The McLaren F1 Owner's Club

[Peloton25]

Here's another unbelievable shot - mostly for the story it represents.


Click to enlarge

At the start of the event I had suggested to Phil and his friends that if any of the cars had an issue we weren't going to capture that moment and we all agreed. When one of the cars was driven to the event the first evening and arrived needing its clutch replaced we didn't take any photographs as we paused briefly to watch the team from McLaren getting started on the process around 10pm that evening. If not for a certain owner wandering up to McLaren's staging area to capture the technicians in action a bit later on, I would not have that image to share.

The reason I am including it here is to demonstrate the extreme dedication the team from McLaren showed in supporting the cars at this event. They brought along about 12-14 employees, and with them arrived all the tools and equipment necessary to make all but the most serious of repairs to the cars. From everything I saw they worked tirelessly without complaint during the event to ensure the cars were always in top shape, freshly washed after a hard day on the road and parked up nicely in front of the hotel ready for their owners the next day. They also played lead and chase car for the groups of F1s on the Tour helping to ensure the owners could focus on enjoying their cars and the scenery and not worrying about getting lost along the way.

This clutch replacement kept them up until 5am that first night, allowing them about 2 hours of sleep (if that) before they had to get cleaned up and back down to the hotel for the start of the following morning's activities. Throughout the day I never heard a single one of them register the slightest complaint about the job they did or lack of sleep - they just motored on.

One might say they were rewarded for all that hard work as this was the only major mechanical issue on any of the cars during the entire event. That too is impressive given we are talking about cars that are ~15 years old and many are not used to the level of activity they saw on the Tour. As I understand it, the clutch in this car was closing in on an appropriate service interval for replacement and the hope was that it would complete the Tour before needing a change. I am sure the boys would have preferred their workshop in Woking and a bit more time to get this job done but they rose to the task and the next day the owner had his car back and was able to enjoy the runs from that point forward.

Bravo to them - I was thoroughly impressed!

>8^)
ER

[bucciali]

Time to put in a few words here, after having read the thread a dozen times

An amazing event for which bprchamp deserves a big THANK YOU. The other organisers, F1 owners and our board members that attended, thanks for sharing your info, stories and photos. I am actually feeling a kind of proudness of being a member of our F1 community. You are all a great bunch!

I think it is absolutely phenomenal that this Tour was setup and that we get to see such a high number of F1's together. The McLaren organised 'party' at Woking was a great start, and this took it to another level.

As I wrote on Kidston's wall, the rarity of such a get-to-gether really underlines what a special supercar the F1 is. We've seen the pictures of big numbers of Pagani's, Veyron's, SLR's together, but for the F1, it's been a rare site. It's almost a bit like the gathering of the 250GTO's on its 50th Anniversary, at Pebble Beach last year ;-).

Keep the stories and photos coming; this is good stuff to waste my afternoons (and evenings, and nights, and mornings!!) on.

[bucciali]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

the extreme dedication the team from McLaren showed in supporting the cars at this event.

+100 for the continuous dedication. You can't do anything wrong as a company in my book, if you show dedication. And McLaren is almost a rare breed, in doing so.

[Sami Aaltonen]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Here's another unbelievable shot - mostly for the story it presents.

Bravo to them - I was thoroughly impressed!

>8^)
ER

It defenitely seems you have so much memories that we can relax, sit down and enjoy your stories, images throught rest of this year.
It must be quite incredible to watch; "hey...let's do the clutch change now? OK, bring the car here".

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by quiqui

Hello ,

Three pics of this fantastic rally ,

A very warm welcome to the forum quiqui,

Fantastic shots, love that last one, your pics would make for a great book of the tour, failling that, a calender would be great

Are you going to Goodwood?

[Peloton25]

You've all been so patiently waiting () I thought it well past the time for some additional preview photos.

These are from Day 2, or the first day of the drives, which there were three.












Enjoy!

>8^)
ER



PS: Quiz time - who is that sitting in GTR #05R?

[hurstg01]

I'm personally loving all of them, especially pics 3, 6, 9, 11, 13 and 14

The size and res of each are spot on

[Peloton25]

I'll have you all know I spent over $1,600 on a new Nikon D5100 camera and lenses and associated stuff before I went on this trip just so my pictures would be worth looking at. My dozen year old Sony F707 just wasn't going to cut it on this trip.

One slight challenge was that I had planned to attend two special car events here in the States before I left so that I could get some practice with it. One was the 'Greystone Concours' in Bel Air, CA and then the following day I was going to 'Ferrari's on Colorado Blvd' in Pasadena, CA. It would have made for the perfect crash-course in understanding some of the camera's features and figuring out what worked best, but instead I got snagged by the Marketing team at work and joined them for our company's biggest trade show in Las Vegas that week. Las Vegas can be fun and exciting but I'd have rather been out there learning my new camera as planned.

Essentially I fired my first shot with the new camera on the Saturday before the F1 Owner's event was due to begin at Concorso Villa d'Este. Thankfully these things are relatively fool proof, but certainly I am no where near using the camera to its full potential. I'll get there though.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

[F1GTRUeno]

Can't get over how much better #12R looks with it's full livery on. Hope it stays that way.

Does it still have it's LM24 scrutineering stickers though? I can't see them on the roof.

Lovely photos already Erik, once you've learnt fully how to use that camera the next time you meet an F1 or two it should be very special indeed

[rjanot]

Thanks a lot for these pics. Really appreciates.

I was looking back to the pics of the MTC gathering held in April 2010. There were 2 black F1 without HDF kit attending the meeting. But in my record , I have 003, 006 and 069. Which one was not present ? 006 was there just after refit at the factory I think. So 003 ou 069 was not present at the meeting?

[Peloton25]

It was #003 and #006 at the MTC. If you look closely at the photos you can see the Citroen mirrors on #003 parked right next to #001 wearing the same.

Initially I thought #069 was there and not #006 but that was incorrect and cleared itself up when the EVO magazine article was published.

>8^)
ER

[rjanot]

Thanks. Your knowledge and your help are irreplaceable.

Originally Posted by Peloton25

It was #003 and #006 at the MTC. If you look closely at the photos you can see the Citroen mirrors on #003 parked right next to #001 wearing the same.

Initially I thought #069 was there and not #006 but that was incorrect and cleared itself up when the EVO magazine article was published.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by F1GTRUeno

Can't get over how much better #12R looks with it's full livery on. Hope it stays that way.

Does it still have it's LM24 scrutineering stickers though? I can't see them on the roof.

Bit tougher to get those replicated on short notice I think. From Simon's FB gallery:



The rest here if no one has provided the link, though I think most have been rehosted by GTSpirit:

McLaren F1 Tour: A Peek Inside the Top Secret Gathering

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

PS: Quiz time - who is that sitting in GTR #05R?

>8^)
ER

Paul Lanzante who looks no different now to what he did 17 Year ago at Le Mans