From the Archives: Chassis #001 in the Park Lane Showroom

[Peloton25]

Found these images posted by daviddavid on FChat this evening. I just love it when people pull stuff out of the archives to share, and these pics are no different as they're the first evidence I can recall seeing of chassis #001 in the Park Lane Showroom.









Now normally we get rather frustrated trying to tell the difference between one silver F1 road car and another, but as some here know, chassis #001 has a few unique identifying clues that can be seen in those shots.

For starters, the area of the body surrounding the door button used to open the doors. You can see the cutout/recess around the button in these shots is a simple circle. This is a design feature was seen only on the five F1 road car prototypes (chassis XP1 through XP5), and production chassis numbers #001 and #002. Starting with production chassis #003, that area of the body was redesigned and all following F1s have a U-shaped cutout leading to the door edge, allowing ones fingers to get under the door a little easier to lift it open once that button is pressed.

Additionally, the side mirrors seen in these shots are different units than what you will find on most other F1s. The mirrors seen here were sourced from the Citroen CX and found there way onto several other exotics/supercars including the Jaguar XJ220, Lotus Esprit, Aston V8 Vantage and the DB7. I believe that chassis #004 was the first F1 to feature what would be the final production version, sourced from the VW Corrado. Besides having a different overall shape to the mirror housing, the mount where it connects to the door is also quite different.

The only other silver F1 that would have shared those two traits was the third F1 prototype, chassis XP3. However, citing another design change in the early cars, this F1 in these photographs features the final version of the front turn signals (shared with the Lotus Esprit and Elan), whereas even to this day XP3 has the original style fitted to its nose that was seen only on the F1 prototypes. The entire shape of the recessed area where that lens is fitted is quite different than what you'd seen on XP3, and that was not something that could not have been easily changed.

With a date stamp of July 15th, 1994, these images must have been taken very shortly after the showroom opened. Cool stuff!

>8^)
ER

[CL8]

how many vehicles of that design are on the road now?

[Peloton25]

...and after going back through all the images I have of silver F1s in the showroom, I discovered that I had overlooked similar evidence in two prior images. The first one is what some would consider 'wallpaper sized' and the mirrors are quite obviously the Citroen parts - oops!

<-- Click Me



That second image must have been from a later visit seeing as how the Porsche dealer is there in the background (previously it was a rug dealer) and there is a holder for a front license plate fitted to the F1 too.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by CL8

how many vehicles of that design are on the road now?

XP3, XP4, XP5, #001 & #002 would still have the circular recess for the door button.

XP4, #001, #002, and #003 all still wear the Citroen-sourced mirrors. XP3 and XP5 have both been updated with the newer Corrado-sourced mirrors, which required a different set of doors given that the attachment point for the mirror mounts are built into the doorskin and are completely different.

Only XP3 retained the early style turn signal recess and lens.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

cool pics to add to the Park Lane timeline

[Peloton25]

Well, often when it rains, it pours, as they say.

Just one week after stumbling on that first set of photos of chassis #001 in the Park Lane showroom, I'm back with yet another. Strange how these things work.

I was wandering through some forums I don't typically check on a regular basis and a user named Naomelembro over on Fast-Autos.net had shared this very old shot of #003, taken according to him, near the F1 showroom in London.



I went ahead and shared the chassis number and owner info at the time, and asked if they happened to have additional photos of the car. He responded with this pair, and also included another set of photos of #001 in the showroom, very similar to the first set. How funny is that?





>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

[Peloton25]

That old photo came along with a caption:

I used to live in a flat at this place.
In the grounds, there were some goats.
So if you see an F1 which has been nibbled,
you now know where it happened!

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Found another pair of images of chassis #001 in the Park Lane showroom.





Again, early photos with the rug dealer pictured in the background.

>8^)
ER