09R and Hitotsuyama solved...

[Monty Kernow]

Hi I'm new here. Been nuts about the McLaren F1 GTR for years. Hopefully the information I can add is new to everyone

09R... Couple years ago "Le Man Series & Sportscar Racer" had an article about where Le Mans winning cars are now. It stated that 01R was still owned by McLaren Cars and that a replica was made for the Sultan of Brunei. I believe this to be the Ueno grey 09R. The colour name is reference to Ueno Clinic, sponsor of the 01R.
The following summer I found probable proof. "Autocar" had an article about the Sultans collection including photos. In the background and barely visible in one such photo, is what appears to be the Ueno Clinic car! It has to be 09R, it makes so much sense.

The West Adrenaline car... That seems to be mistaken for 09R is therefore probably 04R which appears to be a spare GTR retained by McLaren. It was crashed heavily in only its 3rd BPR race at Monza in '95, and reappeared over 12 months later, in the final '96 AJGT round at Mine as replacement for a damaged 14R.

Hitotsuyama car.. Well its not an "SP" or 29R. Its in actual fact 25R. How do I know? Well I e-mailed Hitotsuyama Racing and asked them!
25R was entered in 3 FIA GT rounds and Le Mans in '97 by Gulf Team Davidhoff. It featured strongly at Le Mans, before its race was ended by fire. The car never appeared again that season, and probably becoming the GTR'97 spare tub. Hitotsuyama aquired 025R in 1999 and raced it with moderate success in the AJGT.

So can anyone tell me which F1 GTR AMG aquired to develop the Mercedes CLK-GTR running gear?

[Stratoraptor]

that information was helpful. the 01R replica you speak of could actually be infact one of the infamous and elusive black F1 LM, LM1 or LM4. do you remember what issue of Autocar it was?

welcome to the board and thanks for sharing that info

[Peloton25]

No - he's right about #09R - it is a Ueno Clinic replica that was built for the Sultan. I had heard a rumor of this before, but the person who told me wasn't 100% positive which car was used. Just a few weeks ago I made a new contact who was able to confirm that it was #09R with 100% certainty. I was going to share when I gathered some more info and possibly even a photo for proof, so don't think I was hoarding the info btw.

His theory on #04R makes sense, especially since we are certain that the West Adrenaline car is a 1995 GTR. Some of the other '95 GTRs aren't accounted for at this point, but #04R makes sense. I'll try to confirm that with my new contact as well.

The Hitotsuyama info kind of makes me mad because I have emailed them at least three times in the period of a year requesting that info and never received one reply. Thumbs up to you for getting through to them Monty! I wonder why race listings always had the chassis number for the Team Take One "SOK" liveried GTR correct as #19R, but they never had #25R listed for the Hitotsuyama car.

Oh well - that's great news!! Any chance you have those articles you referred to and can scan them? I'm trying to build an archive of scans or the actual magazines, and tracking those down would probably prove quite difficult indeed.

The GTR that was acquired by AMG was supposedly #07R, the Jacadi liveried GTR that was blue and grey. That car did completely disappear from the scene after the 1995 season, so it's entirely possible that info is accurate. If anyone knows differently, please share.

BTW: Welcome aboard Monty - you've come to the right place if the McLaren F1 is your thing, and you've made a grand entrance as well.

>8^)
ER

[McLaren Mike]

Replica? well I bet it sure beats the hell out of that attempted replica on lamorghinireplicas.com, any new info on that Peloton?

-Mike

[Peloton25]

Nope, not a thing. It seems to have vanished, which is certainly a good thing in my opinion.

>8^)
ER

[Monty Kernow]

I'll try and scan those articles in next couple days Peloton25. You've confirmed info I had about AMG car. 07R may have been restored, hence its change of colour.

Got one pic each of the 07R in its AMG days and the Sultans 09R...



Schnieder crashed it! I seem to remember!



Sorry Sultan pic is small...its literally in the background of larger photo.

[mini magic]

Amazing pix monty. welcome aboard

[McLaren Mike]

WTF?? Don't tell me that white car is a McLaren. Is It? What is with the back, im gonna throwup. Got ne More pics?

I am still getting over the replica part! Well there you go mini_magic, 109 chassis produced 107 working? now I thought so it's 110 chassis 108 produced!

Now you previously said that jap car is 25R correct? That leaves pare chassis 101 out of the picture and the spare parts car a bigger mystery! We are looking down the barrel of potentially 112 McLaren F1 chassis!

-Mike

[Peloton25]

Mike - you seem to be confusing yourself here. Where are you getting those numbers from?

There is no spare parts car - that was what had been reported about the Hitotsuyama car, but it is now proven untrue since they say it is really GTR #25R. Apparently there never was a spare parts car.

The white car in that photo is GTR #07R - taken when it was in AMG's posession while they were developing the CLK GTR. Pretty funny what they have done to it there, but what better way to test out the aerodynamics of the CLK GTR than to use its biggest competitor as the basis for the test mule.

Maybe you can explain what's confusing you a little better and I can help to explain it. Anyway the total of 106 F1s plus 1 spare chassis has not changed in any way at this point.

>8^)
ER

[tvrfreak]

Monty, great pics. Can you please scan in the whole pic for the second one? Thanks!

OK, so existing cars number revised to 105 (106 minus the Chris Dawes car). Right?

[maartenvanthek]

i'm sorry but i'm not sure that white car is 07r. look at the side skirts and the roof scoop. that are typical 96gtr features.

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by maartenvanthek

i'm sorry but i'm not sure that white car is 07r. look at the side skirts and the roof scoop. that are typical 96gtr features.

Well its entirely possible that AMG bought themselves the '96 update package from McLaren. Anyway, it would have to be a '95 GTR because the development work for the CLK happened in early 1996 and I believe some of the first races they competed in were at the end of the '96 BPR season. There wouldn't have been any '96 GTRs for them to play with until at least 1997.

>8^)
ER

[maartenvanthek]

i thought mercedes made their debute in 97..?

[mini magic]

Originally Posted by McLaren Mike

Well there you go mini_magic, 109 chassis produced 107 working

What are you saying here?

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by maartenvanthek

i thought mercedes made their debute in 97..?

You're right - it was actually Porsche who showed up with the 911 GT1 in the last few races of 1996 not Mercedes.

>8^)
ER