F1 GTR '96 Promo livery - Hi-Res shot

[Peloton25]

A friend of our forum sent this photo my way the other day figuring that I couldn't live without it. I'm not certain they want to be identified as the source, but if so they can do that themselves. I figured I would pass it along to all the others who I knew would also appreciate it.

This will probably all be old news to most people here, but:
For the record, this is F1 GTR #10R - the first 1996 F1 GTR that McLaren Cars produced. It was used as a development and test car for McLaren that year, but outside of being used for LeMans pre-qualifying by one team it has no official race history. It also didn't wear this livery for very long - apparently the bosses at McLaren weren't too fond of the look. The "GTR" stickers came off, but the Blood Red paint has stuck with it.

You might recognize this car from a few places. It was featured in an EVO Magazine article comparing the F1 to the Edonis. It's one of the 6 cars in that overhead shot of all the styles of McLaren F1. It's also been seen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on at least one occasion. The current owner is Nick Mason, the drummer from the band "Pink Floyd". This car was loosely converted for road use by McLaren prior to being sold to Mr Mason, however, it still retains the FIA mandatory roll cage built into all GTRs, and the GTR control board that occupies the right side footwell, rendering this F1 a 2-seater.

An interesting fact about how Mr. Mason acquired this car is that apparently he had a car in his collection - an old McLaren Formula One car I believe - that he knew Ron Dennis was looking to add to his personal collection. He approached Ron with the offer to sell that car in order to make the connection so that he might purchase an F1 from Dennis. Apparently the plan worked in his favor.



For the Wallpaper-sized versions, click on the size that you want below:

1600 - 1200 - 1024 - 800

>8^)
ER

[MalkaJB]

Great pic. Very nice.

[a5678]

Very nice indeed

[jcsaleen]

Nice Pic!

[teflon]

Peloton,

I'm a bit confused by your story. I would think that Nick Mason already knew Ron Dennis before he tried to buy this GTR. Nick loaned McLaren his F40 and I believe his Lotus to help them when they started the initial development work on the F1. Wouldn't that have been enough of a connection to approach Ron about buying this GTR?

Greg A

[Peloton25]

I don't make this stuff up man. I just report what I have read in other places. It could be folklore too, that's why I used the word "apparently" since I wasn't directly involved in the transaction nor did I get this story 'direct from the horse's mouth' so to speak. I'm not certain what the source was on that info, but I can try to figure it out if it's important to you.

>8^)
ER

[teflon]

Well, it isn't life threatening, but I am interested. I would only want you to research it further if you didn't mind doing it.

Greg A

[Peloton25]

Now that you have brought it up, it will bug me till I find it, so I'll do my best.

I do recall the article in Motor Trend several years before the F1 first appeared where Gordon Murray tested an F40, Countach, 959 and XJ220 I believe (4th car may have been different). I think that F40 may have been provided by Mason for the test as well. In fact, I believe there was a sidebar on his car collection in that same issue.

>8^)
ER

[maartenvanthek]

the 4th was an NSX iirc

[13mac]

Nice pic.

Do you have a hi-res pic of the long-tail (97?) promo car?

I would also like to see your best pic of the F1 in Marlboro colours.

Send me your email and I'll send you some of my own pics, from the 96 season race at Brands Hatch, that you can post if you like.

Cheers
Don.

[Peloton25]

Hi Don - welcome back!

This isn't really a Hi-Res pic, but it's the biggest that there is of GTR #19R wearing it's promo livery.



And here's the best shot of the Marlboro livery that I have from the race at the Zuhai Circuit in 1996.



Feel free to send whatever photos you want to [email protected] and I'll put them up for you.

>8^)
ER

[drewwtms]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

I do recall the article in Motor Trend several years before the F1 first appeared where Gordon Murray tested...

Isn't this in DA? Murray plots the high and low points of several cars (NSX, 959, F40, Countach, others) to use as benchmarks for the F1. It may even say the F40 was Mason's and there might be a picture of him kneeling with a GTO in the Good Book. I don't have the book next to me so this is just off of memory. I remember specifically Murray thought that starting the NSX was "not an event"; that has always been stuck in mind.

Drew

[Peloton25]

You might be right about that - now that I think of it there is that photo of Murray and the four cars in Driving Ambition. I believe Maarten is right and that fourth car was an NSX. I'll have to look again when I get home.

I also have the original magazine where the article appears. I think it was early 1991 when it was printed. It's in a box in the garage but I'll see if I can pull it out sometime and get it scanned as I don't think all the text of the article appears in the great book.

>8^)
ER

[maartenvanthek]

i reckon drew's info is all correct, might be mistaken, but i know for sure that there's a gto pic with mason in it.

[Peloton25]

Ok, we were all wrong on the fourth car in the photo with Murray. The fourth one was not an XJ220, nor was it an NSX.



How could I forget the Esprit?

The caption is rather hard to see from this scan, but it reads:

"Established Superstar? McLaren's Gordon Murray was invited by CAR Magazine to evaluate a representative supercar group. The test day, at Castle Combe circuit, provided valuable experience not merely for the magazine but also for 'Project 1'." The smaller captions under and above the other photos read "Established supercar" and then list each car's name.

I guess MotorTrend must have reprinted the CAR article, as I know that exact photo appears in the magazine I have as well.

On the facing page in "Driving Ambition" are three pages of Gordon's hand-written notes from the Castle Combe testing. You can't read all three pages as they are fanned out and overlapping, but on the first page there's an interesting note about 4WD: "Can't be 4WD because of F1 image and drive shaft."

As for the shot of Nick Mason - he does appear in front of his personal 250 GTO in the great book on page 42. The caption reads "Sheer enthusiasm: Nick Mason with his Ferrari 250 GTO at the 1999 Goodwood Festival of Speed."

Also on that page is an image of a type written list of supercar preferences. The caption for that reads: "'Give the customer what he wants' is one fine percept for a successful product" the McLaren Cars directors knew full well what they wanted in a 'supercar' worth the title, but they also asked enthusiast Nick Mason of Pink Floyd to list his preferences, while he lent Gordon his classic Ferrari 250 GTO to discover what a classic 'driver's car' was all about. "It was like riding a Ducati before designing a motor-bike - you have to understand what NOISE is all about..."

I assume the list they show is Mason's and it's interesting to read. It's just one of the many impressive original documents from the development process included in the pages of "Driving Ambition".

>8^)
ER