Deciphering the McLaren F1 VINs

[mini magic]

I'll dig through my stuff tomorrow. I thought we had found where it came from, maybe i was wrong.

[mini magic]

I thought i recognised it....

Sorry, can't say which car this was off or where i saw it but trust me, its there (it was a road car)

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by mini magic

I thought i recognised it....

Sorry, can't say which car this was off or where i saw it but trust me, its there (it was a road car)

Nice pic

Those numbers look like "E11" approval for the GTR regs, I,ll check it out when I have some spare time.

[samzbob]

The full vin for chassis number 49 is

SA9AB5AC4S1048049
I dont have any pictures, it was first registered in 1996 as new

[mini magic]

Originally Posted by samzbob

The full vin for chassis number 49 is

SA9AB5AC4S1048049
I dont have any pictures, it was first registered in 1996 as new

Thank you!

[Paulthagerous]

Can confirm that the chassis number on #018 is in fact SA9AB5AC1R1048018 as stated in the earlier list. (Link: http://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=mclf1). My first real contribution

[Peloton25]

Updated - thanks.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Been a while since this thread has seen an update.

I was able to confirm the VIN of chassis 001 which was previously one of the 'assumed' and as it turned out, assumed incorrectly because the production year digit was wrong, making the check digit wrong as well in post #28. Then chassis 031 which was also 'assumed' but at least listed accurately is also now confirmed. Both were verified through a database of public information someone tipped me off to.

The other VIN I was able to mark as confirmed was the one for chassis 012, thanks to our man Greg's recent opportunity to view the car and his effort to educate its keeper by tearing up the footwell carpet right before his very eyes.

The only other thing I can add that was originally left as an open ended question way back when is that 56XPGT's VIN ends in simply '056' based on a recent photo that appeared online. That leads me to believe it's full VIN is most likely - SA9AR5BC7T1048056 - but I should caution that remains to be verified as only the final 4 digits were clear in the image I saw.

If anyone sees any other corrections or updates that could be applied here, please don't hesitate to offer them up.

>8^)
ER

[M.S.O]

I'm not going to check all the others but:
SA9AB5BC1T1048056

Where was the image from of 056? Hopefully Greg knows that rather than ripping carpets up you can just look next to the fuel filler pipe at the plate on the engine bay bulkhead?

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by M.S.O

I'm not going to check all the others but:
SA9AB5BC1T1048056

Wouldn't ever expect you to go through them all, but thank you very much for any and all contributions.

It is interesting to see that the GT prototype's VIN does follow the standard of the normal road cars, whereas the VIN we had for the GT from the Brunei database that was released in 2006 is slightly different ( SA9AR5BC3T1048054 ) and now more suspect as a typo with that 'R' in that 5th position. Fair to say records accuracy may not have been their primary focus over there in the midst of some 5,000 cars or whatever silly figure it was.

It did make sense that given the changes to the chassis structure and bodywork for the GT that the VIN could have had some indicator in the VDS (Vehicle Descriptor Section), but likely not anymore.

Where was the image from of 056?

I think you can probably imagine where and by whom it could have been shared at one point last May, but of course due to 'policy enforcement' the image is NLA online.

Hopefully Greg knows that rather than ripping carpets up you can just look next to the fuel filler pipe at the plate on the engine bay bulkhead?

He surely does and he took a photo of that other spot as well. With 012 the VIN plate you refer to is mounted on the wall directly under the glass which differs from all the other cars I've seen. Typically, as you'll well know, it is found mounted in a perpendicular location on the left inner wall of the engine compartment - maybe there are more like 012 but for me it was a unique spot and much easier to see and photograph I would think.

Another comment - while the engraved floorboard VIN in some of the cars appears to have been done with a needlepoint engraver, the one in 012 looks to have been done with a 1/4" mill bit in a router.

>8^)
ER

[M.S.O]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Wouldn't ever expect you to go through them all, but thank you very much for any and all contributions.

It is interesting to see that the GT prototype's VIN does follow the standard of the normal road cars, whereas the VIN we had for the GT from the Brunei database that was released in 2006 is slightly different ( SA9AR5BC3T1048054 ) and now more suspect as a typo with that 'R' in that 5th position. Fair to say records accuracy may not have been their primary focus over there in the midst of some 5,000 cars or whatever silly figure it was.

Pleasure, when I have time I try to help.
There are a couple of mistakes on 054 - SA9AB5BC8T1048054 is correct. Apart from Albert all F1s and prototypes have a B as the 5th letter of the VIN as that is the engine - BMWV12, the mule car was G for GMV8. IIRC !

[Peloton25]

Thanks again and good to know about the 'B'.

As mentioned way at the beginning (and again, as you are likely aware) if any digit of a VIN is guessed/recorded incorrectly it would throw off the Check Digit calculation I made.

The Brunei list had the check digit right for their GT, but that "R" seemed convincing as I anticipated the GT's VINs would have some identifying indicator for those chassis changes, so I altered the Check Digit on that list to accommodate it with a note about the discrepancy. I'll go fix now.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by M.S.O

I'm not going to check all the others but:
SA9AB5BC1T1048056

Where was the image from of 056? Hopefully Greg knows that rather than ripping carpets up you can just look next to the fuel filler pipe at the plate on the engine bay bulkhead?

I knew that and have taken pics of it [see my avatar pic of #013's VIN plate ], but the keeper was unaware of the additional place where the VIN could be located, and fortunately this particular F1's carpets were held down by Velcro, so the 'tearing up' sounded bad but was actually ok and, as Erik pointed out, #012's VIN plate was in a different place to all the others I have seen

I have the shot of the VIN plate for the GT as Erik also mentioned earlier, with all bar the last 4 digits blurred out; if you want it I can send it to you / post it here when I am home later?

[Peloton25]

Got ahead of myself - maybe because it is late here at the moment, or depending on perspective some would say it is quite early.

The 7th position is variable from the standard F1 (with an "A") to the GTs (with a "B") based on the newly confirmed VINs. Does seem likely that could be the unique chassis identifier I expected them to have but it could mean something else too.

#gettingitrighteventually

>8^)
ER

[M.S.O]

A= base (!) spec, B = GT, C=GTR for the 7th digit, correct.

Greg, had a good exchange with James on Twitter the other day! Owner is a good chap as well who will be having a cool day tomorrow.
Would be mildly interested to see the image to see where it was, but the car has been out and about so much last year it could be any where!