NFS: Shift Car of the Day - McLaren F1

• OZ 7/27/2009 4:32 PM

As a former McLaren employee, NeedforSpeed's Vehicle Concept Director Andy Blackmore talks about todays Car of the Day. He's had more access to these cars than anyone else in the studio.

"Let's start with a simple fact: the McLaren F1 is still the fastest naturally-aspirated production car in the world, despite going into production in 1994. The F1 was the fastest production car in the world for a number of years before the Bugatti Veyron took the crown.

The original proposal called for a Honda engine but when they couldn't reach an agreement BMW Motorsport produced the bespoke engine (6.1 Liter; 627 hp (468 kW; 636 PS) 0-60 3.2 seconds). The F1 was also the first all carbon composite production car.

The McLaren F1 was conceived in a departure lounge at Nice Airport in 1998. Engineer, Gordon Murray approached his boss,Ron Dennis with a proposal for a 3-seater supercar and the F1 was born. The first prototype was shown at the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix and the first production car was completed in 1994.

The F1 GTR made its racing debut in 1995 and was mildly reworked for racing. The F1 GTR won Le Mans on its debut and also finished 3rd, 4th, 5th. Ironically, due to GT rules, the GTR produced less power than the roadcar! In 1996, two F1 GTR’s were entered in the Japanese JGTCC championship and were the first non-Japanese car to win an event, and eventually the Championship. In my former role at McLaren I designed 14 of the F1 GTR liveries.

A total of 106 cars were built. 64 of these were the original roadcars, the rest a mix of F1 LM and F1 GT roadcars and the successful F1 GTR race car. Many McLaren F1’s have changed hands in their 15-year history. Most receive refits and resprays at McLaren in Woking, UK. The highest known price for an F1 was in 2008 when one of the later cars was sold for £2,530,000. The original base cost was just over £600,000.

Famous owners, past and present, include Jay Leno, Ralph Lauren, Rowan Atkinson, the late George Harrison, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Wyclef John, Eric Clapton, Liam Howlett (The Prodigy), Elon Musk (Tesla C.EO) and Thomas Bscher (ex-Bugatti CEO).

Check out some High Resolution shots at Needforspeed.com
Check out all the SHIFT screenshots Here.

-- Update

Each week when the car team prepare the turntable video they give us a high-end render of the car which are based on the in-game model so really show the quality of the cars. Since they look so good we like to share the high-resolution version with you so you, like us, can use them as your desktops. Just click the image below to open the full-size version in another window.

Let us know what other cars you'd like to see get the render treatment.

Andrew@NeedforSpeed.com

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