Lurkers, Leeches, and Lesbians perhaps?

[astonmartindbs001]

This has been a long time coming, so here goes....

My first F1 experience came when I drove the F1 LM and F1 in NFS Hot Pursuit 2, and immediately had a revelation. Such intense power and acceleration, such surgical control precision and instant response to driver inputs as I have never experienced before in a car - and this was, remember, only a game after all. The ability to modify and tune the cars via their properties text files also taught me about suspension settings, roll bar stiffness adjustments, downforce and aero tweakery, as well as the effects of adjusting power and torque curves, weight reductions and distribution balances. Trust me that an F1 with 1000Bhp/Ton is something else entirely....

I also got to read about the F1s in an encyclopedia about cars that I found in my high school library, and it was through that that I discovered the GT Longtails and the various GTRs.

A few years passed where I was distracted by other supercars like the Enzo Ferrari and Carrera GT - fantastic supercars in their own right, but no F1 of course. Then I somehow stumbled across this place and instantly rediscovered what made it so great - it was the people, passion and community behind it more than anything else. Later on I met and got to know Erik and Greg online, discovered more about the individual cars and what made each and every one of them special in their own right, started building my own digital archive (sadly completely wiped out in 2010 by a severe virus attack but currently being rebuilt and now adapted into a new, more streamlined and portable form on my iPhone 4) read Driving Ambition, started buying other books and models and this and that... And it's been a crazy spiral ever since. But it's been great, and I wouldn't have missed any of it for anything else in the world.

So thank you. Thank you especially to Erik and Greg not only for all they've done to build this forum up to what it is today, but also for being so open and friendly when we first met, for enthusiastically answering and responding to all my questions and requests for pics and information without complaint, for contributing towards my own archives and even helping with the rebuilding. Thank you to everyone else here for all their efforts and contributions to the F1 community. Thank you especially to Frank Selldorff, Andy74b, Mark B., Ray Bellm, Dan Watkins, other owners and those who have worked with the F1 and who have taken time out of their busy schedules to come here and share their own individual adventures and experiences with their respective F1s with us all.

I'd also like to give a big thank you and shout-out to Mark Coffey of Maranello Motorsport for the friendly and impromptu chat we had about the F1s that had passed through his care when I bumped into him at Borders Adelaide (now closed, but it was a good memory). Thanks for answering all my questions and providing some insightful information about #16R and #13R, and definitely for all the fantastic pics you generously sent me from your own archives (which I unfortunately cannot share here due to his request that they remain private and my mandate to honor that request). It was definitely an incredible encounter that I won't be forgetting any time soon. Thank you also to Gordon Murray, Ron Dennis, Creighton Brown, Mansour Ojjeh, Peter Stevens and everyone else at McLaren for all the efforts, passion, dedication, sacrifices, and yes financial support you gave to make the F1 a world-beating reality, and for your continued and enthusiastic support of the cars, owners and the community as a whole.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize (to Erik especially) for some times in the past when I've been overly enthusiastic in my requests regarding the F1, to the point that I sometimes forgot my manners and proper decorum. I assure you that it will not happen again. My apologies also that I've not been able to share any new info or highly original pics; this is partly because I only got into the F1 seriously quite a bit later than the rest of the experts here, and also because there is no F1 at all here in Malaysia. The closest one is #021 in Singapore, and my Singaporean friend is no fan of F1s and thus couldn't be bothered to drive over and check it out. Perhaps one day I'll do a little poking around there once I have more money and paid leave saved up.

Hopes for the future include (obviously) seeing at least 1 or 2 F1s for real in my lifetime, and perhaps getting ahold of one some day in the future. Also I'd love to have a real life meet up gathering with all of you at some point, hopefully at an F1 or McLaren event too, whether at Le Mans, the Nurburgring, or some far off place in some part of the world. I'd also like to meet more of you guys personally, as there's loads of you (contachal, cabrio92, Thorst, DocGTR, et al) whom I haven't talked to yet like as much as I do with Erik. Feel free to E-mail me at [email protected] for further details and IM contacts.

