Guide: Final Fight - a Historical & Technical Appraisal of the McLaren F1 GT
Background
On April 28th 1996 Porsche showed up at Le Mans Pre-Qualifying with a new car that went completely against the spirit, if not the letter, of the GT1 regulations.
To stimulate manufacturer participation in GT racing during difficult economic times, rule makers had slashed production requirements to just a single type-approved example.
Porsche had already done rather well from selling GT2 and GT3 class 911s, but McLaren’s domination of the premier GT1 category since 1995 (powered by BMW Motorsport engines) was a position the Stuttgart firm could not allow to go unchallenged.
Whereas GT1 cars up until this point (McLaren F1, Ferrari F40, Venturi 600 LM et al) had by and large been adaptions of models created first and foremost for road use, the resultant 911 GT1 was a reverse engineered Sports Prototype with minimal concessions for type approval and no real prospect of any meaningful production run.
Having obviously been sand-bagging at Le Mans Pre-Qualifying, the two 911 GT1s went on to demonstrate their potential at the 24 Hour race in June where the two works cars finished second and third overall for a comfortable one-two in the GT1 category.
Despite misgivings about the direction the sport was taking (and being at an inherent disadvantage that stemmed from the F1’s road car origins) the 1996 Le Mans proved a catalyst for McLaren to create the most extreme F1 GTR yet in anticipation of a 1997 season when Mercedes would join Porsche by fielding their own next-gen GT1 contender.
McLaren were no strangers to the homologation game having produced a small batch of F1 LM road cars that paved the way for the 1996 F1 GTR. However, 1997’s challenger would be a much more radical step forward.
To homologate the ‘97 F1 GTRs considerably longer and wider downforce-inducing bodywork, McLaren created a type approved road-going version to satisfy the rulemakers: the F1 GT.
Although only one production example had to be built in order to satisfy the homologation requirements, the F1 GT was a properly and expensively engineered variant that McLaren made available to anyone with enough money to buy one.
Bodywork
The GT’s most obvious departure from F1s of old was its new aerodynamically-optimised body that added 641mm of length and 120mm to the width of McLaren’s standard offering.
An elongated air-piercing nose featured a much lower leading edge, a shallow intake duct below the badge for the newly installed radiator, a re-profiled apron that housed two wide brake intakes and a massive exposed carbonfibre chin spoiler.
Further up, the F1 LM’s simple cutaway fender vents were substituted for bigger intricately contoured louvres that covered a much wider surface area.
The front lid, light units, windows, doors and exterior mirrors were all carried over from the standard F1 road car (although the mirrors were mounted on new pylons).
Flared arches were required at either end to cover the GT’s much wider track: 52mm was added at the front axle and 110mm at the rear. The beefier fenders gave the GT a pronounced Coke-bottle side profile with semi-running boards added behind the doors.
As a consequence of its three-abreast seating layout, the F1’s expansive windscreen was much bigger than the Sports Prototype-style bubble canopies adopted by the new generation of GT1 cars. However, it was something that could not be changed without creating a brand new carbonfibre monocoque which was out of the question.
McLaren further enhanced the F1 GT with a bigger roof-mounted air snorkel that ducted even more air into the engine bay. The NACA duct found at the trailing edge of rear window was of the GTR / LM type but the vents on the engine hatch behind were slightly reconfigured.
Out back, the F1 GT’s much longer tail assembly was completely new and replaced the truncated original seen on every prior iteration of the F1. It housed a full width fully integrated lowline spoiler, two massive NACA ducts, a new meshed tail fascia and an apron that incorporated a cutaway profile and pair of fully integrated canards. The rear apron also had to accommodate a massive underbody venturi which necessitated a re-routed exhaust system.
Interior
Unlike the F1 LM homologation special produced for 1996 (which had a specification pared back to the bare bones), the GT retained all the luxuries of the standard F1 car.
The famous 1+2 cockpit layout featured a carbon composite seat moulded to the owner.
Directly behind the non-airbag three-spoke steering wheel was a binnacle that housed all the instrumentation and some of the switchgear. A central 8000rpm rev counter was flanked to the right by a 260mph / 400kph speedometer and to the left by a combined read out for fuel, oil pressure and water temperature. There was also an array of warning lights plus two digital read outs linked to the on board computer.
A trio of toggle switches were located either side of the binnacle. The remaining switchgear was housed on central control panels either side of the driver. The F1’s vast windscreen and generous side windows gave unusually good visibility for such a high performance car.
Alcantara suede was used for the upper dash with a mix of exposed carbonfibre, Connolly leather and carpet elsewhere.
Standard equipment included air-conditioning, electric windows, a special lightweight Kenwood stereo with ten CD shuttle, a titanium Facom toolkit and tailored luggage.
Chassis
Like every iteration of the McLaren F1, this latest variant was built around a carbon composite safety cell to which the engine attached as a load-bearing member via two monocoque shoulder beams.
A new front crash structure was required in order to accommodate the GT’s extended nose which incurred considerable expense.
Instead of standard 17 x 9 and 11.5-inch wheels, the F1 GT ran GTR-sized 18-inch diameter rims that measured 10.85-inches up front and 13-inches at the back.
