The Official: "There's no such thing as a dumb question about the McLaren F1" thread

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by Sami Aaltonen

OK, very interesting indeed. Here is the screen shot of that video:
Defenitely sing 036 GTR.

The easy answer is that the number on the sign atop the car doesn't correspond to the chassis number. The difficult answer is: "what the heck did it correspond to?"

...oh wait, that's another question.

That's believed very strongly to be GTR #09R Sami, the one built for the Brunei collection that looks identical to the LeMans winner.

I think it is pretty safe to ignore those numbers when you see them. Here's a pair of images of the easily identifiable chassis #071 in build, as documented in Driving Ambition, and you'll note the number on that car is 099.





What is interesting is that GTR #09R wasn't the 36th F1 built no matter how you count them and chassis #071 wasn't the 99th car either. What I suspect the number might relate to is perhaps an order number or customer record number that McLaren used to track things in the factory, but has no correlation to anything that we're typically familiar with. It could also relate to the order in which the actual chassis were built perhaps.

>8^)
ER

[murraydeschot]

Okay, the Gordon Murray’s Labrador question was a bit of a ‘red herring’! It’s pretty well documented that he owned a Golden Retriever actually!

I had thought about enquiring what colour of socks Ron Dennis was wearing during the famous discussion at Linate Airport, but was scared someone would actually take the question seriously, answer and post photographic proof!

Here’s a genuine F1-orientated question though. At approximately the same time as Peter Stevens was styling the F1, he also worked on the design of a loudspeaker for an English loudspeaker company. Upon it’s release many reviews drew comparisons and comments on Peter’s involvement with the F1. Who was the loudspeaker manufacturer? For extra ‘Brownie Points’; can anyone name the speaker model he styled and post photos? I can answer the manufacturer question. The model designation escapes me however!

[Sami Aaltonen]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

The easy answer is that the number on the sign atop the car doesn't correspond to the chassis number. The difficult answer is: "what the heck did it correspond to?"

...oh wait, that's another question.

That's believed very strongly to be GTR #09R Sami, the one built for the Brunei collection that looks identical to the LeMans winner.

I think it is pretty safe to ignore those numbers when you see them. Here's a pair of images of the easily identifiable chassis #071 in build, as documented in Driving Ambition, and you'll note the number on that car is 099.

What is interesting is that GTR #09R wasn't the 36th F1 built no matter how you count them and chassis #071 wasn't the 99th car either. What I suspect the number might relate to is perhaps an order number or customer record number that McLaren used to track things in the factory, but has no correlation to anything that we're typically familiar with. It could also relate to the order in which the actual chassis were built perhaps.

>8^)
ER

Hmm yes now I remember, there was some discusion earlier this same video and part of it. It was #09R not #01R, my mistake.
That your theory might be sence a lot.

[carbuilder2002]

Are those numbers not the in factory build number of whatever car is being built.

[Sami Aaltonen]

The dashboard material of GTR's, I have notised that 1995 GTR's it looks quite much different than 1996 GTR's.



And if you look this #16R's dashboard, the material looks quite much different than the #05R's.
What was the reason of changing it to 1996?
Costs or practicality or reflections on the wind screen or...?
The last case, I would expect it to be other way when you comapre the materials of #05R and #16R.
Or was it simply "it's not important thing of the car" case?

[Peloton25]

Anyone have a better photo of the rear of GTR #06R taken at the 1995 LeMans race, showing the "PER TE AYRTON" sticker, than this one?



Thanks in advance!

>8^)
ER

[mini magic]

Is it for what i hope its for?

[DocGTR]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Anyone have a better photo of the rear of GTR #06R taken at the 1995 LeMans race, showing the "PER TE AYRTON" sticker, than this one?

Erik, do you need especially from LM'95? I checked my archives, LM'95 annual and Cotton's GTR book without any better images of the rear regarding LM'95 but if it's not necessary to be from LM'95 I could have some with only minor differences to the LM'95 version.

[Peloton25]

From what I saw flipping through my own set of images, LM95 was the only place the 'Ayrton' sticker was fixed to the car. Perhaps I am wrong on that assumption, and if so, then I'd take any rear shot of the car showing it more clearly.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

Not Le Man, but there sure is something written on the back of #06r in this pic



and this one too [somewhere ]

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by Sami Aaltonen

The dashboard material of GTR's, I have notised that 1995 GTR's it looks quite much different than 1996 GTR's.



And if you look this #16R's dashboard, the material looks quite much different than the #05R's.
What was the reason of changing it to 1996?
Costs or practicality or reflections on the wind screen or...?
The last case, I would expect it to be other way when you comapre the materials of #05R and #16R.
Or was it simply "it's not important thing of the car" case?

"Weight reduction" is the simple answer Sami.

The 95 GTR,s dash was laid up in grp and covered in Alcantara. Very nice they looked too. but this is a race car. So in 96 a lighter lay up was used and finished with a textured anti-glare coating.

[DocGTR]

Here's a scan from BMW Magazin 1/96 taken at Donington 1995.



Could still be better on that "PER TE AYRTON". There's a better one in Cotton's book on page 126 from Nurburgring if someone has it already scanned!

[DocGTR]

Originally Posted by hurstg01

Not Le Man, but there sure is something written on the back of #06r in this pic

Taken at Monza 1996.

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

The easy answer is that the number on the sign atop the car doesn't correspond to the chassis number. The difficult answer is: "what the heck did it correspond to?"

...oh wait, that's another question.

That's believed very strongly to be GTR #09R Sami, the one built for the Brunei collection that looks identical to the LeMans winner.

I think it is pretty safe to ignore those numbers when you see them. Here's a pair of images of the easily identifiable chassis #071 in build, as documented in Driving Ambition, and you'll note the number on that car is 099.





What is interesting is that GTR #09R wasn't the 36th F1 built no matter how you count them and chassis #071 wasn't the 99th car either. What I suspect the number might relate to is perhaps an order number or customer record number that McLaren used to track things in the factory, but has no correlation to anything that we're typically familiar with. It could also relate to the order in which the actual chassis were built perhaps.

>8^)
ER

OK children, time for a maths lesson, "One and One does not make Two"

Well at least, not down at McLaren

Not all the F1,s were built at Genesis, up to that point in time when #09R was being built. So its all down to how they counted or how many fingers they had .

[Sami Aaltonen]

Originally Posted by Le Man

"Weight reduction" is the simple answer Sami.

The 95 GTR,s dash was laid up in grp and covered in Alcantara. Very nice they looked too. but this is a race car. So in 96 a lighter lay up was used and finished with a textured anti-glare coating.

Of course...I should quess that. Just didn't believe it could be so critical what kind of dashboard the car has.
Well knowing Gordon Murray's obsession of weight, I should have quess that.

And yep, 1995 GTR dashboard looks very detailed and great. Stylish, I should say even it's a racecar. 1996 GTR's then a bit "hasty" done. But main thing is that it works.