Thanks for listening. That's all for now. And once again, Happy 20th Birthday, McLaren F1. It's great to know you.

All the best,

Alex

[mclarenman]

Under which thread can I find the information posted by one of the engineers that helped to assemble the f1?

I wanted to read some of the details he shared about specific road cars and their whereabouts. However, I forgot the thread he posted this information in.
Can someone help please?

[Peloton25]

I think you have your wires crossed a bit and might be referring to this post I made after meeting one of the technicians who worked in the assembly area on the McLaren F1:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...1&postcount=27

That post kind of ended up in a weird place making it not easy to find. Let me know if I am right or wrong?

>8^)
ER

[mclarenman]

Thank you very much !

[corn_cob]

Hello everyone,

It would not be an understatement to assert that this forum, and particularly a number of individual contributors, has had a profound impact on my knowledge and passion for automobiles. This forum has occupied a place in my life for a number of years, which is significant, because as I am quite young, I haven’t had many years to spend on many things. Nevertheless, the first time I laid my eyes on a McLaren F1, a passion was lit, and it very quickly guided me to this forum where I proceeded to feed it (engorge it, really) with the immeasurable wealth of knowledge, videos and images that is collected here. The hours I have spent within your midst, silently absorbing the multitudes of information herein, have been some of the most enlightening and beneficial in my life as a car enthusiast. My admiration for your knowledge would be fatiguing to describe here – this entire forum is filled with automotive passion and zeal the quality of which I can find in few other places in my life. Which is why, I suppose, I keep coming back.

On a personal note, the McLaren F1 has always been incredibly important to me – more hours, which could have probably spent doing far more productive things, have been happily expended reading about, listening to, and watching this elusive machine - it never fails to bring a smile to my face. My bedroom walls are probably analogous to most of the members frequenting this forum; a large image of LM3 sits above my bed (the John Lamm print from R&T), and other F1 paraphernalia adorn shelves and other walls. Among them include UT 1/18s, a Minichamps 1/12, and a mint copy of Driving Ambition.

Of course, I drive the F1 in video games, and these virtual experiences with the car only serve to further whet my appetite to catch a glimpse of the F1 in person. I live in Vancouver, so I imagine I will have to travel to find one. Nevertheless, my eyes are always taut and ready whenever I am in the flow of traffic; occasionally Vancouver can get some pretty amazing cars (MC12, Veyron Sang Noir to mention a few notable examples), so I haven’t completely ruled out the chances of seeing one in the wild.

The wealth of knowledge and images surrounding this car that resides within this forum is nothing less than authoritative – thank you so much for all of your contributions to my own personal F1 education. Google image searches only ever turn up so much, so being able to dive into your archives has offered me many glimpses at otherwise impossible images of this vehicle. This then, is a long-belated thank you and hello to the entire community. Your knowledge of this most special vehicle is humbling, exhausting, wonderful, and indispensable all at the same time – I look forward to many more years amidst your ranks, gathering and honing my own F1 knowledge.

[carbuilder2002]

I think you speak for most of us who frequent this forum.

[Peloton25]

Yes - and glad to have you with us. Feel free to join in more discussions.

>8^)
ER

[Nerly1]

Hi. New to the forum but it looks great. I'll check in regularly and post when I have something to add.

[PDoddy]

Hi all,

Just a little message to introduce myself and to remove the guilt that I feel for having lurked around the forum for a few months. My interest in the F1 was re-kindled after reading EVO 145 with the special feature on the F1 and bringing back memories of reading John Barker's road test back in Performance Car magazine when I was young.

I discovered this forum a few months back and have been amazed at the amount of information on here so a big thanks to all those that post on here. I don't get much time to browse as I've currently got exams to study for and young children to look after but I'm just about to start reading Driving Ambition to get myself up to speed.

This leads me to my first question: I've read a few posts on here that mention errors in DA but is there a thread specifically about it? If so can someone point me in the direction of it? I've had a quick search but not found anything. I figured I might as well be aware of any mistake as i read though!

Cheers,

Paul