just been introduced.

Here's an example of a partial shot:
http://projektf1.com/?image=f1articl...F24&title=Foto
Some ore even more fragmentary...

[Peloton25]

I can really only help you with the Harrods/Mach One Racing trailer. These shots should do quite well for recreating that.







This is a shot of the side panel graphic:



As for the image you posted - that's not really a transporter that any of the GTRs would have used during their racing careers. It's a McLaren Formula One team transporter, being used in that situation for carting around the West Adrenaline Program - a promotional program that McLaren put together in the late 1990's to showcase their racing efforts at tracks and on the streets in some Eastern European countries. The GTR in the picture never raced in that livery - it was just painted that way to match the rest of the team cars.

>8^)
ER

[peter i]

The Transport is too Cool!

[Noddy]

I really should have turned a light on when looking through the book last night. The one that I referred to as yellow with a blue stripe is actually yellow with green stripes and is the Harrods transporter but with no lettering on the car.

[Noddy]

Edit:
here's one more from the "McLaren Equipment Company"

[F1 GTR modeler]

Many thanks for your contributions to my F1 GTR transporters research. I sincerely appreciate you help and really feel like I may succeed in modeling a few of these majectic vehicles. Thanks to Noddy for helping me in finding out that I must definitely try to complete the very few partial pics I have of the McLaren Cars hauler. This one really interests me a lot.

Thanks, also, to "peter i" for the same transporter's tiny but quite lenghty video file. It only shows the McLaren truck a few seconds but I could none the less pick up a few more details. Every bit of info helps!

Finally, I am grateful for Peloton 25's colorful Harrods scans. Three of these are new to me and my copy of the GTR's side view was much smaller and so dark that it looked dirty. With these alone, I will indeed be able to include David Price Racing's unit in the list of those I could tackle in the future. Noddy's scan lifts some uncertainty by showing the various side compartments in the trailer's lower sides. Hey, I am almost ready to go with this one! I will of course have to do some homework to find out the specific type of truck required for the project, probably a "DAF" from what is visible on the front grille. Residing in North America, I don't know much about European truck manufacturers and I never heard about these... The only blind spot remaining in the Harrods views now remains the rear door which is in the up position in the scans.

I have been following the West Adrenaline Programme from its inception and remain keenly interested in that one. I am aware that it is bazsed on a former Formula 1 transporter, as well as the GTR's lack of racing history in this guise. However, this truck carried a pretty interesting F1 GTR since it allowed so many fans to experience a ride in our favorite thoroughbred. Therefore, I just cannot pass on this one... To top it off, the trailer's West livery really looked classy at that point in time and it was specifically lettered with the "Adrenaline Programme" name on both sides. To me, this clearly emphasizes the link between the transporter and the program's well known 3-seater.

I recently noticed a side view of the McLaren line drawing visible on the BBA Competition's 1997 white transporter. This pic could date from before or after the 1997 FIA-GT season. It indeed appears free or stripped of racing numbers and most of its sponsors. I keep wondering if the transporter looked exactly like this during the 1997 racing season. This remains the only photograph I ever found from any transporter used during 05R's racing days.

http://www2.ateliercopyright.com/voi...ren_camion.jpg

Thanks again and please let us know if you have more concerning some of the transporters!

[andybee]

all from memory. McLaren Cars had one artic (the one with the side view line drg) with a Renault Magnum tractor unit and one Rigid, with a Iveco Cab. Then in addition to this they had a Ford Econoline with a low-loaded box trailer, again in the old TAG McLaren colours (horizontal stripes).

At some point the Adrenaline truck appear. I think (but I cant remember for sure), this was the old F3000 truck in West livery. I'm assuming the cab would have been a Mercedes.

Thats upto around '99. All the other trucks were owned/leased by the teams

[F1 GTR modeler]

Thanks to "andybee", now I know which manufacturer made McLaren Cars' short rigid unit used to carry the F1 road cars. The only JPG I could ever find on the Net, or from any other source, is so small that I never succeeded in identifying the logo located in the center of the front grille before. I thougt there were "MAN" letters in that spot but right upon reading your post, I immediately realized that "Iveco" was there instead.

As far as the larger McLaren Cars Renault articulated truck/trailer tandem is concerned, you once again put me on the right path. Your post changed the way I had been looking at a few partial shots of McLaren Cars' 1996-97 articulated unit. I went back to such JPGs to examine those in which part of the cab is visible. The only areas covered in such pics revolve around the truck's righthand front wheel and wheel arch. This nevertheless gave me a much better idea of the type of Renault tractor truck used by McLaren. Just a few days later, a scan forwarded by a British penpal confirmed this even further. Now I know which type of Renault model I should be looking for!

The Adrenaline truck definitely is a Mercedes.

Thanks for your much useful leads! If anyone finds other shots showing the 2 works transporters, or sections of these, I will be thrilled to see what you discover...

"F1 GTR modeler"

[andybee]

The Renault Magnum Tractor unit was an ex Formula 1 tractor unit. This had a in-house bodykit attached with 45 degree chamfers. If you find any Marlboro McLaren Formula 1 transporters, then its that style.
all the best

[hurstg01]

There's nothing like dragging up an old thread when you find a new picture....
(I knew there was a thread about F1 transporters somewhere)

Transporter for chassis #05R