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The ultimate road car of the 90s

mclarenf1opendoors.jpg
Perhaps the best driving position in the world, drivers seat right in the centre








































Rarest...
To celebrate the manufacturers success in Le Mans throughout the mid 90s, McLaren created a one off special edition model named the F1 LM. Available only in the orange hue pictured below, the LM was some 60kg lighter than the standard F1 and boasted 680bhp as opposed to 627bhp of its sibling. As a result the LM is the fastest accelerating F1 of them all. Due to the downforce created by the large rear spoiler, the LM wasnt capable of reaching the dizzy heights of plus 240mph but its estimated that it can get from 0-200mph in around 12.8 seconds. Only 5 were ever built.

f1lm.jpg
Fancy standing out in the crowd at the next McLaren owners club meeting, try the extremely rare LM






Designed to be the ultimate road car, the McLaren F1, originally conceived in 1993 instantly became one of the most sought after supercar in the world. It had everything you could possible want in a supercar, lightweight carbon fibre body, big racing derived V12, gull wing doors, and with production restricted to just 100, ultimate exclusivity.

There was no budget here, Gordon Murray (chief designer) had set out to create the ultimate road car and money was not an issue. Eventually the price tag for owning such a machine was a whopping £630,000 in 1994 but these days some examples go at auction for in excess of £1 million. A big price to pay you would think, but for any car enthusiast with a few million to spend a million is a small price to pay to make a dream come true.

Six litres in capacity and powered by BMW the McLarens power plant produced no less than 627bhp in its basic form. With a kerb weight of just under 1200kg, it was capable of darting from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds. In 1994 it was the fastest accelerating production car ever built leaving behind the Bugatti EB110 and Jaguar XJ 220 of yesteryear.

By the time production began in 1994, McLaren already had a good idea what sort of top speed they were looking at. To say the F1 would exceed the 217.1 mph achieved by Jaguar’s XJ 220 in the early 90s at Nardo was an understatement. Murray and the design time estimated they would be looking at somewhere around the 240mph mark. In 1998 an example was officially timed at 240.14mph making the designs teams suspicions true and more importantly making the McLaren F1 the fastest production car in the world. It was going to be a hard act to follow






SPECIFICATION

Engine capacity
6064 cc
Engine Location
Mid, in-line
Configuration
V12
Power (bhp)
627 @ 7400rpm
Torque (lb ft)
479 @ 7000rpm
Transmission
Manual 6 speed
Drive
RWD
Max speed (mph)
240+
0-60mph (secs)
3.2
0-100mph (secs)
6.3
Cost
£630,000
Kerb Weight (kg)
1137

mclarenengine.jpg
The monster within - the V12 is nestled behind rear seats where theres room for 2 brave passengers








































Worlds fastest cars