Monterey 2011 - will P25 find a McLaren F1?

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by Sami Aaltonen

Oh my, all located to US? Or were those just visiting there?
What a sight.!

Cars and spectators come to Monterey in August from all over the world. I know we have several 250 GTOs here in the USA but i am sure many came from far away places.

This was the 61st Annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and it has been a premiere event for automotive-minded people to attend since the beginning. A lot of the other events and auctions that take place are not nearly that old, but have come together in support of the Concours. For instance, the historic races held at Laguna Seca are in their 37th year.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by hurstg01

About time this thread got a rating

Great stories

Thanks Greg!

Originally Posted by tak43

The stories have been great to read over the last few days if yo had to mark this out of 10 i would give this 10 star rating. Now awiting to see the photos

tak43

Thanks - that means a lot coming from you.

>8^)
ER

[bucciali]

Mr. Peloton25,
This thread has been a true pleasure to read. Your personal write-ups of this year's visit to "THE peninsula" provide quite a unique angle to this event. The fact that you experienced all unimaginable events in one weekend of course adds a lot to the attractiveness of the story.

I hope you are still comfortable on that cloud you mentioned. Hope you can focus at work, although I really can't imagine how you would do that ;-)

Thanks for sharing this with us. You may say it's the natural thing to do here, but a thank-you you still deserve.

[hurstg01]

Not a bad birthday treat-week for yourself - Erik!

36 years old and got to see chassis #36

Hopefully in 3 years time you can fix that little question that's been bugging us for a few years

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by hurstg01

Not a bad birthday treat-week for yourself - Happy Birthday Erik!

36 years old and got to see chassis #36

Thank you so much for making that revelation Greg - it hadn't yet crossed my tired mind. One thing I did notice last night as I was preparing to upload the rest of my images of 036 is that I saw this car on August 18th, 2011. Going back to the last time I saw a McLaren F1 it was August 19th & 20th, 2006. A full five years almost exactly. Guess I need to leave the house more often.

Hopefully in 3 years time you can fix that little question that's been bugging us for a few years

Love this little joke you've inserted too. I have made a new friend (to put it bluntly, the man is living what would be my dream) who may be able to provide us the answer to that one - hopefully a little sooner than 3 years from now. You may all be interested to learn that there are a few cars out there that McLaren doesn't exactly have a complete grasp on either though and #039 may be one of them? Seems odd for that to be true but maybe our near decade of efforts in here will be able to assist them too. Trust me when I tell you guys that this journey seems to have turned an exciting corner for all of us now.

One thing I can already confirm thanks to an email back from Paul is that the LARK GTR wearing #061 that is in McLaren's private collection is indeed chassis 04R just as we predicted.

I am so nearly done with my pics of 036 - the first set I will upload. Sorry to keep you guys hanging as I know how much I live for the pictures. Give me an hour or so.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Here they are finally - my 83 photos of the very lovely chassis #036 taken during my two sightings of the car. One invited and one by chance as I relayed in the story earlier. Sure it was the same car this time, but how does that keep happening to me in Monterey? Please note, I am not complaining.

Did I mention yet that I absolutely love this McLaren F1?

Hopefully there will be a few more that you all can enjoy besides the 6 that I pulled out as previews in the hotel the other night. If there are any that you absolutely love and need a larger size of I do have them all at double their max Flickr resolution so drop me a note please. You know what to do with this...



By chance, this was the 36th photo of 036 that I took. Quite lovely I thought.

Keep in mind this is just the tip of the iceberg on photos. I will get hopping on the rest now and try to keep them coming until I head into work this morning.

>8^)
ER

[DocGTR]

Thanks Erik for the very detailed and interesting reportage of your wonderful and epic trip. It has been really exciting to read them through. Seems that you're building a good reputation to maybe even later do the "Driving Ambition 2 - The (Hi)Story After the Factory Gates" - the "new testament" of the McLaren bible!

Originally Posted by Peloton25

One thing I can already confirm thanks to an email back from Paul is that the LARK GTR wearing #061 that is in McLaren's private collection is indeed chassis 04R just as we predicted.

Great! And now it would be really interesting to know the story of it between the Jarama crash and JGTC 1996 round 6 Mine race too!