After the F1 GT prototype appeared with split rim wide-spoked OZ Racing wheels, the company supplied a slender new production-spec. narrow-spoked wheel complete with neat GT insignia.
Track was widened by 52mm at the front and 110mm at the rear. Goodyear F1 tyres were OEM equipment.
Whereas the 1997 F1 GTR ran carbon brake discs with eight-piston calipers, the GT road version used the existing set-up that comprised unassisted cross-drilled and ventilated steel brake discs of 332mm diameter at the front and 305mm at the rear. The discs along with the four-piston monobloc aluminium calipers were supplied by Brembo.
The rest of the specification was similarly unchanged.
Suspension was via double wishbones formed from solid aluminium alloy.
At the front, McLaren’s Ground-Plane Shear Centre featured unequal-length double wishbones that supported a machine cast-aluminium hub carrier. Each front suspension wishbone was connected to a subframe via plain bearings. The frame itself was four-point mounted to the carbon monocoque via purpose-designed elastomeric bushes.
Rear suspension loadings were fed via the transaxle and engine assembly into the central monocoque with drive and braking loads accepted via axially rigid bulkhead mountings. Torsional loads were absorbed via Inclined Shear Axis mounts into the shoulder beams each side of the engine.
Aluminium alloy was also used for the lightweight monotube gas-pressurised dampers produced specially for McLaren by Bilstein.
An anti-roll bar was installed at the front only.
A 90-litre fuel tank was positioned between the driver’s seat and the engine.
Engine & Gearbox
Unlike the 1997 F1 GTR (which ran a smaller short stroke 5990cc engine in line with new regulations) and the F1 LM (which had a de-restricted 680bhp version of the regular 6.1-litre unit) the F1 GT used the same Type S70/2 engine found in the standard McLaren F1 road car.
This spectacular dry-sumped 60° V12 was supplied to McLaren by BMW Motorsport. It displaced 6064cc thanks to a bore and stroke of 86mm and 87mm respectively and utilised dual chain-driven overhead camshafts, four valve cylinder heads and variable valve timing.
Intake control was via twelve individual butterfly valves and operation of the continuously variable camshafts was based on BMW’s VANOS system.
Each cylinder used twin fuel injectors managed by sophisticated TAG software.
Aluminium alloy was used for the block and heads with magnesium for the cam carriers, cam covers, oil sump, dry sump and camshaft housings.
With a compression ratio of 11.0:1, peak output was 627bhp at 7500rpm and 479lb-ft at 5600rpm.
16 grams of gold were used to line the engine bay as this was the best heat insulating material available.
Transmission was via an AP triple-plate carbon clutch with an aluminium flywheel, a Torsen limited-slip differential with 40% lock and a transversely mounted six-speed manual gearbox developed with Traction Products of Costa Mesa, California. The gearbox was housed in an aluminium alloy casing.
Weight / Performance
Despite its more expansive bodywork, the F1 GT reputedly tipped the scales at 20kg less than a regular F1 (1120kg compared to 1140kg).
With its high downforce body, top speed would likely have been in the region of 225mph (down from 241mph).
Acceleration figures would have been identical to the standard car: 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds, 0-100mph in 6.3 seconds and 0-150mph in 12.8 seconds.
Options
In addition to the normal mix of leather and alcantara surfaces plus whatever colour combination was desired, McLaren offered the F1 GT with a couple of options hitherto unseen. Both of these featured on the prototype (chassis 56 XP GT): a new ribbed seat centre pattern option with perforated inserts (today dubbed the GT Interior) and leather covered instead of exposed carbonfibre safety cell sidewalls.
Production
Although McLaren had incurred major expense by creating what was a new type approved version of the F1, only three examples were ever built.
The Silverstone Green prototype completed in early 1997 (chassis 56 XP GT) was followed by two copies, both of which were ordered by VIP customers and delivered later that year.
Chassis 54 F1 GT was a Black example dispatched to the Sultan of Brunei who had already taken delivery of five F1 road cars , three F1 LMs and an F1 GTR that McLaren painted to match the 1995 Le Mans winner.
Chassis 58 F1 GT was a Dark Burgundy F1 GT built for Japanese industrialist Yoshio Tsuzuki. It joined an F1 road car, F1 LM and F1 GTR at Tsuzuki’s ZAZ Museum in Nagoya.
Racing History
The eleven race FIA GT Championship of 1997 saw the BMW Motorsport-run McLarens emerge victorious at four of the first five races (Hockenheim, Silverstone, Helsinki and Spa). By contrast, Porsche were nowhere and Mercedes had bagged just a solitary win (at the Nurburgring).
However, the second half of the season was another story as Mercedes got their act together and scored five wins to McLaren’s one (which came at Mugello). This meant Mercedes’ Bernd Schneider was crowned Drivers’ championship with 72 points compared to 59 for the BMW Motorsport-run McLaren’s of Steve Soper and JJ Lehto.
It was a similar story in the Teams’ championship where AMG Mercedes scored 110 points compared to 85 for BMW Motorsport and 37 for Gulf Team Davidoff.
At Le Mans, the F1 GTR took a class one-two where the Gulf-backed entry of Jean-Marc Gounon, Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Anders Olofsson missed out on victory by a solitary lap.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: McLaren - https://www.mclaren.com
