It is none other than, the McLaren F1.
I haven’t really done it any justice as such in what I have said above. You might have read in one of my previous articles (IF YOU READ IT -_- ) I called the McLaren F1 the father of all Hyper cars. I haven’t really gone in depth on the McLaren, so here you are.
CAUTION: There is quite if lot of engineering jargon in relation with this car and sometimes I MAY have no CHOICE but to use them. So if you Don’t Understand anything the first time. Not to worry I didn’t get it the first time either.
Alright, shall we begin, …………………
Butttt...... where to begin is the next question. I had to do a bit of research into this actually to really pull out where McLaren began. I’m however still not sure if this is how things actually came out. Never mind the tiny details, so here goes.
Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970), born in Auckland, New Zealand, was a race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor. He established the McLaren Racing Team in 1963. The Team was later bought by a certain Ron Dennis, who later formed the McLaren Group which included the F1 Racing Team, McLaren technology & of course McLaren Automobile. And our story starts at McLaren Automobile in 1992, when chief engineer Gordon Murray got the backing for his idea of building the ‘Ultimate Road car’.
Step by Step Here’s how the car was put together.
Step 1: The Beating Heart – Engine
The requirement was to give the driver the maximum control over the car. This meant that the engine had to be naturally aspirated (i.e.: NO TURBO or SUPERCHARGERS). After initially searching with Lamborghini, Ferrari etc. Gordon finally turned to Honda who were building the Engines for the McLaren race cars to accept to build the engine for the McLaren. But they refused. Therefore the winning engine came from BMW. Specs are as follows
Engine Name: BMW S70/2
Capacity: 6.1 Liter V12,
Power Rating: 618 Horse Powers @ 7400 rpm. Rev Limited @ 7500 rpm
Power to Weight ratio: 550 Hp/ton
Fuel consumption: Worst – 3.9 km/liter
Best: 9.9 km/liter
Ok so what makes it unique?
All the cars which came after this, all the cars/ engines which were able to break past the 390 kmph mark barrier all had to be Turbo charged or super charged. Not one of those cars could beat the McLaren without a turbo charger on it. If you want to build a car that goes fast there were 2 things you could do.
- You build a ridiculously Powerful engine. E.g.: Bugatti 8.3 L, Quad Turbo Charged, W 16. With weight of 1888 kg. giving a power to weight ratio of 530 hp/ton
- Or you build a supper light car. E.g.: The SSC Aero 6.0 L Supercharged V8. With weight of 1292 Kg, giving a power to weight ratio of 1003 hp/ton.
McLaren had none of these complexities, Yet it produced more than any of those cars could produce 15 years before they were made. Way ahead of its time.
Step 2: The Book & its Cover - Chassis & Aerodynamics
The whole underlying structure of the car was built off carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) monocoque chassis structure, except the engine bay area. The reason being that carbon fiber when exposed to heat loses its strength over time. Plus the BMW engine produced a massive amount of heat. Therefore the engine bay area was lined with the best heat insulator available. GOLD FOIL.In terms of aerodynamics once again used ingenious techniques to keep the car on the ground. The best way I think to explain aerodynamics is to break it down to you in numbers. So what they use to (in a sense) measure aerodynamics is called the Drag Coefficient. The lower this number the better. Putting some figures on the table. This is what it looks like:
Bugatti Veyron: 0.36
SSC Aero: 0.357
McLaren F1: 0.32
Very low ehh!!
And how they managed to get that is simply genius. At the bottom of the car they set up some fans. That’s Right Fans. In essence what they do is this. The suctions fans suck in the air at the bottom of the car creating a low pressure situation, creating a high pressure situation on top of the car. So naturally the car is pushed down and is... well kept there. The air sucked up from the fans are used to cool and the engines and the brake systems.
Also the rear spoiler is made to tilt under braking creating a more drag therefore shortening down the car faster. The air displaced when the spoiler tilts is also put into use by sending them downwards to cool the rear brakes
Talk about aerodynamics, That’s just Nuts :O
Step 3: Feather Bed – The Suspension
The McLaren being built as a road car had to consider the ride comfort as well unlike when building a GT car where comfort, is well immaterial. Because of this the suspension system had to have some innovations, the most interesting of all is this being. The suspension is positioned horizontally which in essence allows the wheels to move backwards when it hits a bump increasing comfort. They found away to do this without losing any of the control the car has.
Also the McLaren is built such that there is perfect balance of the car. This is one reason the drives seat is put in the middle to keep the Mass at the center of the car. Also The weight is distributed such that 58% goes to the back and 42% comes to the front. All this is controlled by a computer to avoid any unwanted weight transfers.
Step 4: Heaven – The Interior & Equipment
Besides all that the McLaren has all the comforts that any car will have. Air conditioning, CD player & Central locking is a few things included in this car. Unlike some cars today which have to have all these comforts removed and the interior striped to a bare minimum in order to get speed, (SSC Aero), the McLaren achieved its unbelievable speeds with every bit of comfort to the driver.
See Below Videos for McLarens Top Speed Run- At the one of the only place on earth that you can max out a McLaren. At the VolksWagon test track 'Ehra-Lessien' near the east german border in Germany.
Acceleration
0-30 mph (48 km/h): 1.8 s
0–60 mph (97 km/h): 3.2 s
0–100 mph (160 km/h): 6.3 s
0–124.28 mph (200.01 km/h): 9.4 s
0–150 mph (240 km/h): 12.8 s
0–200 mph (320 km/h): 28 s
Top Speed
With rev limiter on: 231 mph (372 km/h)
With rev limiter removed: 242.96 mph (391.01 km/h)
The below quotes is from the book ‘From the Cockpit’. Read it and see if the Car doesn’t fit into those lines.
"To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone. – (Bruce McLaren, 1964)
And an Achievement it was.
And what of the son???? .. ….Well that’s a different story entirely …..
To be continued…………….
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