[bucciali]

Originally Posted by DocGTR

Seems that you're building a good reputation to maybe even later do the "Driving Ambition 2 - The (Hi)Story After the Factory Gates" - the "new testament" of the McLaren bible!

What he said....

[svxit]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Here they are finally - my 83 photos of the very lovely chassis #036 taken during my two sightings of the car. One invited and one by chance (how does that keep happening to me?) as I relayed in the story earlier. Did I mention yet that I absolutely love this McLaren F1?

Hopefully there will be a few more that you all can enjoy besides the 6 that I pulled out as previews in the hotel the other night. If there are any that you absolutely love and need a larger size of I do have them all at double their max Flickr resolution so drop me a note please. You know what to do with this...



Keep in mind this is just the tip of the iceberg on photos. I will get hopping on the rest now and try to keep them coming until I head into work this morning.

>8^)
ER

Me (and my iMac) say THANKS!!! These are fantastic pictures, from a great weekend.

[BlueEdge]

Just to echo what's already been said Erik, it's been fantastic to read about all your experiences in Monterey, so thanks for sharing. You've really reinforced my wishes to get over there for the event too.

[teflon]

This has been an excellent and informative thread! Thank you, Peloton25. Perhaps your title should be changed from "McLaren Fanatic" to Ambassador?

Greg A

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by DocGTR

Seems that you're building a good reputation to maybe even later do the "Driving Ambition 2 - The (Hi)Story After the Factory Gates" - the "new testament" of the McLaren bible!

Was busy this AM but did not want to skip over addressing this. The title you have come up with is good - very good. Thank you! A lot of people over the years have suggested that a book be written. I am in favor of the idea myself, but it is excessively challenging for three (really four) reasons.

First, I own the copyright to or could attempt to obtain permission from the copyright holder of only about 2% of the images in my archive. Along this journey I was never good at recording where things were found or who they might ultimately belong to. That explains threads like this one which is a mystery I am still struggling to solve.

Additionally, and perhaps you have picked up on this - I do strive for perfection when it comes to sharing McLaren F1 info. We've tripped up many times in the past with silly mistakes and I would prefer not to be involved in that when it comes to releasing something in print. There are a lot of things I only believe we know. Without confirmation and certainty of all the info that goes into a book I would be far less comfortable putting my name on it.

The third point relates to the second - it is the information gap. I couldn't write a book about the F1s and (for instance) leave the page for chassis 004 blank. That just would not work.

The last reason is getting it published. I am referring mainly to what I have some second-hand knowledge of, and that has been Brian's efforts over several years to get copies of his "Cizeta V16T" book on the shelves. His primary subject matter has quite a bit more of a niche appeal than the F1 so that can't be helping him much but that isn't the only hurdle slowing him down in the publishing world. It is a hard thing to break into it seems.

Perhaps some of these things can be rectified over time but I believe the digital age is where it is going to be at by the time I'd even consider being ready, so at least we can save some trees.

>8^)
ER

[DocGTR]

^^^^

Yes I know much of the hurdles that would be encountered in such a project, so that's why I was half joking, half serious. And I didn't mean you should start writing it tonight and all by yourself! Maybe there will be some others to help in doing it later, hopefully even some from inside the McLaren organization, current or ex.

And what comes to perfection, the original DA isn't the best example. Especially the racing history section has lots of errors that bugs me (I don't know if they are corrected in the LM edition?). But it's also a question of time: as getting the perfect and verified info could take too much time and effort so it has to be limited to certain level and time frame to keep it together.

And I'd say the digital age doesn't make good printed books obsolete, it even makes them more valuable - and maybe the books will come a luxury later when almost everything is digitalized. Even with its errors I find DA almost impossible in being digital and still offer such a captivating experience to read it. Another nice example is that EVO magazines 20th Anni special on F1; still if I want to read it really, I'll grab the printed magazine instead of reading the PDF on the screen. Still nice to have the PDF for quick reference too.

[Peloton25]

Sorry for the delay on more pictures - this whole getting older/must celebrate thing got in my way.

>8^)
ER

[PatrickT82]

can you post all your picks on Flickr or something like that?

I'd like to see your whole coverage of the events;-)