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After a few years, BMW Motorsport came up with an all-original 6.1-liter 48-valve V12 engine. Although it did not reach Murray's target weight, BMW Motorsport pushed the horsepower rating from the agreed 580 bhp to a staggering 627 bhp, the most powerful engine to be placed in a production automobile (according to the Guinness Book of World Records). With the engine in place, Murray also found acceptable partners in Good Year and Kenwood, who designed tires and a CD-changer respectively and exclusively for the needs of the McLaren F1. During the testing phase, the F1 immediately broke the production car record set by Bugatti's EB 110 at 341 km/h. The record to beat now was the McLaren's 372 km/h. The first car was completed in the Christmas eve of 1993 and delivered to its owner on January 25, 1994. There were 100 McLaren F1s built during its entire production run. The Car What should I start with? It's hard when you could talk about a lot of things with this car. Probably I should start with the obvious: the body design. The first thing people notice with the McLaren F1 is its lack of front and rear spoilers, air dams and so forth. Murray design the F1 not to make the air travel on the car, as most sports cars do, but he designed it so that air would travel inside the car, this creating this effect of down force with the help of vacuum sucker fans and small channels. The result is a clean looking super car whose only spoiler pops out during braking to help in the stability and cooling of the cross-drilled Brembo disc brakes. The body is molded from carbon fiber, the same material used in modern Formula One cars. What comes out is a lightweight durable frame weighing at only 1140 kg. (that's 100 kg. lighter than the stripped down Ferrari F50). The McLaren F1's body casts a shadow no bigger than a BMW 3-series, but offers more than four times the power. The insulation material comes from the best: gold. Yes, that's right, gold sheets are used as insulation material for the engine and several other parts. The power plant, which was designed by BMW's Motorsport division is a normally aspirated 6.1-liter 48-valve V12 engine which delivers 627 bhp at 7,500 rpm and 662 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. The body and engine combination results in a power-to-weight ratio of 550 bhp per ton and a specific output of 103 bhp per liter. Connected to a lightweight titanium 6-speed gearbox, the McLaren goes from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds (that's the fastest so far in any production super car) and a factory recommended top speed of 372 km/h. In fact, several test drivers noted how the McLaren F1 would treat braking the 200-mph (321 km/h) barrier as if it were something normal for the car; it takes less than 30 seconds to do so. The Lamborghini Diablo, the former speed king would take forever, they say, to reach 200-mph mark. To cement the F1's record, Gordon Murray and his crew set off to the Nardo Test Track in Italy where an unmodified F1 broke the timing beams at 388 km/h (241 mph). There is no power steering or traction control or ABS in the McLaren F1, and yet it handles and brakes as easily as a car with these electronic devices. McLaren Cars designed the F1's brake, steering and chassis configuration for maximum grip and handling. The chassis for example is a double wishbone layout with inboard coils actuated by pushrods and rockers, the same technology used in modern Formula One cars. |
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