McLaren F1: Reviewing The Greatest Car Of All Time

 

The McLaren F1 is something special, a once-in-a-lifetime type of car. This was literally the 2nd car McLaren ever made, so they had little to nothing in the way of experience. However, Bruce McLaren, founder and ex-CEO of McLaren, had connections in high places. A few phone calls later, he had obtained several hundred BMW engines, and he was ready to rock. He pursuaded the legendary designers Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens work on the McLaren, with the objective of making a beautiful, yet lightweight car. The McLaren F1 ended up as one of the lightest cars in history, due to the extreme obsession of                                                                                                                         Murray and Stevens to keep the F1 light                                                                                                                                      enough to achieve one goal:

Fastest car in the world. They even ditched a CD player, concerned it would weigh the car down. Fast forward several months, and the mighty F1 was finished. All their diligence on keeping the McLaren light had paid off. It hit an unprecedented 243 MPH, lightyears ahead of the measly Ferraris chilling around the early 200s. Never before had a production car been capable of such astounding numbers. The F1 held the record of fastest car in the world for OVER 15 YEARS. Unbelievable. Recognized comedian and talk-show host Jay Leno, who once said the McLaren is his most prized of dozens of his cars, famously said: "When the car came out, there were so many other supercars coming out, Vector (W8), (Jaguar) XJ220, Bugatti EB110. The Jaguar was the most expensive. 600K dollar range, and all of a sudden, you had this car that was close to a million dollars. How much better could the million dollar one be? Is it really 3 or 4 times better than a Lamborghini or Ferrari? And of course it was, but no one knew it at the time". Leno summed it up nicely: "Talk about getting something right the first time!"